Every Spiritual Blessing: Part 2-2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

Have you ever lived in the company or worked in the company of someone for whom you could never please them, you could never do anything right? It's oppressive, isn't it? And yet how many of us know God that way? Christian understands something. You are forgiven.

Know that. Against the dark backdrop of humanity's brokenness, God's great love shines vividly bright. In this message titled Every Spiritual Blessing Part 2, Pastor Rich talks about the history of Christ's redemptive work and all that we have gained through His lavish grace.

Because you don't have to live constantly under the shadow of the judgment of God who every time you step out of line, He's going to put you under His thumb. That's not the God of the Bible. Let's continue listening to this message on Ephesians 1, 7 through 9. When the Scriptures say through His blood, this speaks of a transaction. It is the transaction of the cross. The cross is the standard Christian symbol, isn't it? But remember this, the cross was a brutal form of Roman execution.

And it was designed for maximum shame and maximum pain. Jesus was nailed to a cross. And whenever anyone would read the phrase like through His blood, the idea that blood is shed, it's the understanding of sacrifice, of the forfeiture of life, where someone gives their life or their life is taken from them. But through His blood, the forfeiture of life happened as Jesus was nailed to the cross and He cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The infinite holy God of the universe abandoned His perfect Son.

What is that? Jesus Christ took on Himself all of our sin and the full blow of God's necessary holy wrath in your place and mine. That's the word propitiation.

Probably all of us read it, probably maybe a third of us knew what that word means. Propitiation means Jesus took the full blow of God's wrath on Himself in your place. Redemption through His blood. It is a high cost of our release and our freedom.

We must never forget how high that cost is. And the transaction is described by the same author in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, for He, God, has made Him Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us. There's the transaction on the cross. All of your sin and mine was laid on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. And then He cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because that's what our sin deserves, alienation from God. That's the wrath of God. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

You see that? As the prophet Isaiah says that He has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Listen, the cross of Jesus Christ was a collision of the holiness and the love of God. The holiness because God is absolutely holy and He necessarily must judge sin and that sin runs right through the middle of your heart and mine. And yet the cross was a collision of His holiness and His love.

And so what does He do? He puts His Son on the cross and pours on Him the just do of God's holiness and He does it in your place. See the love of God, people. That's the gospel. And He did that so that His righteousness can be made available to us because our sin has been dealt with.

That is why when Jesus was on the cross, He uttered three very meaningful words. It is finished, done, paid in full. Paul continues here, another phrase for this is the forgiveness of sins and he continues with the theme of letting go because forgiveness means to let go, the dismissal of something. Something is released from something. Released from what? Released from the demand for payment. In ancient days, they would have debtors prisoned. If someone could not pay a debt, money that he had borrowed, he would be taken to prison and he would stay there until that debt was paid off.

And then when the debt was paid, then he could be released. But here, the debt has been paid for and we are released from the payment of that debt. And that debt is to the righteous requirement of a holy God as one who is perfect. The forgiveness of sins, it is something that every human heart at the very core of your being longs for that forgiveness because you know that you have imperfections.

And how much of our time and energy and resource is spent covering up imperfections just hoping that people don't find out what I've really done or what I'm really like. But in Christ, we have forgiveness. We have redemption. We've been released. We've been set free.

I want you to notice something too. It says the forgiveness of sins. If it were sin, singular, it would probably be the word hamartia, but it's not. It says the forgiveness of sins, which is a word that means trespasses, plural. Now what does that mean? That means that we are released from sin, past, present, and future.

Christians in Christ, you are justified before holy God. You are accepted by Him. And listen to me, nothing changes that. You can't earn His love.

There's nothing you can do to make Him love you more or less. And yes, today we talked about this some in our care group Sunday school discussion. Do we still sin? Yes, because you're walking with God. You've been reconciled to God. You're justified Him and you can walk with God and enjoy Him. But you know what? Sometimes we still see things that glitter and we drift away from Him and we stumble. Did you know that's forgiven?

Did you know it? Have you ever lived in the company or worked in the company of someone for whom you could never please them? You could never do anything right?

It's oppressive, isn't it? And yet how many of us know God that way? Christians understand something. You are forgiven. You have been released past, present, and future. Know that.

Know that. Because you don't have to live constantly under the shadow of the judgment of God who every time you step out of line, He's going to put you under His thumb. That's not the God of the Bible. You have been forgiven.

You have been released. You are free to walk with Him, to learn from Him, to enjoy Him. The verses treading in fear are slipping up and getting judged. You see redemption and forgiveness are our present possessions. Psalm 103 12. Let's read this together.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. You need to know that. You need to memorize that and meditate upon that. How is this possible?

What is this? This grace that God has lavished on us. And now in the next couple of verses, the apostle Paul is once again going to focus on the profusion of God's grace. He says, according to the riches of His grace, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. That is the wealth, the abundance of His kindness and favor.

Titus 3 4. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, according to His mercy He saved us. The kindness and love of God appeared.

He's acting according to His character. And this means He paid a debt. It was my debt. It was your debt.

He did not owe this debt, but it was a debt that you and I could never pay. And He did so according to the riches of His grace. Now what he says next here is very interesting. Verse 8, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. What does this mean? Rich Powell translation, He lavished grace on us. This word to abound, it means to provide in abundance. God has poured out on us oversized grace, knowing that we had a debt that we could never pay. That we are unrighteous to the core, every one of us. And we in that unrighteousness experience an unquenchable thirst. And we so desperately need the grace of God. And we would think that God in His kindness, as it talks about His kindness in the word of God.

And this is something that the Apostle Paul wants to clear up once and for all. We would think that in that debt, in that unrighteousness, in that unquenchable thirst that in God's kindness, He would give us a small trickle of water to bring relief. And this is the grace of God. You would think of Luke chapter 16, where it speaks of the man who fared sumptuously every day and then he died. And then Lazarus the beggar died and he went to the bosom of Abraham and the man who fared sumptuously every day was living for himself. And then he died and then he was in torment in this unquenchable thirst.

And he says to Abraham, please dip your finger in water and just put a dab of water on my tongue so that I can get some relief. And we think maybe that's how the grace of God is for us. But no, God doesn't give us a trickle of water. He lavishes grace on us. Listen, we have been overwhelmed by His favor and His goodness. Do you see the profusion here? Paul is gushing forth in praise and doxology because God has gushed forth upon us in extravagance. This is what he says in Romans 5 20, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, lead pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Visit our church website to see upcoming events or to listen to more messages at GBC Winston dot com to discover how to live by grace. Tune in with us on weekdays at 10 a.m..