Day 36 | 40-Day Lenten Fast & Devotional

He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will,  to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. -Ephesians 1:5-7

Good morning, good morning, grace and peace be unto all of you, my father's children. This is day number 36 of our 40-day Lenten devotional. This is also the Tuesday  leading up to Calvary and Holy Week.  This week we've been focused with the thought and theme of redemption.  And I would love if we could focus our attention for this morning  from the book of Ephesians,  the first chapter. Paul's letter to the church of Ephesus gives us some marching orders as we move forward by faith to realize  who it is that we serve, why we serve him, and basically give some balance to this notion of what redemption looks like. I want to start at verse number five. You find these similar words. “He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace,  which he has freely given us, the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood and forgiveness of sins in accordance with the richness of God's grace.”

Okay, so  basically what Paul does is when he speaks to the church in Ephesus, he explains to them this integral process to how we are grafted into the body of Christ. It's an important notion for us because what we see is he said, were predestined for sonship. In other words, God knew  you  before you knew you, and inside of knowing you, he already set you on a crash collision course to fix what was wrong with you after you were born and shaping an iniquity.

On Sunday, we discussed this place where we come into this life with a place with the weight of sin that happens to hang in the balance of who we are. But the good news is that we have  redemption. We can be–we are redeemed through Christ. Christ already knew that you'd be shaping an iniquity before you got here. And so God sent his son to allow Christ to do this, this act of redemption. And in turn, not only give you an act of redemption, but also he signed your birth certificate. It says here you were adopted as a sonship into the body of Christ. That's good news for us. That's good news because in a time and place, where we are looking to establish identity, especially leading up to Holy Week, it's good news to know that we have been grafted into the body of Christ and ultimately we are redeemed.

Now that makes sense to everybody who recognizes they have places where they needed redemption. And I represent that people. And I think that you do too. That when we miss the mark, that when we fall short, that when we transgress against him, there are still places and points where God allows his redeeming power to not let you be utterly cast down by nature of the sin that besets you. And so as we move forward, what we do is we walk with a sense of confidence. We walk with a sense of understanding. We recognize and embrace our area of redemption, praying that we will be better on tomorrow than we were on yesterday.

So here's my question. Inside of the redemptive power of Christ, what is it today that you ought to be thankful for that you're asking God to not only cover, but also to help you to work through in this season? Redemption only works if you know that you need to be redeemed and that your intention is to move farther away from that which led you to a place of sin. Yeah, redemption. It's good news. It's like a pardon. And within that pardon, the pardon means you were guilty. But God!

Holy week is a reminder that we have a “but God” experience. That we have a “but God” blessing. And because of that, we are not only redeemed, but we are now challenged to testify to the redemption that we were grafted into that Christ gave us.

So on this morning, you should have joy embedded in your heart because God saw you, knew you needed redemption and gave it. He gave it in the form of his son.

So it's Tuesday as we ease towards Calvary Cross. Remember God's redemptive power in your life. God bless you. Good morning.