Lutheran Daily Devotional 28th May 2023 – Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Changes come in life. Some are not very welcome, such as failing health or the loss of loved ones. We enjoy other changes and we are happy, at every age, to celebrate another year of growth with a birthday. Through faith in Christ, there is a tremendous change that has already taken place. Our lives were turned upside down or, rather, right side up! Baptized into Christ, we have been made new: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We were buried with Jesus in Baptism and raised up to new life. We grow and learn in our new life in Christ, but the changes of this new life are different than those we experience in our earthly lives. Ordinary life on earth begins with conception and birth and continues on into death. Life in Jesus begins with our baptismal death and leads to new life now and finally to eternal life. As a new creation, the change is complete right now—we are righteous now in the sight of God—yet it is a change in which we continue to learn and grow throughout our earthly lives. Instead of being conformed to the world and its values, we are continually transformed as we seek, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to do the will of God. We live in love and service to others as we learn to reflect our Savior’s kindness and compassion. Even through the trials and sorrow we experience, God is continually shaping us as we are “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29b).

In our hymn we pray, “Finish then Thy new creation.” Inwardly righteous now in the sight of God, we grow in grace as our outward righteousness becomes ever more apparent in our earthly lives through our works of love and words of witness. As we are conformed to the life of our Savior, we are “changed from glory into glory” until this work of God in us is finished when Jesus returns on the Last Day. The apostle Paul writes, “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). On that day, our bodies will be raised from death and transformed into glory to live in the new heavens and the new earth that God will create. His new creation will be finished—and just beginning.

WE PRAY: Come, Lord Jesus, and finish Your new creation! Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler. It is based on the hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” which is number 700 in the Lutheran Service Book.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you like change in your life? What has been one of the best to come along lately?

2. How does our old, sinful life die when we’re made new in Christ?

3. What can we do to continually become more like Jesus in our words and actions?

Today’s Bible Readings: Psalms 24-26    John 10:22-42