WATCH TODAY’S EPISODE ON YOUTUBE.
CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
Romans 5:9–11 NIV
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
CONSIDER THIS . . .
I grew up around two kinds of churches. They sort of had Jesus in common but not really. One kind of church was all about the life of Jesus. They were geared around the stories of Jesus and Jesus as a teacher and an ethical example to emulate. Sure, they talked about his death, but that wasn’t emphasized. The other kind of church was all about the death of Jesus and repenting from our sins and being saved. In these churches, the life of Jesus was pretty much reduced to three days in Jerusalem around a hill called Calvary. One focused on his life, and the other on his death. Though these churches were seemingly about the same person and ostensibly had the same goals, they had very little in common. In hindsight, it occurs to me they were both right and yet both wrong. Frankly, I never felt at home in either tradition.
That’s what I have long loved about today’s text—it paints the whole picture.
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
We need the death of Jesus. We need the life of Jesus. The stories of Jesus aren’t extraneous to the salvation of Jesus. Nor can the gospel be reduced to a three-day span of time in the history of the world. In my thinking, the gospel is the entire story of Jesus—his eternal preexistence, prophesied expectation, conception, birth, childhood, mysterious signs, baptism, miracles, words, wisdom, suffering, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, rule, return, and glorious eternal reign. Nor can Jesus be reduced or confined to the New Testament. He is the whole story of the whole Bible. Whether by allusion or affirmation, every page points to him.
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
I love how the NIV translates the sentence in that it asks a question, and yet it doesn’t end with a question mark but an exclamation point. It’s another way of saying Jesus is everything. He is the author of the story and its chief actor. We have been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus. How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Our mission is to answer that question: How much more? It means his life must become the source and substance of our life. As the life of Jesus becomes the depth of our memory, it will become the breadth of our imagination.
PRAYER
Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, as we ponder the question, “How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” We so readily think of salvation as something that happened in our past. Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts to grasp how it is breaking now like news into our present life. Break the life of Jesus out of the compartment we confine him to. Show us the “how much more” his life is saving us. Praying in Jesus’s name. Amen.
JOURNAL PROMPTS
How would you say what I am trying to get across in today’s entry? What kind of church have you been most associated with—a “life of Jesus” church or a “death of Jesus” church? Do you see how we must have both in equal focus?
SING
Today, we will sing “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” (hymn 159) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
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For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
John David (J. D.) Walt Jr. is the Sower-in-Chief for Seedbed and the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas.
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5 Responses
Please keep the date. It is a great orientation point early in the AM. On YouTube, the date will always be present under the video moving forward. Thank you.
I agree … the date keeps me grounded! And it is also a gentle reminder that the Lord and I are present to one another on THIS day
Please say the today day! It keeps me grounded. God bless!
I often confuse the lesson number with the date; for example today’s lesson number is 26, and the date is 25 September.
Your question: “How Much More?”
My answer: Much, Much More!
There is never enough JESUS to fill me up!
Thank you J.D. and David
Pg
I feel you should not say the date but keep the date on the script. My reason is exactly what you pointed out. I want to share former Wake Up Call segments, but I feel the receiver would think, this is old stuff! Not saying the date but keeping the printed date may serve better.