By David ReayMonday 6 Jul 2020LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 1 minute
I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. (NLT)
In older times in England, the king’s officials would roam around the country checking on how the official rules were being kept. They were empowered to record details of breaches of the law in books they carried with them. These books had black bindings. And so those who did the wrong thing ended up in the “black books”.
We still use that term today. If we break the rules we are in such books. The Bible seems to echo something of this when it speaks of our names being written in books kept by God. This is a pictorial way of saying that God knows what is going on in our lives.
Our imperfections mean we are rule breakers who deserve to be recorded in some sort of cosmic black book. But the good news is that there is another “book”. It is the book of life which records the names of all who trust in the goodness of Jesus rather than their own more limited goodness. It is for those who know they need mercy and know they can find it in Jesus.
Our disobedience might get us into one book. Jesus’ obedience gets us in the other.
Blessings
David