Living hope
Today's Guest Devotional is written by Mike Loveridge, assistant pastor of Manor Park Church
The song for this week is ‘Build my life’ by Phil Wickham. You can listen to the song here. Like previous weeks, I suggest you listen to the song, dwell on the words and then read through my brief comments. I hope this song blesses you as it has me.
How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness, Your loving-kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Who could imagine so great a mercy?
What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
The God of ages stepped down from glory
To wear my sin and bear my shame
The cross has spoken, I am forgiven
The King of kings calls me His own
Beautiful Saviour, I'm Yours forever
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Jesus, Yours is the victory.
This song is really a story. It takes us step by step through God’s great gospel. So that is what I want us to do today: to go, step by step, back over the good news of the gospel, God’s salvation plan for his people!
The great need of humanity
The gospel begins with a problem – our sin! This song describes it as a great chasm between us and God. A chasm that no human being can cross or a mountain that none can climb. The Bible puts it like this in Romans 3:23 – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It is all of our wrong thoughts, actions, and deeds that have created the chasm between us and God. Whilst standing on the wrong side of the chasm we were living in darkness, satisfying our cravings and desires in the things of this world. But there is hope, as this song points out. God reached down into our mess and dealt with our sin. The Bible says a little later in Romans 5:8, ‘Whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us’. Whilst we were still in darkness and sin, Jesus dealt with it.
God’s grace reached down to us
So, after a fairly sobering start, the story of the gospel takes a dramatic turn. The God of eternity stepped down to earth and entered history as the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus left His heavenly throne and walked this earth just like we do. He lived and was tempted yet didn’t sin, he was rejected, tortured, lied about, disowned all so that He can then empathise with us as we live our lives here on earth. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin.” Through all of that Jesus had one purpose and mission: His death upon the cross. Through the cross He took our sin and shame upon His shoulders. The result of the cross is that we are 100% forgiven of all our wrongdoing through faith in Jesus. We now have the wonderful truth that we are called His own, we are children of the King. Because of Jesus’ death upon the cross we are children of God with an inheritance that will never spoil, perish or fade.
The result for us today
How then does the story end? Well it
hasn’t ended yet! The same Jesus who died on the cross is alive once more and
is now back in heaven at the right hand of the father interceding for us. He is
praying for us and presenting us as worthy before the Father. Because Jesus
rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, we have a living hope – right here
and right now.
And one day, if we trust in Jesus, we
will join Him in heaven. The great message of the cross is that we are forgiven
and free. Death is no longer the end but the beginning of eternity in the full
presence of God. Jesus conquered the grave and in doing so won the victory over
Satan, breaking every chain. In this life we may not feel that to be true as we
daily battle the chains of sin that so easily entangle us. But the reality is
that when we become Christians God puts His Spirit to dwell within us and
through the power of the Spirit we have the power to daily break those chains
and live in the freedom God has given us through His Son. Romans 6:18 says we
have been set free from sin. How? Through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Its past tense. The victory is won and we are free.
So, the question is will you live in that freedom today? Let’s set our hearts on Christ and praise him for the good news of the gospel. Why not use the words of this song to thank him for all he has done? He is the one who has set you free. He has broken every chain. He offers the free gift of salvation. He is our living hope!
Prayer for today
Heavenly Father,
We come before you today and thank you
for Jesus. Thank you that you sent him into this world to walk in our shoes, so
that he can now empathise with us. Thank you that through Jesus we can be fully
forgiven.
We ask today that you well help us to
throw off the chains of sin that so easily entangle through the power of your Spirit
within us. May we daily increase in our love for you and our hatred of sin.
We ask that you will give us the
desire to share this amazing, life transforming gospel with all those who don’t
yet know it.
It’s in your glorious name we pray,
Amen
Photo from Unsplash by Marc-Olivier Jodoin
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