Lent - Week 4 - Friday

0:00Welcome to Luther for the Busy Man, the week of Lytare, Friday, our scripture reading comes from the book of Romans 6 verses 1 through 11. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How can we, who died to sin, still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus or baptized into his death? We were buried there for with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also live with him.

1:03We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin, once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Our scripture lesson comes from the book of John chapter 5 verse 25. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come in a judgment but has passed from death to life. The meaning of Jesus is that he who clings to the word will not feel or see death even in the midst of death. As he also declares later on, he who believes in me though he die, yet he shall live for I am the life from John 11, 25. Here we see what a wonderful thing the Christian faith really is. For it already saves us from death eternally and brings it to pass that we never die.

2:03The death and dying of a Christian is just like that of an unbeliever externally, but inwardly, there is as much difference here as the difference between heaven and earth. For the Christian sleeps in death and passes through it to life. But the unbeliever passes from life to experience death eternally. We also see this from the way in which some shaken terror are full of doubt and even despair and completely lose all reason and sense in the throws of death. This is why scripture also calls death asleep. For just as the one who falls asleep does not really know what is happening to him and recovers consciousness quite suddenly in the morning when he wakes up, so we too will arise on the last day without any knowledge how we died and passed through death. Let us pray. Remember Jesus, draw us ever closer to you in true and living faith so that we firmly believe that whether we live or die, we are yours. In the heirs of eternal life and blessedness with you, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

3:05Amen. Find the print version of the Luther for the Busyman Daily Devotional at ambassadorpublications.org. Luther for the Busyman is produced by the free Lutheran Bible College and seminary in Plymouth, Minnesota. Visit flbc.edu to learn how you can start here. Go anywhere grounded in God's Word.