Safe in His Forgiving Love
Safe in His Forgiving Love 12/2023
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 - to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Galatians 4:4, 5).
Kent Clifford, a Kentucky clergyman, sent his parents the Cadillac of microwaves for Christmas - a new Panasonic with cyclonic wave converter technology. Here’s how he recalled their reception of his gift:
“They were jazzed that now they, too, could be a part of the instant generation. When dad plugged it in, literally in seconds, the microwave transformed two smiles into frowns. After five readings of the directions, they couldn’t make it work. Two days later, my mom was playing bridge with a friend and confessed her inability to get that microwave even to boil water “such a complicated machine it is and I really don't need better directions; I just needed my son to come along with the gift!’”
When God gave the gift of salvation that first cold Christmas, he didn't send a booklet of complicated instructions for us to figure out; he sent his Son - simply the greatest and most precious Christmas gift you will ever receive. Why is that true?
ONE REASON IS - YOU ARE SAFE IN HIS FORGIVING LOVE IN HIM. The greatest threat in any of our lives is our own sin because every sin deserves God’s wrath. The God we offended - the God we rebelled against - shielded us from his fully righteous punishment when he crushed his Son on the cross (Isaiah 53:6, 10). You see, the law says, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That is the just justice of a holy God. As people who do lie, cheat, hate, envy, and sin in so many ways we rightly deserved to die an eternal death apart from a holy God.
But at just the right time God sent his Son Jesus - infinite and infant at the same time. Under the law as one of us Jesus too would be guilty of eternal punishment from God the Father had he sinned. But he knew no sin. After he walked innocent among us as our next-door Savior for some 33 years Jesus “redeemed” us by dying in our place and crediting his sinless life to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). We don’t have to wonder whether we’re good enough. We’re not. But Christ is. And being found in him now by faith in him as our Savior, we are counted as forgiven and righteous in him before our Heavenly Father - listen to this - forever!
Not long before she died Marghanita Laski, a well-known secular humanist, told an interviewer: “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.” You and I do, my friend, anyone does, by God-given faith in Jesus as their Savior from sin. Thank you, God the Father, for keeping Christmas simple in sending your Son that we might be forever safe in your forgiving love.
Wishing you a Christ-filled Christmas,
Pastor Tim (1-210-837-3934)
Abiding Savior Lutheran Church 458 Turkey Trot Rd. Killeen, TX 76542