Canceled Record of Sins
When you read Colossians 2:13-14 it may not hit you right away. It may take a couple of reads as it did me. It reads "...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." The point is for people to understand that through Christ, our sins are forgiven if we accept him through God's grace. You do not have to carry the burden of your sins around with you for the rest of your life. Imagine a judge telling a criminal who is repentant that he doe snot have to pay the penalty or fine or serve a jail term for his criminal activity. That's huge. And even more important than that is our forgiveness through accepting Christ so we do not have to pay the penalty of our sins (separation from God).
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Saved By Grace Through Faith
You can take credit all you want for your being saved. You can say that you kept the commandments. You can say that God favors you over others. you can say that your sins aren't that bad. But, ultimately, you're wrong. It is not your works that led you to be saved. Yes, it is up to you to accept the grace given by God through the blood shed, death and resurrection of Christ, but it was God's grace that even allowed that to happen. If someone gives you a gift, not a reward, you cannot take credit for that gift. A reward is something you earn for doing something. A gift is freely given. That is what Paul tells us here in Ephesians 2:8-9. Paul says "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." You cannot brag about your being saved. Give glory to God.
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Redemption
Let us not forget, not matter how bad we think we are or how far apart from God we feel, that we can be redeemed to God. How does that happen? In Ephesians 1:7 the redemption is through Christ's blood. Christ shed his blood and became the sacrifice for our sins. When we accept Christ, our sins are forgiven because of God's grace. We don't have to be perfect, we just need to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.
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Dead to Sin, Alive to God
I know that my sins are forgiven, but there are time where since I know that I "take advantage" of that and take for granted the forgiveness. That has to be put in check through the Holy Spirit. I have to do what is honoring to God because why would I want to do Him wrong? I love God, so to continue sinning and living a lifestyle of sin would be doing god's forgiveness an injustice. You don't cheat on your wife because she loves you and "let's you." If you love someone you treat them with respect and do things that honor them and your relationship with them. That is how we need to look at our relationship with God (Romans 6:1-4).
When Jesus died for our sins, our sinful ways were supposed to go with him, not give us the open door to keep sinning since we are forgiven anyway. But that is how we tend to think. We are humans and not always as loving to God as He would like. No one always gets it right, but when we focus on doing what God would want then that helps us stay connected to His will.I was reading Proverbs 1 with a friend earlier and stopped at Proverbs 1:10 and found myself giving a testimony as to how that verse led me further away from my former life and the friends I had when i was 18 years old/19 years old. We have to die to our old ways of sin even if the world says it is okay. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that God wants you to do it (Romans 6:5-14).
We must become slaves to righteousness. God's will should take the number one spot in your life. If that spot was held before by reality TV, social media and other things that we feel we cannot do with out, let what God wants be the new way of thinking. Just like the picture above, let the old you die and let the new you live in Christ (Romans 6:15-23).
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Saved by Faith
We know the story of the sinful woman who humbled herself and wash Jesus's feet with her tears and anointed his head with oil (read Luke 7:36-50). But, did you see the parable and the lesson Jesus taught to Simon while also correcting the thinking of the Pharisees?
The Pharisees were on their self-righteous pedestal again and were condemning Jesus for letting a sinful woman touch him. She was showing her humility by serving Jesus and the Pharisees took an action and applied their own meaning to it. In them doing this, Jesus began telling Simon (a different one than the disciples) a parable of a moneylender and two debtors. One debtor owed more than the other, but both had their debts forgiven by the moneylender. The debtor who owed more (10 times more) was far more thankful for being free of his debt.
Jesus explains the parable by turning away from the woman and exposes Simon the Pharisee's disbelief that Jesus could forgive sins and that he was actually a prophet. Simon thought (in verse 39) that if Jesus were truly a prophet he would see how sinful the woman was that was touching his feet. Simon did none of the things that the woman did and they were in Simon's house. He saw her humility and said "he who is forgiven little, loves little." I understand that to mean when you are in debt a great deal (imagine $500,000) and that debt is forgiven, then you are more likely to be appreciative of the forgiveness of that debt than if it was just $5.
With our sins we must see that Christ can forgive us. He has the power and the ability. But, we must have the faith like this woman who knew she had done wrong and wanted to be forgiven. Jesus tells her in verse 50 that her faith has saved her and for her to "go in peace." When we have been forgiven, there is a whole lot more peace in life. Go seek Christ for forgiveness.
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