Ash Wednesday

February 14th, 2024

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. The purpose is to see afresh our need for a Savior, renew our devotion to him through daily repentance, and remember that Jesus has conquered sin and death. In some traditions, an ashen cross is applied to one’s forehead to serve as a physical reminder that you have come from dust and to dust you will return (Gen. 3:19). But it is also a reminder to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). 

God does not treat our sin lightly. Genesis 3 captures God’s response to Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. God created man and woman to live in fellowship with him and enjoy him and all his creation, but they chose to follow the path of the deceitful serpent instead. Consequently, God cursed Adam and Eve and the serpent, and each curse was an undoing of the blessing he had graciously bestowed on them. Paul tells us, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). In other words, we caused death to enter the world. Our disobedience is the reason for the fallen state of God’s good creation and humanity’s separation from God.

But there is good news. Another man would come to take the curse for us. John tells us that this man was God enfleshed (“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” John 1:14). He lived among us and with great compassion bore our sins on Good Friday and was raised on the third day. 

Lent is not about your faithfulness to God but about God’s faithful to you through the person and work of Jesus Christ. So, whether you are prone to wander or in a state of spiritual indifference, take seriously the gracious call from the prophet Joel: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” 

Pastor Corey