"SIMPLY JESUS" DAILY DEVOTION - BLESSED REDEEMER - Monday October 6 2014

Monday, October 6, 2014

BLESSED REDEEMER

Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins...

www.FCCStLouis.org
 

For the great truths we learn from Jesus, we are certainly grateful.
For the perfect example we see in Jesus, we are so very impressed.
For the sincere love we feel from Jesus, our hearts are so touched and warmed.

But great truths, a perfect example, and sincere love could not, would not, and did not satisfy the demands of God's Justice. We sinners--the wilfully disobedient--must be punished.  "The wages of sin is death," the Apostle warns. (Romans 6:23).  "And all have sinned." (Romans 3:23).

Is there no remedy?  Is there no cure?  Is there no fix? 

The stark realization that we are completely powerless to solve our sin problem leaves us humbled, heart-broken, and hopeless. 

We can't work it off.  Denying it won't help. Anesthetizing ourselves until we no longer feel the pangs of sin, is no cure.  And though we might try to ignore the truth about ourselves our holy God will not--He cannot lie.

So what?  What can redeem us from the guilt, the penalty, the power, and the pollution of our sin? 

Written into our universe is this immutable law, "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness or remission of sin."  And whose blood could atone for all our race?

God's love moved Him to offer up His only begotten Son in our behalf.
Christ's love held Him to the Cross--a bleeding sacrifice in our behalf.

But it was not love, it was His blood that appeased the Justice of God and made forgiveness possible.  Oswald Chamber was right, "The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the cross of my Lord."

More than century ago, a small group of British troops were attacked by an overwhelming enemy force.  Their wounded faced certain death unless they could be moved to field hospitals. Finding no Red Cross flag, the soldiers took a scrap of white cloth and used the blood from their wounds to make a large cross.  Their attackers respected that flag and the British wounded were carried off the battlefield to safety.  (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War, quoted in Our Daily Bread by RBC).

Just as the blood stained cloth saved the wounded soldiers, so the blood stained cross saves every repentant soul who believes. 

Nor silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption,
Nor riches of earth could have saved my poor soul;
The blood of the cross is my only foundation,
The death of my Savior now maketh me whole.

Refrain
I am redeemed, but not with silver,
I am bought, but not with gold;
Bought with a price, the blood of Jesus,
Precious price of love untold.

 

Nor silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption,
The guilt on my conscience too heavy had grown;
The blood of the cross is my only foundation,
The death of my Savior could only atone.   By James Gray

Who is our Blessed Redeemer?  Simply Jesus.