Psalm 31:9-16; Isaiah 54:9-10; Hebrews 2:10-18
Day 33 | Friday, April 11
I posted an overview of Union Gospel Mission’s Lent Devotional March 6 and am posting four excerpts during March and early April.
This week’s entry is by Francisco Lee, Senior Pastor at Korean Mok Yang Church in Surrey.
The devotional is widely available in print (check the back shelf in your local church) and online.
Christ is God. And if Christ is God, then He is also the Creator. The One who created all things became man. We call this ‘the incarnation,’ where God the Creator became a human creature just like all of us.
But why did God become human? The Bible says that Christ, who is God, came to this earth as the Son of God, so that we could become “the sons of God.”
If Christ had not come down to earth as the Son of God, then not only would all of mankind not be able to enter God’s salvation, but we would not have the authority to become sons of God. Therefore, Christ came down to earth and took on a human body for the purpose of making us sons of God.
Not only did Christ, as the Son of God, take on a human body like ours to add to His Godly divinity, but His body took on the suffering necessary to grant us healing and restoration. The most important mission for the body of Christ was His death on the cross. Christ defeated death and achieved perfect salvation for us, allowing all those believe in Christ to become children of God.
The author of Hebrews intended that both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified should all come from the same source. Christ is the Son of God by nature, but we who believe in Him become children of God only by His grace. As a result, we are made the children of God with equal standing before God the Father.
Therefore, we believers who have become children of God, have Christ as our brother. This is because we have become children of the same God and share the authority of being children with the Lord. We are children of heaven who have inherited the flesh and blood of God in Christ Jesus. All of this is because Christ destroyed the devil through his death on the cross for us. We are no longer bound to death or sin.
We are the spiritual descendants of Abraham and share in the brotherhood of Christ. We, who are in this position, must know that we can confidently overcome any trial or temptation. Even death can no longer threaten us, because Christ’s death has given us resurrection. During the Lent season, I hope that you will be able to successfully run the race of faith that lies before us as you meditate on the spiritual blessings and graces that Christ’s death has given us.
Lord! Thank you for coming down to earth as the Son of God for us. For also having suffered in the same situation as us, and even having died, we believe that this is so that we can all become children of God, and we give thanks, praise and glory to the Lord. Through Lent, let us participate in the Lord’s suffering, and may that suffering grant us grace and blessings so that we can become holy children who are pleasing to God. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Francisco Lee is Senior Pastor at Korean Mok Yang Church in Surrey.