LifeLink Devotional for Friday, January 3, 2025

If we are going to truly understand the marvel of reconciliation, we must wrap our minds around the amazing concept of forgiveness. Here’s one of my favorite Bible passages describing what God did when He reconciled me to Himself in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3-8  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

WOW! Let’s break that down. Here’s what God did for us in our salvation:

• He blessed us in His presence with every spiritual blessing in Christ. That means that when God sees us from His throne, our standing with Him is the same as Christ’s.
• He chose us. He initiated the whole plan to bring us into relationship with Himself, and to call us holy and blameless.
• He determined to adopt us. We are joint heirs of all things in eternity with Jesus Christ.
• He has lavishly bestowed His glorious grace on us through Jesus Christ. He will never count your sins against you and He will freely grant you everything He has promised.
• He has redeemed us. We are bought with the price of His Son’s blood, and that price is non-refundable. We are eternally secure.
• He has forgiven us. Forgiven of everything that contradicts Him, so there need never be anything between us.

My heart is overwhelmed with joy as I think that God, based on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, can and will forgive us when we humbly confess our sin, and will restore us to perfect relationship with Himself. That, my friends, is truly awesome.

I challenge you to takes some extra time this weekend to look up Ephesians 1:3-8 for yourself and study everything God did for you in your salvation. Let the Holy Spirit overwhelm you with gratitude and joy. Then come back Monday for a story that illustrates all of this.

Pastor John