40 Days of Praise - Day 1

2 Corinthians 9:15
A few years ago, the Cancer Society ran a commercial that featured a young man said he used to have cancer, but had beat it. He was thin and a little pale, but he said he was truly well. Receiving that clean bill of health motivated him to volunteer and give to the Cancer Society because of all the ways that they had helped him: a listening ear when he needed it, help with transportation to appointments, information on things that he didn’t fully understand. And now that he was well, he wanted to give back because, as he said, “I used to have cancer.”

When we become aware of how real and holy God is, we also realize that we have something far worse than cancer. Our unholiness, our sinfulness, is a spiritual malignancy that is fatal. Like the physical disease, our condition often goes undetected for a long time. We don’t know we’re sick. But God, in His kindness, brings to our attention that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Like those exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, we are walking dead.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved”. In an inconceivable act of love, “our Lord Jesus Christ… though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” He took our disease and gave us His health, took our sin and gave us His righteousness. He took our place under the wrath of God and gave us His favor with the Father – a favor that secured us in the Father’s love forever.

This is the inexpressible gift, the gift that leaves us stammering for words, the cost of which is beyond anything that we can conceive: Jesus, the only Son of God, whom God gave so that we could have eternal life.

Thanks be to God!