Morning Meditation:"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:21

Day after day, and year after year, the priests would perform their duties before the Lord in the Tabernacle. Once a year the high court of heaven would convene in the Most Holy Place, and the high priest, as mediator and appointed lawyer of the accused, would enter in to court to plead their case before the Judge (Leviticus 16). Sin had entered through the door by the disobedience of one man, therefore God required from His people obedience every time the high priest entered through that sacred door into His presence. Over and over this process was repeated until our Great High Priest appeared and entered through that door one last and final time. He appeared before the Judge in all His sinless perfection and purity, and offered up His own life to pay the high penalty of our sin. The shackles have been removed and the prison door is opened wide, but it requires faith to believe we've been freed from the sentence of death and to walk through that open door into a new life. "For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one many the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19).

(2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

Afternoon Devotion: "For if, when 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 rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." - Romans 5:10-11

The covenant of love that has been written on our hearts and signed in our Savior's blood is a "living will" because Christ is alive and living in us. His work is perfected because He is alive. Because He reconciled us to the Father through His death on the cross, we have the privilege of participating in His unending life and ministry, and also experiencing intimate fellowship with Holy God. God's holy purpose from the beginning has always been to make us one with Him. He did this by removing the dividing wall of hostility between man and God through the death of His Son (Man is the enemy of God; God is not the enemy of man - He sent His Son as Peacemaker when we declared war on Him - that alone should express how great His love is toward man); and then He established fellowship with us - declaring us as no longer enemies, but calling us His friends. It seems fitting, therefore, that the law of His kingdom would require us to also love our enemies. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous...Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:44-45, 48).

(Luke 6:27-28)