August 22 Daily Devotional

28 Jul August 22 Daily Devotional

A SERIES OF DEVOTIONS BASED ON PAUL’S LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS

GOD GIVES YOU A NEW LIFE

Colossians 2:11-12 “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

As you reflect upon your life as a baptized Christian, St. Paul in today’s devotional verses calls to your mind you are not who you were in the past.  In the past you were under the complete control of your old sinful flesh and the Devil himself.  God worked a miracle in you through the sacrament of holy baptism.  St. Paul describes this miracle in Romans 6, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  St. Paul wants you to celebrate and rejoice in the fact that the control of your sinful flesh and Satan has been overcome.  God has given you a new life whereby you now having been baptized into Christ are a new person with a new life.  In this new life it is no longer you who lives but Christ who lives in you.  (Galatians 2:20)

In your baptism the benefits of Christ’s saving work became yours.  Note your intimate connection with Christ in the words “buried with Him” and “raised with Him.”  As He died on the cross in payment for your sins, He did so in your place, thus you died there with Him.  As He rose again on Easter morning from the grave and death no longer had any power over Him, so you through Your baptism are freed from deaths power and will live for all eternity.

All of this is yours, St. Paul writes, “through faith.”  This is the faith with which you have been gifted by God in His son, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  This faith is like a hand that grasps, takes hold of, and makes things your very own.  In this case your faith takes hold of Christ and all He has done for your salvation and makes it yours.  Luther therefore writes that your baptism indicates “. . . that daily a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity.” (Small Catechism, p. 214) You already are a partaker of eternal life.

Prayer:  Thank you, Jesus, for instituting the sacrament of Holy Baptism and all the blessings that come through its water connected to Your Word.  Help me every day to remember these blessings, be comforted by them and focused upon the new life I have received.  In Your holy name.  Amen.

Baptized into Your name most holy, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

I claim a place, though weak and lowly, Among Your saints, Your chosen host.

Buried with Christ and dead to sin, Your Spirit now shall live within.

My loving Father, here You take me To be henceforth Your child and heir.

My faithful Savior, here You make me The fruit of all Your sorrows share.

O Holy Spirit, comfort me When threat’ning clouds around I see.

My faithful God, You fail me never; Your promise surely will endure.

O cast me not away forever If words and deeds become impure.

Have mercy when I come defiled; Forgive, lift up, restore Your child.

All that I am and love most dearly—Receive it all, O Lord, from me.

Let me confess my faith sincerely; Help me Your faithful child to be!

Let nothing that I am or own Serve any will but Yours alone.

(LSB 590)