D.L.

FIFTH MONDAY 18th/MARCH OF LENT

This week, I want you to be encouraged by the writings of one of my faith heroes, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.”
(Romans 4,13 NIV11-GKE)
“That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
(Romans 4,22-25 ESV)

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s yes to us. Christ died for our sins; he was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25). Christ’s death was the judgment of death on us and our sins. Had Christ remained in death, this judgment of death would still be in force, and we would still be in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). But because Christ was raised from death, the judgment on us has been lifted, and we are resurrected with Christ (1 Cor. 15:20– 23). This is so because we are in Jesus Christ by virtue of the adoption of our human nature in the incarnation. What happens to him happens to us, for we are adopted by him. That is not a judgment of experience but a judgment of God that must be acknowledged through faith in God’s word.¹

1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is on the Cross, Accordance electronic ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), 76. ↩︎