Enjoying God's Forgiveness - Evangelical Caucus/Devotional

Gracetoyou.org ^ | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

[metmom]

In Christ we have "the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of [God's] grace, which He lavished upon us" (Eph. 1:7-8).

In Christ we have infinite forgiveness for every sin—past, present, and future.

On Israel's Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the high priest selected two goats. One was sacrificed; the other set free. Before releasing the second goat, the high priest symbolically placed the sins of the people on it by laying his hands on its head. This "scapegoat" was then taken a great distance from camp and released—never to return again (Lev. 16:7-10).

The Greek word translated "forgiveness" in Ephesians 1:7 means "to send away." It speaks of cancelling a debt or granting a pardon. Like the scapegoat, Christ carried away our sins on the cross.

In Christ, God cancelled your debt and pardoned your transgressions, and He did so "according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon [you]" (v. 8). That means you have infinite forgiveness because God's grace is infinite. You cannot sin beyond God's grace because where sin abounds, grace super-abounds (Rom. 5:20).

God delights in lavishing His grace upon you. Such grace is overflowing and cannot be contained. You are forgiven for every sin—past, present, and future. You will never be condemned by God or separated from Him (Rom. 8:1-2, 31-39). Even when you fail, God doesn't hold your sins against you. Christ bore them all so that you might know the joy and peace that freedom from sin and guilt brings.

Let the reality of God's grace fill your heart with joy and assurance. Let the responsibility of glorifying Him fill you with awe and reverence. Let this day be a sacrifice of praise and service to Him.

Suggestions for Prayer

-Thank God for His infinite grace and forgiveness.

-Look for opportunities to extend forgiveness to others.

For Further Study

-Read Matthew 18:21-35.

-What characteristic marked the wicked slave?

-What was the king's response to the wicked slave's actions?

-What point was Jesus making? How does it apply to you?

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TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; Theology; Worship
KEYWORDS: gty

[metmom]

Studying God's Word ping

Praise God that He forgives us completely. He canceled my ENTIRE sin debt that I owed him.

Colossians 2:13-14 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

[Veto!]

Even when I was a preschooler,, my crazy mother told me I was going to hell for the slightest infraction of her rules. “God will punish you for that,” and “ You’re going to hell for that.” I was reminded daily that the mean old man in the sky hated me.

Recently, I was watching a beautiful TV show with no actors and no spoken words called “CreationScapes” showing videos of places in nature with lovely music playing in the background and beautiful animals walking by. Bible verses displayed on the screen. Always makes me feel hopeful. Then one day quite recently, there was Jesus smiling at me. First time I ever saw him smile. Life changing.

I’m 89 and that’s the first time I’ve ever truly believed .....anything.
Plan to call the phone number on the screen and find out what church it is. Hope they have a church in my town.

[metmom]

In Ephesians 1:8 it says that He lavishes His grace on us.

In the Greek, lavish (perisseuó) means.....

https://biblehub.com/greek/4052.htm

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

abound, have an abundance

From perissos; to superabound (in quantity or quality), be in excess, be superfluous; also (transitively) to cause to superabound or excel — (make, more) abound, (have, have more) abundance (be more) abundant, be the better, enough and to spare, exceed, excel, increase, be left, redound, remain (over and above).

HELPS Word-studies

4052 perisseúō (from 4012 /perí, “all-around” which indicates abundance or surplus) – properly, exceed, go beyond the expected measure, i.e. above and beyond (”more than . . . “); “what goes further (more), surpasses” (J. Thayer).

[metmom]

Many of us were raised with that view of God. Some of it is for reasons like yours. Some of it is from church teaching and wrong theology of the religion we were raised in.

God WANTS to save people. And He wants it far more than He wants to damn them. When I think of what Jesus did in taking on human form and spending 33 years in the tedium of living in Bible times when people walked EVERYWHERE, for the sole purpose of dying to rescue us from our sins, it’s kind of breath taking the love He displayed for us.

I looked up the website and it doesn’t look like they have any denominational affiliation, but there are some denominations that I could recommend that are very Scripturally solid, to see if there are churches in your area.

It’ll have to be by FReepmail to avoid violating the Religion Forum posting guidelines concerning caucus threads.