Lutheran Daily Devotional 26 October 2022: What the Law Is For

Lutheran Daily Devotional 26 October 2022 || Wednesday Message By Lutheran Hour Ministries

Read Lutheran Daily Devotional 26 October 2022

TOPIC: What the Law Is For

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: Romans 3:19-25a – Now we know that whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the Law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.

When you were little, did you ever go out to play and come back home completely filthy? Dirt smeared on your face; foxtails in your hair; grass stains on your knees and elbows. And chances are, you didn’t even know how dirty you were. After all, you couldn’t see it!

And so your mother or father marched you to the mirror. “Take a look at yourself!” they said. And you did, and you saw things in the mirror you never expected. Where did that spot come from? How did you get marker on your face?

You know what happened next. Out of the dirty clothes and into the bathtub! Because looking in the mirror any longer wouldn’t solve anything. Only soap and water could make you clean.

God’s Law is like this, isn’t it? It’s a mirror that shows us every spot and stain in our lives—even the ones we didn’t know about before. But that’s as much as it can do. The Law can’t make us clean again; all it can do is point out our faults and sins. We need other help.

And that’s where Jesus comes to make us clean again. He knows we can’t do it, no matter how hard we concentrate on God’s Law—but He can. And He does. How? By taking all of our sin and lawbreaking on Himself, and carrying it to the cross, where He gets rid of it forever. He washes us in Baptism and gives us new, clean clothes of goodness and holiness to wear—His own good clothes, to be ours forever. Finally, He gives us life—His own everlasting life, which He won for us when He rose from the dead, never to die again.

Mirrors are good, and God’s Law is good. They reflect the truth. But neither one can change the truth—change us, recreate us as children of God. Jesus does that. Thanks be to God!

WE PRAY: Dear Lord, thank You for making me clean again, and Yours forever. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you like to look in the mirror? Why or why not?

2. What about God’s Law—do you like to look in that? Why or why not?

3. How does Jesus see you? What has He done to make you beautiful in His eyes?

Today’s Bible Readings: Jeremiah 25, 45-46    Hebrews 1

Lutheran Daily Devotional 26 October 2022 from LHM will help strengthen and encourage your faith as you do the same for others. Have them delivered right to your inbox, podcast the audio devotional, access them on your mobile device through the FREE app, or listen with Spotify, iHeart Radio, Alexa, or Google Home. Seasonal Devotions for Advent and Lent are also available in both English and Spanish. Perfect for personal reflection or to share with family, friends and congregations, these seasonal meditations will help prepare you to celebrate the true meaning of these seasons.