Part 5: I Am Constantly Forgiven
Well, here we are in the fifth week of the tapestry that is hopefully answering the question, “Am I enough?”
We've looked at Chosen Personality, Complete Change, Changeless Love, and Continual Renewal. And all of those, as magnificent as they are, can get sabotaged by one thing: my behavior. My behavior that says, “See, this doesn't work. Why do I continually keep doing this over and over and over again? Why do I act unkind towards my wife? Why do I get exasperated with my kids when I don't want to? At work, why do I power-up on people? Why do I control? All these things that I'm thinking... I thought they should be in the rearview mirror by now.”
And so, while God is doing His beautiful, perfect internal work, it takes time. It doesn't all change overnight. There's family history and all sorts of stuff. And remember He’s working twenty-four hours a day.
God is constantly thinking about you. He's constantly mending, healing, renewing, restoring, bringing life and health.
But there is a thing called the flesh. And there is my history and patterns, and they don't change overnight. You need to know that so you don't feel alone — but you also need to know that the last several threads in the tapestry are constant forgiveness.
I love this verse in Ephesians: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7 (NASB) In Him we have redemption — meaning to be “bought back.” Ongoing, but once and for all, we were bought back from all of the damage of sin, from all of the payment, from all of the buying back from the evil.
It's been done through His blood. He stayed on that cross for you long enough that it was paid for, once and for all. It will never get brought up again.
Never is He going to say, “You know what? I just didn't count on you doing that.” Never. Once and for all the forgiveness of our trespasses. And I love the main thought, “...according to the riches of His grace.”
You may be thinking, “Everything...? Once and for all, for everything?” He’s not saying that those things weren't horrible... He's not saying that we're not going to have to deal with them. He's not saying that there won't be consequences, but He's saying they are forgiven. Completely. As day is from night, as West is from East — they are forgiven.
See, all I want is to feel clean. If I walk around with that constant sense that I'm not clean, I won't feel like enough. And it'll be there in the background. It will be the basis for the unkind conversation. So I come back to Him and say, “God, am I forgiven?” And He shows redemption. He shows the cross, and says, “Kid, it hasn't changed. I did it once and for all for you. And you get the benefit every single time you need it.”
Now, I know what some are going to say to those who believe these five truths we’ve looked at in this series. They're going to say, “You're going to get lazy. You're going to take advantage. This grace stuff... No, you’ve gotta knuckle it down...” And I want to tell you, that's a lie. The people who teach that “You’ve got to make sure you're getting these things fixed. You’ve got to do it.” — it's because they don't believe that you're a brand-new creature.
It's time for us to believe that we are brand-new creatures.
This reality is working through us. And my friend, these things I’ve shared over the last five weeks, you get to teach them to others. You get to give them to your kids. You get to write them and put them on your dresser as a reminder...
Chosen Personality — He wanted you on this planet, at this time and He is delighted with you.
Complete Change — You're a brand-new creature — Christ is IN you.
Changeless Love — He adores you. And there's nothing you can do to make His love go away. And it’s personal, it's not just global.
Continual Renewing — All the time, those behaviors, that confusion that befuddles you, He never stops working on you. Your best you hasn't even been shown yet. Remember that analogy we talked about? The shovel that turns over that perfectly nutrient-enriched soil so that it can get light and air oxygen so it can be used to bear fruit.
Constant Forgiveness — The ability to feel clean because I trust what Jesus did on that cross.
Thank you for riding along with me for this series. I hope the question of “Am I enough?” is answered. My friend, you are enough. God bless you.
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