“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7
When I believed in Christ, I received “the forgiveness of sins” (cf. Acts 10:43). I want you to think about this for a moment. When Christ died for our sins, how many of them were still future? (Pause). All of them! When Jesus died for us nearly 2,000 years ago, we were not even born yet. So all of our sins in His mind were still future. At the cross, God took every sin that you or I would ever commit and placed them all on Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus paid the penalty for all of our sins so we could be totally forgiven the moment we believed in Christ (Colossians 2:13). Forgiveness means God has removed the barrier of all our sins so we can now enjoy closeness with God.
On what basis did God forgive all our sins? The Bible says, His forgiveness was “according to the riches of His grace.” God’s “grace” refers to His undeserved kindness. The word “riches” (ploutos) refers to an abundance or wealth of grace. We can never exhaust God supply of grace towards us. None of us deserve to be forgiven by God. God did this on the basis of His grace towards us, not our goodness or religious efforts. Since His forgiveness is based on His grace, we can stop punishing ourselves or trying to earn His forgiveness when we do sin.
I can remember when I was a young Christian really struggling with guilt and shame after I sinned. I would try to pray more and read my Bible more, thinking I could some how earn God’s forgiveness. But this kind of response is insulting to God. It’s like I was saying to Jesus, “Your death on the cross was not enough to pay the full penalty for my sins. I need to help You pay for all of my sins.” As I grew in my knowledge and application of God’s Word, I began to realize that Jesus paid it all for me! There was nothing more for me to do but accept or believe His full payment for all my sins.
What this means is that we can never lose our relationship with our heavenly Father. Just as we are born into our earthly families and can never cease to be our parents’ child no matter what we do, so too, when we are born into God’s family, we can never cease to be His child no matter how we live. We can sin as God’s child without ever ceasing to be His child. But our sin will break that closeness with God just as disobeying our parents breaks our closeness with them. Thanks be to Jesus Christ that that closeness to God can be restored on the basis of our own confession of sin (I John 1:9) and the realization that Christ has paid in full the penalty for that sin which otherwise would condemn us (John 19:30).
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You so much for paying the full price for all of my sins when You died in my place on the cross so I can enjoy complete and total forgiveness for all of my sins! Because my forgiveness in Christ is complete, I no longer need to work to earn Your forgiveness. I can now rest in Your finished work on the cross to have peace with God forever! This truth is life changing for me! I now want to live for You as a way of saying, “Thank You for my total forgiveness!” In Jesus’ name. Amen.