#DailyDevotion Jesus Was Justified By The Father & We Are Justified In Him
Isaiah 50:8-10 8I know I’ll not be shamed, because He is near Who justifies Me. Does anyone want to argue with Me? Let us confront each other. Will anyone oppose Me in this case? Let him come near Me. 9See, the Lord God helps Me; Who then will condemn Me? See, they will all wear out like a garment, and a moth will eat them.10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys when His Servant speaks? He who walks in the dark without a light should trust in the LORD’s name and depend on his God.
Despite the fact it looked like the unbelieving Jews, the Jewish leadership had the upper hand with Jesus on Good Friday they did not understand what they were doing or why. Jesus therefore would not be ashamed. While it looked like God had forsaken him, He was near Jesus who justifies him. Jesus laid in the grave until the third day and on that day, the first day of the week, the Father justified Jesus by raising him from the dead and ascended him to his right hand in glory.
So Jesus, through his apostles and now through the Church tells them and the whole world, “Does anyone want to argue with Me? Let us confront each other. Will anyone oppose Me in this case? Let him come near Me.” Jesus told them he would have to suffer for the sake of the world, to redeem it and to ransom mankind but on the third day he would rise again. There is now an empty tomb in Jerusalem. It was well guarded and yet Jesus is not there anymore. He is risen. Those who oppose him lie and say his disciples stole the body but they know better. Yet we still try to call them to repentance and believe the good news, Jesus the Messiah, the King of the Jews is all to all eternity and sits at the right of God the Father.
Those who do not believe, who continue to argue with the LORD Jesus Christ all wear out like a garment eaten by their own unbelief. They die and will experience eternal death. They do not have the life of God in them. Who among them feared the LORD and obeyed when His Servant, Jesus of Nazareth spoke? We know from Acts many of the Jews, even the priests who did not believe in the resurrection, came to faith through the apostles’ teaching. We also know many did not and persecuted the Church, their fellow Jews.
What does Jesus tell us? “He who walks in the dark without a light should trust in the LORD’s name and depend on his God.” St. Paul says in Ephesians 5, 8 “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light…” We were once without the Light of the world. Now the Light of the world, Jesus Christ is risen and calls us to trust in him to take us out of the darkness of our sins. Giving you his promised Holy Spirit through baptism into his name, the proclamation of the forgiveness of sin, and the resurrection to eternal life we should trust in the LORD Jesus Christ’s name and depend on him for salvation. He will put his light into you and you will be light in the LORD. You can live like children of the Light, forgiving sin, having mercy upon your enemy and showing love to your neighbor.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for justifying Christ Jesus, raising him from the dead and having him seated at your right. Grant us his light so we may hear and believe and be raised with him on the Last Day to eternal life in his kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.