The Riches of God’s Grace
“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.” Ephesians 1:7-8a
One thing that I never want to grow apathetic towards as a Christian is the reality of what Jesus’s death on the cross means for me and for others.
Ephesians 1:7 tells us that in Jesus “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” It is only through Jesus that we have redemption. We can’t get it anywhere else; we can’t earn it for ourselves.
This redemption and forgiveness comes to us from “the riches of God’s grace”. God is so abundantly kind and loving that He sent His son to earth, to live out a human existence, to understand us fully, and to die on the cross so that our sin (every bad thing all of us would ever think, say, or do) would be fully taken care of once and for all. Christ’s death reconciled us to God, giving us a new identity, a loving Father, and a new way of living.
God lavishes this grace on us. To lavish means “to bestow something in generous or extravagant qualities upon,” and when I think of this idea, I can’t help but picture God the Father smiling the biggest smile at us, pouring bucket after bucket of love into our lap. He can’t help but spoil His kids with His great love! Our only job is to accept it.
1 John 3:1 declares, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
When we take the time to meditate on these verses, I hope our hearts soften at the great love of God that is readily available for you and for me. I hope we breathe a deep sigh of relief at the grace God has waiting for us. I hope it makes our hearts burn with a desire to love God back and to live out our days and beloved children of a good Father. How great is His love, and how great is it to belong to Him.