God Loves You And He Is Not Mad At You!

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14 ESV

 

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14 ESV

 

I have always had a problem with the bumper sticker which reads – “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven…” My problem with it is that often there is a shirking of responsibility “to become Christ-like” in our behavior, behind the bold statement so casually stuck on the back of our car. I am not going to spend anymore time on this…that is for another day.

 

That being said though, there is also great truth within the message – we aren’t expected by God to be perfect, that’s impossible. Only Jesus is perfect and in and through His perfectness, we find our forgiveness! Thank You God! This leads me to the point of this post.

 

First, I find it very cool that verses 13 & 14 in two different chapters speak to the same point. I don’t know what, if anything, that means – it was just cool J.

 

I want to re-write the sticker, place it on the driver side of the window and then write a second one for the passenger side. The first one should read “Christians are delivered, transferred, redeemed and forgiven” The second one should read “I was dead in my sin but GOD, (I love the “but God’s” in the scripture – they are always loaded with some kind of power statement regarding His activity within His creation) made me alive…forgiving my sinfulness and canceling the debt I owed by way of the Cross.”

 

I want to break down each nugget of truth within this text –

§  DELIVERED – to deliver is to 1. free; to release, as from restraint; to deliver one from captivity. 2. to rescue, or save.

§  TRANSFERRED – to transfer is to 1. move somebody or something to a different position or location or from the control of one person or organization to that of another 2. transplant: lift and reset in another soil or situation 3. a changing of ownership

§  REDEEMED – to redeem is to 1. repurchase captured goods or prisoners; the act of procuring the deliverance of persons or things from the possession and power of captors by the payment of an equivalent; ransom; release 2. deliverance from bondage, distress

§  FORGIVEN – to forgive is to pardon; to remit (In pardoning sin, God releases the sinner from the condemnation of the law because of Christ’s work on the cross; His death removes the sinner’s actual liability to eternal wrath on account of it. The sinner is by His grace, freed from the guilt and penalty of his sins.)

§  ALIVE – 1. a state of action; unextinguished; undestroyed; unexpired 2. in a scriptural sense, regenerated; born again

 

If you are a Christian, rejoice and again I say rejoice in what He has given you.

If you are not walking in a sense of forgiveness, if you feel despair, hopelessness – please email me and let me help you… GOD LOVES YOU AND HE IS NOT MAD AT YOU!

Wag