Holy Week Devotional 2022Sample

The mercy of God is a scandalous grace. It flies in the face of every normal assumption we have about the world. We are bombarded at all times by messages that declare that we are the true masters of our destiny and everything of consequence in our life depends upon us. There is some truth to this, of course. If you spend your time meditating on everything your husband or wife has done wrong, you will find nothing but increased dissatisfaction as you peel the scab off old wounds, never letting them heal. If it is your habit to constantly “one up” everyone around you, you’ll find that your friendships diminish and wonder, “What’s wrong with them?” If you never take the time to make plans or think through how to move forward in the things God has called you to—your career, your family relationships, your ministry toward others—you will progress in life like a car stuck in the mud. What we do matters and there are real consequences. What we do again and again and again will impact our future.

But the mercy of God renders all of our best efforts null and void. In the face of God’s great mercy, we have no choice but to come to the end of ourselves, realizing that our works, however wonderful they may seem, have failed. If that couldn’t be any clearer before the crucifixion, there is no question after. All of us “have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). Nothing that we do on our own meets God’s standard, which is nothing short of perfection. In the end, we have to recognize that no one is good, “not even one” (Rom. 3:10). How great is our need? So great that only the death of Christ is sufficient to restore us. But the cross likewise demonstrates that God revels in showing grace, abounding in steadfast love. The prophet cries out, “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Isa. 55:7).

If ever you believe that you are too far from grace, our Lord offers to us the thief on the cross as an example. Hanging upon a cross as a result of his own crimes, he acknowledged, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve” (Luke 23:41). He is quite literally at the end of himself and completely powerless. But with his next breath, he dares to ask Jesus, “[R]emember me when you come into your kingdom” (23:42). Jesus told his disciples that just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert so that all who looked upon it would be saved (Num. 21:9), likewise would Christ be lifted up for the salvation of his people (John 3:14-15). And on that day, face to face and cross to cross, the thief found the matchless love of God looking back at him. Without hesitation, Jesus cancels his debt with a word, promising that they would be together in paradise on that very day.

We cannot barter with God, nor offer up our own works to lessen the burden of our debt. We are far more guilty than we realize, with far more sins left unnoticed than those we’ve been able to count. But God’s mercy is for all who know their need and look to Christ to mercy. For all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, looking to the sacrifice of his cross even at the hour of our death, Jesus says, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”