ROMANS 5:9-10

Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! (MSG)

TO PONDER

It was in the very early hours of July 22, 2008 when I ran a red light on the way to the hospital because ‘we’ were having a baby -I realise the use of ‘we’ here could trigger some readers- there were no cars on the road, would be more than a few hours before sunrise and if you can’t drive through a red light at a time like this when else?

It wasn’t until 6:15pm that evening the Doctor said ‘Congratulations, it’s a boy!’ signalling the finish of a long day but that statement of conclusion was heralding a beginning, the genesis of a new world, a new life for the Brock family.

Today’s verses Paul is writing about the aftermath of the end of religion, the beginning launched when Jesus said, ‘It is finished!’, when relationship replaced religion.

Sure, the statement made by Jesus on the cross as he died spoke to our eternal future but it spoke to our here and now, our new earthly life. Theologians would call this new earthly life as the ‘now and not yet’.

To often as followers of Jesus we think of the death and resurrection of Jesus securing our heavenly eternity, but Paul reminds us here what the end of religion meant ‘just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life!’

The end of religion changes our here and now and how we live. 

PRAYER:  Almighty God, I thank you for the end of religion and the new expanding life that end began.  Amen.

Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside.