Oct 11
8:42 AM
God's Love Adopts Us into His Family
Oct 11
8:42 AM
Oct 11
8:42 AM
Monday, October 11, 2021
Ephesians 1:4-5
This week, I want to talk to you about God's love. Recently, in my quiet time, I was going through the book of Ephesians. God really impressed upon me the word "love" as I was reading Ephesians. The word love, or variations of it, such as loved, or loves, appears 23 times in the book of Ephesians. And 10 of those times talk about God's love for us. The remaining 13 times talk about how we should go about and love others. This really captured my attention. So today, I really want to write about the importance of knowing and understanding God's love for us, and how when we understand that, and we have that in our lives, how it actually transforms us. This is important because if you have a wrong view of God's love, it will cause you to 1) have a poor theology, and 2) to act in a manner that is unloving towards others.
I want to start in Ephesians 1:4-5, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption, to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and his will." So the point is that God loves you so much. Maybe you've never heard that before, maybe you've heard it a lot, but the truth doesn't change. God loves you so much. He loves you so much that he chose you. He chose you before the creation of the world. He chose you before time began. He chose you to be adopted into his family. He did this through Jesus Christ, who took your place and my place on the cross. He paid the price for our sins with his blood, making us holy and blameless, setting you apart for his purposes, his pleasure, and his will.
And here's the thing. God's love is rooted in grace. What is grace? When I was a new Christian, somebody told me an acronym that I've never forgotten. Grace stands for this: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. We get to experience all the riches of God's glory and his grace at the expense of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the one that paid the price on the cross for our sins. So, we get the benefit of what Jesus did on the cross, and God gives us this grace freely, we see this in verses six and seven. He gives us grace freely - you can't buy it, you can't earn it, you can't steal it. It's a gift from God. And we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Redeemed means we were bought at a price. Jesus paid the price in full on the cross for us. When we are in him, when we are in Christ, when we believe and we receive this gift, we are forgiven of our sins in accordance with the riches of His glory and his grace. Paul tells us that God's grace has been lavished upon us. I love that word "lavish" because it means it has been richly poured out on us or, or it's been showered upon us. Imagine just standing in the shower, and God's grace showering down on you. So, when you understand this, when you understand how much God loves you, that begins to change everything. That's what we're going to talk about the rest of this week. So let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for your grace. I want to thank you for your love, that you chose us to be adopted into your family. You loved us so much that you chose us before time began. And you've given us a purpose, and you've given us grace, you've given us forgiveness, you've redeemed us. Father, for all these things that we see in Ephesians chapter one, thank you, Lord. And thank you for changing us from the inside out, as we'll see the rest of this week. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.