Friday, 17 January, 2003

This week devotions will be based on pieces from The Justification Reader by Thomas C. Oden.



How better to end a week than with a simple definition of justification

Justification is the declaration of God that one who trusts in Christ's atoning work, however sinful, is treated or accounted as righteous. This credited righteousness is received by faith. ...This uprighted relation with the holy God comes about as a decisive, merciful divine act, an actual event in history that occurs on the cross. Justification is the reversal of God's judgment against the sinner, in which the sinner is declared to be no longer exposed to the penalty of the law, which is ultimately spiritual death, but restored to divine favor.



It is 100% action by God. We...are called to trust it. There is no need to act a certain way or go through a set number of hoops in order to be considered "justified." We need only trust that what God does is done....completely and without conditions for all people. It's Good News! It's the power to change and transform all things. We are justified before God from the beginning of our lives through to the end...even when we think we do not deserve it. That is why when our lives have been lived in ways that are seen as being contrary to the ways of life within the reign of God we are still justified before God - completely and without condition. It is that never-failing word of love that is the power to bring new life to us each and every day no matter what may be happening to us or around us.



Connection: Don't be fooled by a message that is conditional and is being sold as the Good News. When you hear that kind of label (Good News) being put on something that smells like it is conditional and dependent on your actions it will begin to stink when compared to God's justifying action on our behalf. I like to teach children to say something very theologically sound at that point: baloney! And then, walk away and turn to God's promise for life!



Praise be to you O God, for you bring into our lives a power for renewal and life that can make all things new. By the power of your Holy Spirit, nurture in us the faith to follow your word of life made incarnate in Christ, Jesus. Amen.