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!