Do You Know How Much God Loves You?

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, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Ephesian 1:7-10

The above verses are just a tiny segment of what we have in Christ Jesus. The riches we have been given because we acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah and our Saviour are astounding when you think that it was all done for one reason - God loved us. When it comes right down to it, there is no other reason why we have been granted these incredible gifts. Therefore, today I would like us to meditate on just a few of those gifts of love the Lord bestows on all who come to Him.

We are Redeemed

What does it mean to be redeemed, and more importantly, what are we redeemed from? The word redeem means "to buy back" or "pay off." In the Old Testament, there is a beautiful depiction of redemption in the story of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 1-4). He was called her Kinsmen-Redeemer, and because of Jewish law, it was his responsibility to care for a relative in need, danger or trouble. Ruth and Naomi were poor widows, so their Kinsmen-Redeemer Boaz rescued or "redeemed" them. Jesus is our Kinsmen-Redeemer who rescued us from the curse of sin and eternal separation from God. We have that redemption because of the blood he shed on the cross for us.  

 Our Sins Are Forgiven

When you were a child and disobeyed your parents, you knew it immediately by the tone of their voice - their disapproval was evident. You either fessed up to what you had done and why. Or you tried to hide it forever from your parents. The guilt was overwhelming until you said those three little words, "I am sorry." You knew by admitting what you had done, punishment of some kind would follow. Sometimes your "sorry" was enough, but if you had wise parents, they would want you to remember what you did wrong, and so they would enforce that "I'm sorry" with a punishment of some kind. When Jesus died on the cross, all our sins were immediately forgiven. Why? Because the punishment for unforgiven sin is eternal separation from God. God loves you too much to be eternally separate from Him. But there had to be a punishment for your sins. The price for your punishment was paid through Jesus.

We Have All This Because of God's Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Even our faith is a gift from God because of His grace. In other words, He provides everything for us because of His great love so that we will not perish in our sins and be forever separated from Him. What a wonderful God we have! His gifts to us are unfathomable. Today, rejoice in the knowledge that your faith, forgiveness of sins, and redemption all come because God has shown us GRACE in His infinite mercy. Praise be to God!