April 21 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the beginning of a new life for all believers. It's also the pledge of our resurrection (1 Cor. 15). The study of Colossians is part of this month's meditations on the meaning of the resurrection.

Bible Reading:

Colossians 2: 13–15

Bible Text:

God made you alive.... He forgave us all our sins, [he] canceled the written code.... And [he] disarmed the powers (Col. 2:13–15).

Devotional:

Here are three ways of saying why Christ's death marks the beginning of our lives.

First. God forgave us all our sins. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). As long as we are under sin, we have to pay these wages. When our sin is forgiven, we don't pay its costly price. We live under grace.

Second, Christ's death "canceled the written code"—it ended our spiritual bankruptcy. We had a mountain of unpaid bills. Then God took our signed confession of indebtedness and nailed it to the cross. Now the prosecutor has nothing left to say. Our debt has been paid in full by the Savior. He himself was nailed to the cross to free us.

Third, Christ "disarmed the powers" and set us free. He disabled the supra-personal powers that enslave and harm so many people. Non-Christians openly admit that. in our world, they feel like puppets in the hand of a merciless fate. Some think the power is in the stars or in their genes. In moments of truth, people feel insignificant and insecure, small specks in a threatening world.

But Christ has conquered all powers and set us free to live. No power but Jesus stands between us and God.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.