Forgiveness of Sins


For the season of Lent I'll be sharing devotions from Grace Lutheran's devotional book: "Forgiven." 

While these devotions are not my words and may not represent my own faith or theological understanding, they are valuable personal faith perspectives of 40 of Grace's members and I am so grateful for their generosity in sharing them.

Part One: Forgiveness & Wholeness

Ephesians 1:3-9 (forgiveness of sins)

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ.

 In researching this passage of the Bible, I found myself struggling for a good way to verbalize the very major point that Paul was making in his letter to the Ephesians. God had planned well in advance to send his son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. God did not decide who would believe and who would disobey - but he DID determine that those who believe would be saved. The grace of God is freely given to us and our sins are forgiven. How could we not take advantage of such a gift?

 Prayer: Dear Lord, Thank you for sending your son Jesus to us. Help us to forgive each other and live our lives as a reflection of your love towards us.
Amen

 ~ Anne

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