Devotions

“Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away” (Matthew 27:59–60, ESV).

Jesus had just been crucified and was now lying in a tomb. As a massive stone was rolled to seal the doorway, everyone had a sad sense of finality. Scripture says a group of women was sitting opposite the tomb. Those women must have been heartbroken. I can almost hear the despair in their voices. “What will happen now that Jesus is gone? How do we go on?”

Today, we know the end of the story. When Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished,” he had conquered sin. We know that with his resurrection he had conquered death.

I do not think we can fathom what Jesus’s death meant to his passionate followers. They had believed their master was the hope of the world, the salvation of Israel, the light to the Gentiles. He was the great healer, raising the dead, setting captives free, preaching the good news to the poor. He was the embodiment of the new kingdom that he preached about. As they thought back to his words, “It is finished,” they must have thought he meant, “It’s over. This is the end of the story.”

All too often, as Christians endure the trials of life, this is the message they believe. They see no hope beyond their difficult situation. All they can see is a stone permanently rolled into place separating them from hope. However, they are seeing things from this side of the stone. If only they knew what God is doing for them on the other side of the stone.

Maybe life has presented you with a hard, impossible situation. As you read this, do you wonder, “Is God at work in my circumstance? Is Jesus really triumphant in me? Can he really save me from this situation? I just don’t see a way forward.”

God is on the move in your life at this very moment. The stone is being rolled away. Light is breaking forth, and your hope stands there in the doorway: Jesus! He has triumphed over all the powers of darkness, and his victory is yours by faith.

When African American and forward-thinking white pastors in Alabama streamed the services live from Times Square Church, they were astonished to see over one hundred ethnicities worshipping together in peace and Christian love. One glance at our choir loft confirms that. So the Alabama pastors contacted Times Square Church and asked me to come speak in Selma and bring our multinational choir.

The evangelical rally in Selma was packed, the message God gave me to deliver was powerful, and there appeared to be genuine breakthrough.

Afterward, though, when the mixed group of white and black pastors gathered together in the home of a prominent Selma socialite for a meal, the white pastors ate in the elegant dining parlor, and the black pastors ate on the screened porch. 

It was as if no one heard the message. They simply left it behind when they left the auditorium. I was shocked by the seating arrangement and took my plate out to the porch and sat with the black pastors. This, I was told, offended our white, socialite hostess. 

One lesson I learned from the evangelistic rally in Selma, Alabama was that the need for spiritual awakening and unification exists in our own backyard in the United States. A pastor I know from Rwanda would have heard all of this and nodded his head. I could almost hear him saying, “You see? Preach and celebrate without carving the Word into people’s hearts, and the old evil comes back.” 

Consider what the scriptures say: “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:20-24, NKJV). 

^{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020, he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}

The strongest feature of true, saving faith is a desire to draw closer to him. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18, NKJV).

Why did Jesus suffer and die? Why did he provide justification for us? Why is his perfect righteousness accounted to us? It was that he might bring us to God. It’s all about intimate fellowship with the Father.

When Adam sinned, he lost the most precious thing any man or woman could possess: intimacy with God. Sin drove Adam away from closeness with the Father, and he actually hid from God’s presence. Ever since, whenever man sins, he has a tendency to run and hide just as his forefather Adam did.

The reason God so hates sin is because it robs us of his fellowship. He created us for intimacy with him, and he so yearned for our fellowship that he sent his own Son to die on a cross, to justify us and tear down the walls that blocked that intimacy from taking place.

The power of justification is that it made a way back to God’s original purpose in creating man: fellowship with the Father.

This present world is full of evil, slander, satanic lies, seductions, guilt, fear, condemnation; all of it is designed by Satan to keep us feeling unworthy to come into God’s presence. The devil would have us hide as Adam did to keep us from intimacy with God.

We have been delivered from all that. We have a right to God’s presence, an invitation to his throne, because we stand with a perfect righteousness before him. God invites us to the throne of grace because he accepts us as being holy in Christ. Our sin is under the blood, forgiven, and now we have a right into his holiness.

Beloved, Jesus did not die just to take you to paradise. He died so that every day you could live in beautiful, close fellowship with the Father.

Paul did not speak of having faith until he had lost all confidence in his flesh. He took all his education, self-confidence, abilities, doctrines and zeal and cast them aside. He spoke of faith only after he had said, “I cannot trust my flesh.” The same is true for us.

Before anyone is capable of true faith, he must come to a sense of how lost, helpless and utterly hopeless he is. We do not have saving faith until we come to the end of believing that someone or something other than Jesus can save us.

Saving, justifying faith involves submitting your life to Christ with all your heart. It includes a repentance that says, “Jesus, I have got nothing to offer you. I come to submit to your lordship!”

In Romans 10:9, Paul characterizes saving faith as believing with your heart and confessing with your mouth. He is saying that faith is more than merely giving mental assent. Rather, it is submitting your whole life to him with all your heart.

In Acts 8:37, Philip said to the eunuch, “If you believe with all your heart …”, and the eunuch replied, “I believe…” This was not simply a mental “yes” to Jesus; he really believed with all his heart, and he was saved.

In contrast, Simon Magus believed Peter’s preaching, yet he had only a temporary faith because his heart was not in it. Indeed, multitudes of people in Jesus’s day believed temporarily in the name of Christ, but Jesus would not commit himself to them because he knew their hearts were not fully committed (see John 2:23-24).

So, you ask, who is truly justified by faith? It is the one who knows he is lost and helpless, and he has tried everything and failed. Now he commits his whole life into the Lord’s hands with all his heart, mind, soul and strength. He cries out, “Lord, I am yours! You are my only hope.” He is saved!

Let me give you the heart of the true grace message: It is not a permissive gospel but one that teaches holiness!

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13, NKJV).

According to Paul, we are not walking in grace until we have broken from worldly corruptions. Unless we are endeavoring through the power of the Holy Spirit to lead godly and righteous lives, looking for the Lord’s coming in our every waking moment, we do not know God’s grace.

Many Christians want forgiveness, but that is all. They do not want to be delivered from this present world because they love it. They are attached to their sins, not wanting to give up the pleasures of this earth. So they cling to a doctrine that says, “I can live as I please as long as I say that I believe.”

They do not want to hear about obedience, repentance, self- denial, picking up their cross, taking on the yoke or burden of Christ. They simply want to be excused on Judgment Day and to have all their iniquities overlooked. They expect Jesus to open up the pearly gates, put his arms around them, and lead them down a golden street to their reserved mansion, even though they have never broken from the spirit of this world!

Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). We are to break from this world completely and be conformed to Christ alone!

Jesus justifies us through faith for a purpose. It is to embolden and empower us to resist the devil and overcome the world. “[Jesus Christ] gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4).