"Looking Up" by Pastor Kring
Bethesda
Baptist Church
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    LOOKING UP
    “Your Sins are Forgiven!”
    There are things that money can’t buy. Forgiveness of sins is one of them.
    Ephesians 1:7 states, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the
    forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
    Let’s take a few moments to look at this verse together. It is very helpful in
    explaining how God forgives sins.
    We see, first of all, that you don’t have to be rich to have your sins forgiven,
    because forgiveness is “according to the riches of His grace”. Forgiveness is a
    gift that flows not out of your riches, but out of God’s riches.
    I don’t remember where I heard it, but some poor soul was quite concerned
    about the focus religion had on money. His complaint was, “High money, high
    mass, low money, low mass, no money, no mass!” It is certainly a sad
    commentary on the state of the professing church in our day when people
    view it as always after their money. If you think that God dispenses His
    blessings based on how much you give to the church, then, my friend, you
    are sadly mistaken. When Jesus was here on earth, He was poor and it was
    said that “the poor heard Him gladly”.
    Forgiveness is also according to the riches of God’s “grace”. Grace refers to
    the unmerited kindness of God to undeserving sinners. If you feel that you
    don’t deserve to have your sins forgiven by God, then don’t despair.
    Forgiveness is grounded in God’s grace, not in your deserving it.
    It doesn’t matter what kind of sins you have committed and how many. God’s
    grace is so free and so lavish that He is willing to forgive even the chief of
    sinners. That’s what Paul called himself. He even said that he regarded
    himself as a pattern for other sinners who would later on believe, so that
    they might not think that they were beyond hope.
    Also, God cannot offer forgiveness of sins to anyone unless the penalty for
    sin has been fully paid and God’s justice is fully satisfied. This payment of a
    price is called “redemption”. Do you notice our text? Ephesians 1:7 grounds
    the forgiveness of sins in “redemption through His blood”. In other words,
    Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ paid the price necessary so that
    God could now freely offer forgiveness to every sinner who comes to Jesus
    Christ.
    Forgiveness is free to the sinner, but costly for the Lord Jesus Christ. He
    already paid the price in full. On the cross He cried out, “It is finished”.
    My friend, forgiveness is not for everyone. It is not for the sinner who wants
    to continue to ignore God and His holy laws. It is not for the sinner who
    thinks that they are better than the average person around them. It is not
    for the sinner who doesn’t believe that the Bible is God’s Word.
    But for the person who wants to be right with God and knows that they are a
    poor, needy sinner, free forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ is definitely
    good news!
    (Feel free to contact Pastor Kring with any
    questions or comments - phone 519-582-1452 or e-mail sckring@nor-del.com