Consecration of the Church

Friday
Romans 5:12-16
Results of Justification
Brothers and Sisters:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned —sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. Praise be to God always!
John 17:24-26
Jesus Prays for his Disciples
The Lord Jesus said:
Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” This is the truth. Peace be with you.

The free gift that Jesus gives us is a gift of love. It is a gift of the Father’s love that we might love. Love is something difficult. Love is something that challenges us to not choose our own best interest but the interest of the other. The greatest love is to lay down our lives for our neighbor even while we are living. In laying down our lives, in choosing the free gift of the Father’s love and being transformed in that love we we begin to see God’s glory and experience His joy.