Tuesday 29 Jan 2013

Tuesday Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

Key Verse: Ephesians 2:3
3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Devotion:
How many times have you got to the stage where you watch someone doing something and you say (even if it’s only in your mind) “There but for the grace of God go I”? I’m sure we can all relate in some way to that saying because we know that we have been at some stage in our lives where we have gone and done things which we are certainly not proud of, things that we would rather forget about and not have people dig up from our past! But we have to remember that we have done such things in our past and we have now got to the stage where we know that Christ has forgiven us because we have asked Him to!

That grace that God has shown us is so amazing because it goes beyond what we would probably call normal in that we may well set limits as to how much we are willing to forgive others – Christ went all the way and is willing to forgive anything that is brought to Him with a penitent heart. You may be thinking now “what about the unforgivable sin?” The only sin Christ cannot forgive is the sin of unbelief, so if we are willing to believe that He is the Son of God, has gone to that cross for our sakes and has risen from the dead to defeat that death penalty, then we can be forgiven for absolutely anything.

But just because we have that forgiveness from Christ does not mean that we are going to have that same forgiveness from man. We have rules and regulations and we have to abide by those rules so we have to put up with the penalties for breaking those rules unless all of the people who have been affected by our wrong-doing are willing to forgive us totally for what we have done. There-in lies the problem because many people will just not have that level of grace to forgive us for doing what we do.

We are bought by His blood, saved through His grace and live by His mercy. Let us never forget any part of Christ and His ways because without Him we are nothing, have nothing and are bound to eternal death and nothingness. But with Christ we have hope, we have salvation and we have a living truth we can depend on and live by and live with.

Points to Ponder:
How much do you hide in your past?

Do you realise Christ is willing to forgive it all?