SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/20/2017
8:34 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Complete
Forgiveness
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
2:13-14
Message
of the verses: “13 When you were
dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you
alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having
canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was
hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the
cross.”
After the story that we talked about
in our last SD on this subject we have to begin to look at this very important
subject of complete forgiveness for without complete forgiveness we have no
forgiveness at all, and that would be tragic.
We spent three Spiritual Diaries
looking at complete salvation and now what we are looking at in this section,
complete forgiveness is similar. In complete salvation we saw that no religious
ritual is necessary in order to be saved, in fact trying to do that will be a hindrance
to becoming a believer. Again we want to look at Ephesians 2:8-9 “8 For by
grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not
of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9 not
as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Remember that one of the attributes of God is He is jealous, He does not
want anyone to share in His glory and so if there would be one person who got
to heaven by doing something to earn their salvation it would take glory from
God. Now as far as complete forgiveness
Paul is emphasizing that forgiveness is complete apart from any human work, as
I said these are similar. MacArthur
writes “Forgiveness is perhaps the most exciting and comforting doctrine in all
of Scripture, because it is what guilty sinners need to be made right with God.” Think about the story I shared yesterday of
the lady who had a guilty conscience, but had no way to care for it until she
learned that Jesus paid it all on her behalf, and this brought unbelievable
comfort to her soul.
The Colossians were like all other
people as we are all “dead in our transgressions.” Now this, of course this speaks of before
they were saved. “And you were dead in your
trespasses and sins,” writes Paul to the Ephesians, again speaking of them
before they came to Christ. Unbelievers
all exist in the sphere or in the realm of spiritual death, and this is because
of the sin nature that we inherited from Adam which he got when he sinned. I
have mentioned the little story of a pastor I knew who asked an undertaker
friend of ours what would happen if he asked a corpse what kind of tie he
wanted to wear for his funeral. He is
dead and so are all unbelievers as they are unable to respond to God because
they are in sins grasp. They cannot
understand the truth found in the Scriptures as it is like trying to read and
understand someone else’s letters that they have no idea what they mean. MacArthur writes that “Those who are
spiritually dead are dominated by the world, the flesh, and Satan and possess
no spiritual, eternal life.”
If you do not know Jesus Christ as
personal savior then think about the truth that we are talking about here as
far as not being able to understand the Scriptures, and believing that the only
way that this will ever happen is if the Holy Spirit of God opens your eyes,
gives new life to you as He through Jesus Christ gives you the understanding to
see your sin, repent and come to Christ for complete salvation, and complete
forgiveness.
3/20/2017
8:57 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment