Tuesday, April 21, 2020 – Ephesians 1:7-12

Blinded and Redeemed

Scripture: Ephesians 1:7-12

“⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. ¹¹ In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” – Ephesians 1:7-12 (New International Version)

There’s a lot of flowery language in this passage, but we need to understand that the Apostle Paul is talking about the culminating event of the Bible – Jesus dying in our place for our sins, rising again, and triumphing over sin and death. This is talking about what God had to do to bring us into the reality of His sending His Son as a sacrifice to save us from our sins. God had to redeem us. Redemption means “to buy back.” It was an old slavery word where you would literally buy back a slave from the auction block. They would literally be bought back, taken out of slavery, and given freedom and a better life.

This is what God did for us, and it’s what God did for the Apostle Paul before he became the Apostle Paul. His name was Saul and he was a religious nut job who thought that it was a good idea to kill Christians. In fact, in Acts 9:1, we see that Saul was breathing out murderous threats against Christians. One day, as he was en route to elevate the threats into action by killing more Christians, God got a hold of him in a powerful way, knocking him off of his donkey and blinding him for three days. In this process, God revealed Himself to Saul and he became the Apostle Paul, a man with a new mission in life – a mission that was the complete opposite of his prior mission.

Prayer:

Thank you, God, for saving me from the slippery slope that was my life of sin. Lord, you know that I was headed down a path that kept getting darker and darker, but you showed up, lit up my life, and changed my direction. Now, Lord, my journey only leads toward you. Please help me to always keep my eyes on you and help me to not stray from your path. I love you, Lord. Thank you for changing my life!

In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.