We are now in a devotional journey focused around portions of Carl E. Braaten’s book “Justification.”
It is important to acknowledge that the word “justification” is not the important thing. We refer to the same thing when we speak of “forgiveness of sins.” Einar Billing, a Swedish scholar, correctly stated that “anyone wishing to study Luther would indeed be in no peril of going astray were he to follow this simple rule: never believe that you have a correct understanding of a thought of Luther before you have succeeded in reducing it to a simple corollary of the thought of forgiveness of sins.”
I think this is an important point. The forgiveness of sins is the way we begin again. It is the new day no matter what has preceded it. It is the power to drop all the baggage we carry when we tag along with us that which has been done or left undone. Forgiveness of sins is that miracle of renewal that comes from the very center of our lives. But, even before there is the notion of sins, there is justification by grace. I know that is a hypothetical reality…for our estrangement from God is a part of our broken humanity…but it is necessary to state it because justification is a part of our God from before us and through the end of us. It is not dependent upon our actions…sin filled or righteous. We are justified by God…by God!
Connection: Imagine the power available to us in the act of forgiveness. It is hard to imagine because unless we forgive, we do not know what new day begins for us and the other person. Why try to imagine when the reality is available to us…now.
Lord God you are the Alpha and the Omega that will abide with us under the banner of your gracious gift of forgiveness. By your action to heal the brokenness in our relationship with you and one another, we are empowered to begin a life that was not previously ours to enter. Praise be to you. Amen.
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