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I want to welcome you to day 3 of our look through Ephesians chapter 1 in daily
drive time devotions. We are looking at verses 7 to 12 today continuing to talk
about these blessings that God has given us in Jesus Christ, these gifts.
Blessing number 1 is that God chose us to be holy and blameless.

Blessing number 2 we looked at yesterday is that God has adopted me into his
family. And today we begin with blessing number 3, the blessing that we are
redeemed and forgiven. Ephesians 1, 7 to 8.

In him, in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all
wisdom and understanding. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins. We have two things because Jesus Christ died on a cross, he shed his
blood for us.

We have redemption and we have forgiveness. Redemption. Redemption means a
ransom that was paid to deliver those incapable of freeing themselves.

It literally means to loose from something, to purchase and set free by paying a
price. The idea of redemption is the idea of a slave being bought at a slave
market not to be used but instead to be set free. We're picked up out of our sin
and we're delivered to the destination of forgiveness.

This picking up out of is called redemption. We're freed from our sins, we're
redeemed because of Christ's blood and we're forgiven. Forgiveness is a
religious term in the Jewish culture that had the idea of being carried away and
they had a literal picture of this.

When they made sacrifice for the sins of the people, there were two lambs that
were there. One was sacrificed and the blood was sprinkled on the altar but then
the priest would place his hands on another lamb that was there and send that
lamb away into the wilderness. It was called the scapegoat, sent away with the
picture that our sins are sent away from us because of what God has done.

All that happened in the Old Testament, all those sacrifices on the altar, you
might have read about the sacrifices in the temple and wondered what that was
about. All of that happened looking forward to what Jesus Christ was going to do
on the cross. They were having faith in advance and something they didn't know
was going to happen some day.

They didn't know the details of it. The sacrifice of those lambs and their blood
looked forward to the blood of Jesus Christ being shed on the cross. He gave
himself for us.

The Bible says in Psalm 103 verse 12, "He has taken our sins away from us as far
as the east is from the west. " That's what God does for us in Jesus Christ. The
blood that Jesus gave for us was the cost of our forgiveness, of our redemption.

Grace is not just given to us, it is lavished upon us, but it is lavished upon
us at a great cost. Now, I don't know what your picture of something that is
lavish is. You might have a picture of this wonderful meal or this great
wonderful hotel or this beautiful vacation spot or you might have a picture of
some great riches of some kind.

I don't know what your picture of it is, but you take that picture and you
multiply it by a million and you still haven't gotten close to what it means for
grace to be lavished on you. Because this grace that's lavished on you in Jesus
Christ, it's going to last through all eternity. The riches of God in your life
for all eternity because of what Jesus Christ has done because he paid that
price.

We have redemption. We are free. We have forgiveness.

Our sins are sent away. Blessing number four in this list of blessings, and we
could spend hours talking about any one of these, is that God has shown us the
mystery of his will. Ephesians 1, 9, and 10, "And he made known to us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ,
to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to
bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

He made known to us the mystery of his will. " In the Bible, the idea of mystery
is a secret that's now been revealed. And what is this secret?

What is God's will? This mystery that he's talking about here is the culminating
event in all of history. It's the unifying event in all of history.

It's the sanctifying event in all of history. And what is this event? It is in
verse 10, "The bringing of all things together in heaven and on earth under one
head.

Jesus Christ. " That's the mystery. That's the mystery revealed.

It's all about Jesus. All of the Old Testament was looking forward to Jesus. And
all of the time in these New Testament days, we look back to Jesus and what he's
done for us and live our lives based on that.

And all of eternity when we go to heaven will be in praise to Jesus. Jesus is at
the center of everything. That's the answer to the mystery.

And when life gets confusing, that's the answer many times to the mystery of
life. Let me say that again. And when life gets confusing, that's the answer to
the mystery of life.

It's all about Jesus Christ. If I'm not centering my life on Jesus Christ,
that's where I have to begin. God wants you and I to enjoy these riches that
he's given to us in Jesus Christ.

These riches of who he is and because of that, who we are in him. There's a
fifth blessing that's talked about in these verses. Ephesians 1, 11 to 12 talks
about the blessing of being chosen as an inheritance.

Listen to these verses. "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, in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might
be for the praise of his glory. " Notice the change in pronouns in verse 11 if
you've been listening closely.

It changes from us and we to you and I. Paul begins to get more personal here as
he talks to the Ephesians, from the overall to the personal. And he talks in
these verses again about God's choice.

In him we were also chosen. We talked about this on day one, but I told you we'd
get back to this again. Our choice and God's choice are both involved in these
verses.

Our choice. Notice that we choose to look for hope in Christ rather than dozens
of other places where you could look for hope. We choose in these verses to
listen to the word, to the good news of Jesus Christ.

We were the first to hope in Christ, it says here. We choose to believe. And the
Bible is clear.

God has given us that choice. And he is going to hold us responsible for what we
do with that choice. I can choose to believe in Christ or to not believe in
Christ.

That is my choice. God will hold me responsible for what I do with that choice.
That's our choice.

But in these verses is also God's choice. Our choice would mean nothing without
God's choice, because we wouldn't have a choice without God's choice. God
chooses us.

He sent Jesus Christ into this world to choose us. He sent his Spirit into our
lives to let us know that we are chosen. God's choice.

The Bible is clear. There is both predestination, God's choice, and human
choice. And these truths, these two truths, they must not be blended, they must
not be bent.

They have to be balanced. They are both true. If you lean too far in one way, in
the way of God's choice, you end up with fatalism.

It doesn't matter what I do. God's already made the choice. I can just live life
any way I want, and it doesn't matter.

But God has given you a choice, and he is going to hold you responsible for that
choice. If you lean too far in the other way, you end up not with fatalism, but
with humanism. In that case, it all depends on me.

It's just whatever I choose, I can have, I can do. And that's not true. Your
choice is based on God's choice of you and what God has done in your life.

And the Bible says in these verses that you are chosen for an inheritance. These
riches, these blessings that God wants to give into your life, and you're also
chosen as an inheritance. We are God's own possession in these verses.

Have you ever realized this? Not only is God giving you an inheritance, but you,
as God's child, you are an inheritance. You are God's own possession.

What could you give to God who owns everything? Well, here's what you can give.
You can give him your choice.

You can give him the choice today to love him. Give him the choice in the first
place to give your life to him. If you've never done that and said, "Jesus
Christ, I realize all that you've done for me.

Thank you for dying on the cross for me, and I want to give my life back to you.
" You start there. And then day by day, you give him the choice to love him.

In fact, let's do that right now. Lord, as we take a moment to pray, we thank
you for your choice of us. Thank you that you gave your life for us on the
cross, and you showed us how deeply you love us.

And it is our prayer today that we would choose to love you back, to respond to
your love, to live in light of that love. Lord, today, this very day, we know
that no one's going to love us more than you. We know that there is no greater
riches in our lives than the riches that you've given us.

So instead of chasing after other riches, or hoping that some other love is
going to satisfy us, help us to start with you, and to build everything we do,
everything that we say, off of who you are and what you've done for us. We pray
this, Jesus, in your name. Amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to look at the last two incredible riches that God
has given us because of Jesus Christ.