Today we will continue our mini-study in Ephesians 1 and pick it up at verse 7.
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”
This verse continues the thought of the previous verses. Because of the grace of God that has been lavished on us we have redemption and forgiveness. Think for a minute on the definition of word “lavish.”
“To give or apply with abundance” (Dictionary.com)
When I think of a word picture for lavish, I think of an ice cream sundae that has hot fudge and whip cream oozing over the rim of the dish and down my arm. There is so much of it that I cannot contain it, nor can I keep up with eating it. It is out of control and beyond my ability to deal with it. Applying this to the grace of God, I think that God’s grace is so abundant, so plentiful that I am immersed in it; there is so much of it that everywhere I turn grace is there. And it is not cheap or flimsy grace either; it is full and rich, complete and costly. The grace bestowed on us had a price affixed to it- the blood of Jesus Christ.
Redemption, forgiveness and grace are inseparable. You may already know that our redemption was accomplished by Christ’s death on the cross, but what does that mean? We were prisoners of sin (Isaiah 61:1) and incapable of freeing ourselves. We had no acceptable ransom and our debt was far too great for us to ever repay. In addition, nothing we brought to God would ever be acceptable (Isaiah 64:6) to Him. They would be works of sinful people and inherently unacceptable to God.
God required a perfect sacrifice (1 Peter 1:18, 19). Not one of gold or silver or other created things or of personal “good” works (Romans 11:6) because nothing we could ever bring to God would be enough to make us holy. The only acceptable sacrifice was a perfect, unblemished, sinless sacrifice. No human could fit that description, nor could anything created because all the world is under the curse (Gen 3:14ff, Romans 8:20, 21). Jesus Christ is our perfect sacrifice (John 1:29). “…with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:19. He is the only one who can save us from our sin.
This Easter week, think hard on who Jesus is to you. Is He your Lord and Savior?