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40 DAYS OF LENT: DAY #39 – Good Friday
WORD OF TODAY: Romans 6:10-11 (ESV)
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
THOUGHTS ON THE WORD:
On this day we recall the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. We fast this day completely, recalling and reliving the horror of our Lord taken and beaten and nailed to the tree where He suffered, bled, and died. This death He died, He died to sin. He surrendered His life as a satisfaction for the sin of the world, once for all. If this was all there was, an innocent life given as an offering for the guilty, we would yet remain under the curse of sin today. But in Christ Jesus, His death was a death to sin, and yet we know death could not hold Him. In His resurrection He lives, and the life He lives He lives to God.
All of humanity is invited in faith to participate in this sacrifice, and resurrection. The way we participate is through faith accepting that this sacrifice was offered by the Great High Priest as the once-for-all sacrifice of Himself, and in this sacrifice we are justified as righteous in Him, by Him, and through Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ is sacrificed for us, and in accepting His sacrifice for us we consider ourselves dead to sin. In doing so, the old self is no more, and we are made new, born again into new life that is alive to God in Christ Jesus!
Christian, now is the hour of salvation offered in the humiliation and suffering of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Christ, Incarnate God, Jesus of Nazareth. The price He paid for our souls is incomprehensible. He paid this price willingly, because He loves us that much. What does that love mean to you today, and what is your loving response to Him today (Luke 17:11-19)?