January 18 | Bible in a Year: Genesis 43-45; Matthew 12:24-50

Made Right with Jesus

Now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2

“We’re ready to board our flight to Montego Bay,” came the announcement. I was travelling as a speaker for and leader of a high school group on a missions trip to Jamaica. I reached into my backpack for my boarding pass and passport—and panic hit. My passport was gone!

Our group boarded the plane without me, and I faced four days of frantic efforts trying to get a new passport. After hundreds of phone calls, a fruitless trip to a passport office, a long drive back home, two days in a nearby city, and the help of friends—I finally got a new passport and could join my group in Jamaica.

A passport. A simple little book—but my only guarantee to where I wanted to go. As hard as I worked to get that new document, its value pales in comparison to something that will determine our eternal destination: faith in Jesus, which is the only guarantee of receiving salvation from our sins and new life in Him.

Scripture says, “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Paul was describing the reality that the dawn of salvation arrived in Christ. By believing in Him, we can experience God’s love and His redemptive, restoring work in all creation. Today, let’s make sure that we truly know what it means to “be made right with God through Christ” (5:21 NLT).

By Dave Branon

REFLECT & PRAY

How has Jesus provided the way for you to receive salvation? What does it mean for you to trust Him as your Saviour?

Dear Jesus, thank You for providing the way for me to receive salvation from sin and death.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

At its heart, Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that Jesus “had no sin” shows us the magnitude of Christ’s work through His life and death. The Greek word translated “had” (in some versions “knew”) suggests an intimate acquaintance with something. Jesus knew of sin and its consequences, but it was something he’d never experienced Himself. He had no intimate, personal acquaintance with sin.

Much like the first humans who had no personal experience with sin until they took the fruit of the tree of knowledge (Genesis 2:25–3:7), Christ didn’t sin. But “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21)—or “to be the offering for our sin” (NLT)—so that humanity could be reconciled to God forever.

Jed Ostoich

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