Week 2 - Day 3

THE STORY

Long Story Short

THE RESCUER-KING

Writing after Jesus’ death on the cross, His resurrection to new life and His ascension back to heaven, the Apostle Paul says …

Colossians 1:13-23 (NLT)

For [God the Father] has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
    He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
    in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
    and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
    and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the church,
    which is his body.
He is the beginning,
    supreme over all who rise from the dead.
    So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness
    was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
    everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

• According to this passage, who is Jesus?

• What has Jesus done for us?

• How did Jesus accomplish this?

• Are you God’s enemy and alienated from Him or have you been reconciled to God and at peace with Him through Jesus’ death on the cross?

• In light of what you have discovered through the Bible readings and your personal reflections, how will you respond? Finish this sentence: I will …