Abounding Grace

"In Him we have redemption though His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence" - Ephesians 1:7-8

To start let me break this down with some definitions:

redemption/redeem = to buy back, pay off, deliverance, rescue

forgiveness = to grant pardon to, to cease to feel resentment against, to cancel an indebtedness or liability of

abound = to occur or exist in great quantities or numbers, to be rich or well supplied, to be filled, to be plentiful

Now let me break down this verse in short meanings:

redemption though His blood = He bought us back and paid off our debt of sin by the spilling of His blood on the cross, paying off the penalty for our sin which is death

forgiveness of our sins = because of His death and resurrection, we can be fully forgiven without ever worrying about Him bringing up the past again (Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:17)

So what does this all mean for us and how is this part of those spiritual blessings we have?

Because of what Jesus did on the cross, our sins (past, present, future) have been paid for and completely forgiven. Instead of thinking you have blown it too much for the Lord to ever use you again, you can be totally free from that sin or failure that has you entangled. You no longer have to live for it or yourself. We have been purchased by Him and now owned by Him, a perfect God who only seeks the best. In following His will for our lives, we no longer worry about falling prey to stupid decisions and foolish living.

He has done all this through the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us! We think because of our latest failure, God is through with us and we should just give up now. But His grace ABOUNDS toward us and it abounds towards us in all wisdom and prudence. So His wisdom that formed the whole universe, is the same wisdom that abounds grace towards us. You can never out abound God's grace with your sin - there is nothing you can do that His grace can't and won't cover! You don't have to try and earn your way back to God's favor (i.e. "okay God, I'll pray and read my Bible an hour a night for 2 weeks and then maybe after that I'll be ready to be used again and be close to you again") - you simply repent and walk in the full grace and forgiveness that has already been supplied.

The past, your past is history. Yesterday is over. His mercies are new today (Lamentations 3:22-23) and His grace is abounding towards you. If you've repented of your sin, your failure, your purposeful transgression, then walk in grace and the freedom that comes with it. Use that freedom and that grace to simply draw you to the One who loves you unconditionally and fall more in love with Him! You are not a slave to sin...you are free!

Abounding grace - you didn't earn it and you can't earn it. Stop trying and simply start enjoying!

Chosen & Adopted

"just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will," - Ephesians 1:4-5

***Before beginning, it is important to note that the chief purpose of this post is not to write on the meaning of predestination or sovereignty of God vs free will of man, as there is already much debate on both sides of the camp and I for one hold that the Bible clearly teaches both God's sovereignty and man's choice. This post rather is to focus on another of the spiritual blessings we have in Christ and that is the fact that we are chosen and adopted - debate all you want on the topic but don't miss the fact that God has chosen and adopted us.***

Stop and think on adoption for a moment: a person wants a son or daughter to be in their family and then chooses that person to be part of their family, carrying all the rights and privileges that comes with that last name. That child, once an outsider and not wanted, is now wanted and as every bit part of the family as the other children. He or she is loved and fully accepted and does not need to work to try and keep that last name.

Now for us who have chosen to receive that free gift of salvation made available to us, ponder how this adoption relates to us. We were unwanted by the world and living for ourselves. We were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:5), enemies with God (Romans 5:10), children of darkness (Ephesians 5:8), and foolish, base, unmighty people (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). We weren't cute kids who seemed to do no wrong or mere infants, but we were at war with the very One who in His love freely chose to adopt us! And with this adoption comes all the rights and privileges of being a child of God! That is absolutely amazing. And since we didn't do anything to earn it, we don't have to "do" things to keep the name. Our response to God shouldn't be out of "have to" but "get to". Just like we do things for those we love because we love them, we keep His commandments because we love Him and we know He knows what is best for us. What a blessing!

And think about choosing for a second, especially when it relates to team competition games. Remember those dreaded times of waiting with the crowd as "team captains" handpicked their teams, and you just hoped you wouldn't be one of the last picks, or even not chosen at all? Those times felt pretty bad. Or maybe you were always chosen being great at the sport you played.

However, God doesn't choose too many who are mighty and strong and wise, but He chooses the nobodies! But then He goes and He wins with them, with you and I. Not because we have anything to offer, but because He supplies everything we need to His praise and glory! If you feel like the last person on earth who could do any good for the Kingdom, then you are the right choice for Jesus because He will surely get the glory if you allow Him to do His work.

So the next time you are tempted to fight and debate over God's choosing or adoption or election or any of those things, think instead on the tremendous blessing it is to be adopted and chosen by God and be in His family! We don't have to understand (nor can we ever) just how this whole thing works, but like it, enjoy it, and know how rich you are because of whose "last name" you carry!

Rich Paupers

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" - Ephesians 1:3

Decided that last night I wanted to read Ephesians 1 again simply due to the plethora of wealth these chapters hold for us as Christians. However, I got stuck on just this verse for a while dwelling on the impact of it, and from this "stuckness" decided I should do a few blogs on this chapter (so we'll see how this goes).

Too often we shortchange ourselves forgetting the many riches we have in Christ. We make ourselves paupers when in reality we are filthy rich. From this verse alone we are told that we have already been blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing. Anything spiritual that we would need we have already been blessed with.

Because we don't see these with our physical eyes, we choose instead to focus on our physical, temporary blessings (or lack thereof) and often whine because we don't have what we want. We allow ourselves to get stressed out, depressed or angry/upset because of this focus on the physical. "If I only had this __________ then I would be happy", or "why don't I have a wife/husband/better job/etc.?"

Get your eyes off the physical things and look at the riches you have in Christ. And that is key, these spiritual blessings are found in Christ. To try find them anywhere else apart from Him is going to lead to frustration. He has already given you them, your response is just to walk in fellowship with Him to enjoy them.

So next time you find yourself upset about something physical you don't have, look back to Christ and realize everything you do have that is much more precious than anything else you think you "need".