God’s Gift to Us: Part 3 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

Subscribe to the ‘Time With God’ Podcast

Transcript

Good morning.

Here on this Christmas week we are looking at the great theme of God’s love for us. God’s love for us has given us the right to become His children, and that means you move from just trying to do what is right in your life to being in a living relationship with God. It’s very different to live a certain way just because you know it’s right.

And to live a certain way because you love someone and want to please them, so different, isn’t it? And everything about life changes when the focus of your life becomes your relationship with the Lord.

Our time with God is the foundation of that relationship.

We’re looking at Colossians chapter 2. Colossians is Paul’s great masterpiece of Christ, his portrait of Jesus Christ in chapter 2, verses 13 and 14.

Paul says, and when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross.

Jesus went to the cross, as someone has said, He paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. That’s right. He cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us.

God’s record of the wrongs in our life. God is the judge of this universe. He will bring every person to account for the way they have lived their life, and that record of wrongs stands against us, holds us away from God, condemns us. You may feel that condemnation even in your heart.

Your conscience is like God’s law written in your heart that condemns you when you do things that are wrong, but the beauty of God’s gift to you is that even when you had no hope at all, when you were dead in your transgressions, He made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our transgressions and cancelled out that certificate of debt.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

Consisting of decrees against us – forgiven Christianity – in one word, you might think of love, you might think of grace, but wouldn’t one of the greatest words you might choose be forgiveness, forgiveness, undeserved forgiveness from God to you.

Without that, you have no hope in life, no meaning beyond just yourself, but with forgiveness – your life is clean on the inside. It has meaning. It has purpose. It has God’s approval in it, not because you deserve it, but because Jesus Christ gave it when He gave Himself on the cross for you.

Why don’t you take a little time right now and just stop and thank God for this amazing gift of forgiveness in your life.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

Feature image: CanvaPro