Ephesians 1:7 - Forgiven According to the Riches of His Grace

Ibelieve what we're talking about today is one of the most important things wecan talk about in the Bible and especially in the New Testament, and that is theforgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins, and knowing that we'reforgiven. Yesterday we started looking at Ephesians 1:7, and there it tells usthat “in Him we have redemption through His blood”. We explained thatyesterday. Redemption through the blood. How His blood has redeemed us, has setus free from our sin, has paid the ransom price to a holy God so that we do nothave to stand guilty before Him. And then next He says, "And theforgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace."  Oneof the greatest feelings I have ever had emotionally, mentally, spiritually, inany way, humanly speaking, was the day that I knew I was forgiven for my sins.February 21st, 1971. God didn't hold my sins against me any longer. The guiltwas gone. The darkness was gone, and the burden was lifted. In the NewTestament, the forgiveness of sins is the central theme of the gospel message. Itemphasizes God's mercy and His grace through Jesus Christ. It addresses thefact that man is a sinner. That man is a fallen creature. Man is separated fromGod. Man is alienated from God. We're separated from God by our sin. And “thewages of sin is death”. The payment for sin is death. But my friend, “thegift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  Goddoesn't forgive us because He loves us. Many people have that mistaken idea,but that's not true. God forgives us because He sent His Son to die in ourplace for our sin. Jesus took the penalty for our sin. He took the guilt. Hetook the shame. He took all of it, the death of our sin upon Himself and diedin our place in a substitutionary way. Our sin was imputed to Him and Hisrighteousness has been imputed to us, and therefore being justified by faith wehave peace with God (Romans 5:1). The word justified means now we have a rightstanding before a holy God. We're no longer guilty before a holy God.  Theonly way to be forgiven is to first recognize that you need to be forgiven.That you find yourself under the weight and guilt of your sin and you have noway to deal with that. Going to church, living a good life, doing good deeds,doing anything you're trying to do to remove your sin. The sacraments,religion, nothing can remove your sin. No priest, no man on earth can removeyour sin, my friend. Only one person can, and that is Jesus Christ through thedeath, His death on the cross of Calvary. And when we acknowledge that, then wecan cry out to God for forgiveness in repentance of our sins. Atthat point, we express our faith and trust in what Jesus did for us on thecross. And that's when the moment of salvation takes place and we are forgiven becausewe have a Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no other way (Acts 4:12). Oh, nogreater experience than to be forgiven. And that's the love God has for us(John 3:16). He sent His Son to die for us. Love is expressed in the fact thatHe does forgive us through His mercy and the grace of Jesus Christ on the cross. That'swhy when we forgive those who trespass against us those who hurt us we areexpressing not our love because our love is pretty faulty at best, but we'reexpressing God's love because God is love and God only can forgive sin and myfriend you have experienced that, it's then for Christ's sake that you canforgive others, not that they deserve it any more than we deserved it.  Well,this is a great truth. We have the forgiveness of sin according to the richesof His grace. Have you been forgiven? I trust you have.  Godbless!