Daily Devotion for Lent 2021 - Day 32

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5

For some people, this is 
more like the image of God
to them - waiting for them
to mess up and then striking
them down.

What does it mean to stand before the judgment of God?

Paul gives us this image of our souls being swept up to heaven when our earthly bodies fail us.  But while we may have been worried about appearing before God and being found wanting, we find that we are reconciled to God in Christ.  Yet the image of judgment doesn't leave us but Paul shifts it to our appearing "before the judgment seat of Christ."

Is this a softer judge who will be easier on us or is this out of the frying pan and into the fire?

I think it may depend upon how we have used these earthly bodies we have been given - or at least that's what Paul seems to indicate.

Much of the time, when we talk about justification by faith, we have often substituted belief for faith.  In other words, our salvation becomes an idea that we must hold in our heads and our hearts.  If we but claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then all is forgiven and the doors to heaven swing wide for our entry!

But there is a little more to faith than just belief.  Faith leads us to growth in love.  Love leads us to reconciliation with God but also with others.  Faith allows us to infuse the earthly with the spiritual.  We see with eyes of faith and this allows us to find hope where none existed before.  Faith allows us to forgive where any fool can see that we should be holding a grudge!

This faith is what allows us to become a new creation in Christ!  And so we would have others to know this faith in Christ because it is life giving.  And as we are reconciled to God in Christ, we understand that the heavenly life doesn't really start when we die but it begins as we take on this faith for ourselves.

And so as I begin to look around and think, "Who do I know that needs some reconciliation in their lives?" I then have truly adopted this faith for myself because I have become an ambassador for Christ.

Prayer for the day:

Beneficent God, we give thanks for the grace we have difficulty comprehending.  Help us to be transformed in gratitude.  If there be any hurts or wounds that remain in our lives, close them up and knit them together.  Let us not be afraid to look upon or touch the scars but to know that these make up who we are today.  May we see how they make us strong in the faith and able to offer this grace more freely.  We pray these things as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Photo by Andy Hay via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.