God Saved Us to Bring Us Together
In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:5–10 ESV Read More
Jesus has done a lot for us. The things that Jesus has done are great things, and the Magnitude to which He did them is tremendous.
He has given us redemption through His blood. That means we’ve been purchased, like you redeem a prize or redeem a voucher. He redeemed us, paid for us, to the level of all of our sins being forgiven. That’s a really high cost when you consider how much ONE sin offering would cost under the Old Testament law. Depending on the offense, it would likely be an entire bull for one man’s sin in a day. You can be more overwhelmed by that by reading Leviticus 4.
Christ’s purchase of us covered over all of our sins that we will ever commit. That comes at a high price. It would seem that He would demand a lot from us in return. On the one hand, He demands everything–our complete devotion to Him. On the other hand, when you consider the evil we’ve been called out of to be in Christ, it is glorious grace that He would rescue us.
Not only has He rescued us, but He has also shared and taught us what His will is. We can know what God wants to do generally in the world, and sometimes specifically in a moment of our lives. In the general terms, He had a plan to conform all of us that follow Jesus into the same life as Jesus. He had a plan to renew and remake people into holy beings again after they would fall into sin. That general plan guides us when we don’t know a specific path or choice to make. God is saving the world and will continue to save it.
Specifically speaking, He has put His Holy Spirit in us to bring us into unity with each other in Christ. (There will be more on that later as we get deeper in.) So here we are: purchased by His blood, forgiven by His grace, and empowered with His great purpose to reconcile a fallen world to God. It’s a big deal. It was His joy to make it even bigger by inviting us in on it.
Look for ways that He wants to unite things within His church. He is working in us to work together for the increase of His praise and glory. That is why He saved us.
You can get the Daily Bible Readings to your inbox via email every day by subscribing here. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.