13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Many of you are aware of my love for alliteration. The English translation of this verse gives us a great example: We are delivered from the domain of darkness. God has, in Christ, set us free from the dungeon of sin, where we were hopeless captives. In like manner, we are redeemed - bought back from slavery to sin. We are forgiven. We were in sin's debtor prison, unable to pay to price to get out. The Bible is a book of God setting people free. So, how should we respond to that. There are plenty of warnings how NOT to respond: the people of Israel wanted to run back to their slavery in Egypt; the people in Judges kept falling back into the same old patterns of faithlessness after God had delivered them from their pagan neighbors; the demons driven out of the house wanted to come back in after the house was cleansed, settling in stronger. Paul's point is this: our forgiveness, our salvation, our redemption is so great, we never want to go back there - not for a second. May we spend time today rejoicing in and reinforcing this great salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment