Friday, April 18, 2014

Not Condemned ... but risen for!

Isaiah 50:7-9a
The Lord GOD helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord GOD who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?


 O Lord,
you are our strength.
You are our hope.
You stand in our place
taking our guilt, our shame,
our hopelessness, our sin.
You judge us worth loving,
worth dying for, worth living for...

Amazing love,
how can it be
that you, my God,
would die for me.

The words from your prophet Isaiah,
reminds me of what the Apostle Paul
will write many years later
(perhaps he has this passage from Isaiah in mind)
What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not withhold his own Son,
but gave him up for all of us,
will he not with him also give us everything else?
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?
It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised,
who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.  -- Romans 8:31-34
 If you, O Lord, who alone stand a judge,
if you choose not to condemn,
but rather to seek out, suffer with, die for, and raise again for
ALL who are guilty...
then teach me today
to share in your Spirit
being for the redemption of the world
and not against it.
Amen.

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