March 28 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 5:

¹It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
²And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
³For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
⁵To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
⁶Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
⁷Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
⁹I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
¹⁰Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
¹¹But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
¹²For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
¹³But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Devotional

The Israelites were commanded to kill the Passover Lamb, and to put its blood upon the doorposts. If they did that, the angel of death would pass over, pass them by. Paul tells the Corinthian Church, "Christ our passover is sacrificed (slain) for us." Salvation is through the blood of the Lamb. All sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed to Christ, to his atoning death.

All men are sinners. Sin must be atoned for. Without atonement there is no forgiveness of sin. The righteousness of God requires the death of the sinner. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

Man cannot atone for his own sin; but God in his infinite wisdom and mercy has found a way of deliverance. He has provided a substitute for us; Jesus Christ come in the flesh, the man in our place. He was sacrificed for us; He died the death, and thus satisfied the justice of God, and opened the way for God's mercy to be bestowed upon us, and his righteousness imputed to us. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

The believing Israelite ate the roasted lamb in faith, and trusted in the blood. Our Passover Lamb is Jesus Christ, who loved us, and gave himself for us.

Prayer

Our Father in heaven, help us to realize that we all have deserved to be punished with eternal death. We all have grievously sinned against Thee. But we thank Thee that Jesus Christ is our Passover; that He was sacrificed for us; that He died, that we might receive eternal life. Help us that henceforth we may not live in sin, performing the works of the flesh; but may we be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: 1 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 5:12; 2 Cor. 5:21.

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