“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
~Ephesians 2:4-5
But… yet, nevertheless, nonetheless, even so, however, still, notwithstanding, despite that, in spite of that, for all that, all the same, just the same; though, although.
You see, when standing in the face of God’s over-capacious love which births a treasure trove of mercy, sin loses its power to define us as once again lost and enslaved to its power.
Paul tells us that God is moving toward us in action and to act upon us with the very power in which the Trinity interacts with Itself: Love.
The NASB captures this beautifully, identifying that the word ‘love’ is used twice in the sentence—once as an indicator of God’s character, and the other as the ongoing action— when it translates the Koine Greek ‘…because of His great love with which He loved us…’
This power and action combination became the causation and definition by which later Christians greeted one another with a ‘Holy Kiss.’ Consider this intimacy and invitation for a moment… Giving and receiving. Welcomer and Welcomed.
The Trinity—despite all of our sin and brokenness, notwithstanding all that grieves us and shames us—pursues us and lavishes mercy upon us like a mother, kissing away the tears and the pain of her injured and afraid child, making us alive again nevertheless.
AND… We are reminded that our place as the Beloved of God is now positional as we are no longer under the eternal consequences of our participation in sin. It is not that our sins are no longer recognized as what they were/are/will be. It is that their commission through our participation no longer has the power to impede our present communion with God and our eternal communion with God when our earthly lives pass away.
Sin is still sin. Separation is still not communion. Disobedience is not righteousness. Were they not so, the power of Christ’s work on the Cross and the promise of hope through his resurrection would be meaningless.
Allow me to remind you of what I shared from Ephesians 1:2…
“Grace & Peace are two simple little words that we often move past quickly, thinking we ‘know’ what they mean. I remembered, today, that these are ‘experiential’ words… they can only be ‘known’ when experienced, and they can only be experienced when they come through us experiencing the Trinity.”
The beginning of our ability to experience the Trinity is through our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior. For it is by this grace we have been saved.
Last week, you did some pretty intentional work on your health. You put into and took out things to help you be healthier and to nourish your body, soul, mind, and spirit. Well done!
Hopefully, you have an understanding that doing what is best for yourself for the long and short term will help you to become stronger, but it doesn’t entirely remove the cravings for the old ways. You also need to maintain these changes regularly to improve the benefits.
And you’re going to mess up.
You will go back to the old ways. You will; you are human.
Reexamine your life and its routines from the work that you did last week.
- Where did you make positive advances and changes in your routine?
- Celebrate those moments, and if appropriate, bring someone close to you into the celebration!
- Go to God in prayer and thanksgiving for His work in your life as you align your will to that of the Trinity.
- Where did you fail to gain ground? What temptations still nag you? What burdens do you still bear and find too difficult to set down? Is your heart contrite? If so:
- Go to God in confession and humility.
- Forgive yourself as He has forgiven you in Christ Jesus.
- Contemplate the consequences of staying in the negative behaviors or attitudes, as well as the positive impact of turning away from these earthly things to pursue the Spiritual freedom found in walking in the Spirit of God (see Galatians 5:13-26).
- During your Morning Intentions, consider gratitude to God for the things you struggle with, because they cause you to rely more upon God and less upon your own strength.
- During your Evening Reflections, replay moments in your day when you recall being more determined to succeed under your own power rather than through God's leading.
- Ask God what He wants to teach you through this… By doing so, you will be experiencing just one of the many blessings from the heavenly realms which Paul has announced in Ephesians chapter one.
