“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 1:3
March 23, 2023
Imagine discovering that upon opening a bank account you already have an unlimited amount of financial resources on deposit. This is exactly what you have when you come into union with Jesus Christ the moment you are born again. Except they are riches of another kind. They are not experienced, not progressive, not related to human merit, eternal in character, known only by revelation, wrought by God alone, and not wrought by man (thanks for such a reminder to theologian Lewis Sherry Chafer, former President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary). Chafer mentions thirty-three of these riches in Christ. For starters, we are redeemed (Eph. 1:7). The price was paid for our freedom from sin and now we are free to serve Christ. We can praise God that we have been emancipated, freed from the slavery of sin. Does some addiction have a choke hold on you? You have redemption in your account. Cash in on it and enjoy the release from the control of some pleasure that is harming you. Is it a chemical, sex outside of God’s moral bounds for you, or a temper that keeps you in trouble with relationships? Imagine being on a slave block, owned by someone else. Chattel slavery is what it is called. This is the way the word “redemption” was used in the world of slavery in the first century. So we were in the slave market of sin, but the price has been paid for our freedom. Thank the Lord and live the free-born life.
H
“Thank you, Lord of my salvation, for paying the price for releasing me from the penalty of sin and sin’s enslavement. I want to be mastered only by Christ.”