April 5th

A Kingdom of Everlasting Hope

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24

Have you ever thought of putting hope in a judge?

I think most of us get a bit of a nervous feeling when we think about going before a judge. We know that, while they hold our justice in their hands, there are plenty of failures for which they could nail us.

How much more scary is it, then, to think of going before Jesus as our Judge? Well, actu-

ally, that idea doesn't make me nervous at all. Here's why: I know Jesus, and not only is He my Judge, but He's also my Mediator.

In other words, the judge and the defense counsel are the same person, which I think is a great deal for us. But there's one super important detail in this that we need to catch, because Jesus isn't going to mediate on everyone's behalf, but only on behalf of certain people.

Those people are not determined randomly, but by whether or not we know Jesus, by whether or not we have received His covenant that He offered to us when He died on our behalf. If we have said, Yes, Jesus, I know that I have sinned, but I receive Your death on my behalf, then we have entered into the covenant that He offers to us. This covenant is a promise of relationship that doesn't depend on what we've done, but what He did, and we can only enter into it by faith.

Once we have entered this covenant with Jesus, our hope goes to a whole new level. See, our hope might be at one level if our judge is different than the one who came to save us. But when we realize that our Judge is also the one who did come to save us, our hope rises off the charts.

We can say, I know Him. And I hope that you can say that today, because if you can't say that you know Jesus today, then you don't have hope. But the good news is that you can, even right now. Simply receive what Jesus did for you when He died in your place. Ask Him to come live inside of you and lead you from this day forward. Then simply follow Him as He leads and directs you.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

I know that everyone will one day know You as their Judge, but I want to know You as my Savior, too, so that I can have hope on that day. I choose to receive Your death in my place and I ask You to live in me and lead my life from this day forward!

Amen