Part 3 Towards Easter

The Nail
Part Three Towards Easter
Chapter Eight Will you let Jesus forgive you?


Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6.3–11


In Luke’s Gospel, as Jesus is nailed to the cross, he says this: ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23.34).

As we hold the nails in our hands, can it be that Jesus is speaking to us?

For like Peter there have been times when we have feigned ignorance. Full of easy courage, we have sought the easy way out, shrunk into the shadows, pretended things were different, lied to save our own skin...

Taken from The Nail by Stephen Cottrell