“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family, by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure!”
[Ephesians 1:5]
It gave Him “great pleasure.” Do you know what that means? The Father, your Father – the Papa of the family that you have been adopted into – He is happy! Why is He happy? Because He has YOU! You were His plan from the very beginning. Redemption and adoption have been in the mind of God since Day One. You didn’t have to behave your way into His plan. You didn’t have to perform your way into His family. You didn’t have to prove your way into adoption. No, it was His plan. And it’s been His unchanging plan! The plan to unite Himself with you in Christ Jesus wasn’t secured because of your good behavior. And it can’t be reversed because of your bad behavior! That’s the whole point – you can’t behave your way in or out of adoption!
Your absolute deliverance from Sin, and your complete and total reconciliation to God1 – it was all His idea! And He just went right ahead and did it! Through Jesus Christ, on the Cross. And the most outrageous thing about it all? He did it “while we were still sinners! 2” This redemption is unconditional! It can’t be earned, paid for, or worked into3. There is only one option when it comes to the Good News of Jesus. You must tip back your head, open wide your heart, and drink it down! Every last drop! Until you are so inebriated on your perfect and unbroken union with God4 that you open your eyes to see that you are a brand new creation – a new person altogether – living in a new world5! In fact, the old has not just been overshadowed; no, it’s been completely destroyed – crucified with Christ on His Cross. And now you are enjoying a brand new existence6!
Friends!! Drink deep of this glorious, mysterious Gospel!
One sip and you will never thirst again7!!
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1 Colossians 1:19-20
“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” [NASB]
2 Romans 5:8
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” [NIV]
3 Ephesians 2:8-9
“Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” [NLT]
“God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God. It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it” [GW]
4 Romans 6:11
“Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.” [AMP]
5 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” [ESV]
“Anyone who is in Christ has become a new person altogether.” [JB Phillips]
“So if any man is in Christ, he is in a new world.” [BBE]
6 Galatians 2:20
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” [NLT]
“I have been put to death on the cross with Christ … no longer I, but Christ is living in me.” [BBE]
7 John 4:14
“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” [NASB]