The Jesus Bible Reading PlanNäide

JUDGMENT

Sin always leads to judgment. God’s people had opposed God for some time, despite God’s multiple warnings and opportunities to repent. Their hearts were stubborn, and they did not want to change, so God moved in to judge them because what God says he will do, he will do.

God told the people that Jerusalem would fall, that the temple of God would be desecrated and that the people would be either destroyed or carried off into exile. Ezekiel reserved the harshest words of judgment for the leaders of God’s people. All of this might sound severe, but it was just. God’s chosen people had disobeyed their infinitely holy God in the face of his persistent pleas for them to stop.

This was a judgment day of sorts; God’s judgment was coming down upon his people because of their disobedience. At the cross, another judgment day occurred: God sacrificed Jesus because of the sins of his people. The city of Jerusalem railed against him. His body was beaten and bloodied; he died, and was exiled to the grave. Then he arose from the grave in victory so that all who look to him for salvation can escape judgment.

Jesus, I thank you and praise you for the cross. Thank you for rising from the grave, so that I too may overcome sin and death. Amen.