By David ReayFriday 9 Sep 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
A Life Words devotion with David Reay
Transcript:
Read Romans 8:33-34
33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (NIV)
Some Bible verses conjure up pictures in our minds. This one, for example, may have us imagining Jesus on his knees pleading for God to forgive us each and every time we sin against him. As if Jesus is the one who stops God sending down thunderbolts on us.
This is a false picture, though.
When we put our trust in Jesus our sins are forgiven—sins that are past and present and future. We don’t have to get forgiven all over again each time we sin. Jesus doesn’t have to die for us repeatedly. God has justified us or put us right with him.
So what can we make of Jesus’ intercession? It is better to see it as Jesus’ place at God’s right hand, being a constant reminder of the fact that we are forgiven, and now right with God. The very fact that Jesus is now in a place of acceptance and honour means we who trust in him are also in that place.
Jesus doesn’t have to literally pray for us each time we sin. His presence with God is a sign of the fact that our sins are already dealt with. He is our friend in the very highest of places.
Blessings
David Reay