LENT: Mar 7 - Ephesians 2:8

For it is by grace you have been saved,

through faith; and this is not from ourselves,

it is a gift of God…
Ephesians 2:8

Step one of Lent – and a richer Christian life – is confession. Admitting you’re done wrong.

Step two is repentance. It is admitting that you’ve done wrong, and covenanting to fix it. Indeed, since repentance can be translated as “turning away from sin and turning toward God,” it is covenant to fix our sin with the help of the God which we’ve just turned toward. After all, it’s a life hopeless frustration to try and fix ourselves only on our own power.

The third step is freedom.

•      Justice is getting what you deserve.
•      Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
•      Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

Do you see the distinction?! Grace tells us that it’s not our actions that save us or condemn us. It’s God’s grace that saves.

So who condemns? Us. We often condemn ourselves. We can’t believe that God can forgive us … because sometimes we can’t forgive ourselves.

Often the world condemns us too. Many of us, for example, have grown up in families that do NOT forgive. Rather, every time there’s a fight, the same people drag back out the same old wounds and transgressions from 10-years-ago. Like elephants, some people never forget a wound. They throw every mistake back in our face … again and again and again. It’s no wonder people can’t believe in grace. So often we see so little of it modeled.

But God is gracious. And merciful. And slow to anger. And abounding in steadfast love.

•      And once you’ve brought the vampire of sin and shame out into the light through confession … wounding it mortally.
•      Once you’ve killed it, not by your own power, but with God’s help.
•      Can you, by grace, believe that you’re free? Can you believe, as Psalm 103:12 says, that God “removes our transgressions from us … as far as the east is from the west”?!

In Christ’s Love,

Jesus’ love was costly

so my price tag

can read “Free”