Daily Devotion – March 18, 2021 – Pastor Brian Hansen

Ephesians 2:1-10 

2You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 

4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.   

I recall with vivid clarity when my favorite Concordia college professor lectured on this passage as he shared with us the doctrine of justification.  I recall the freedom that came with hearing the words, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” What I discovered in these words was a freedom that I had never fully experienced.

Up to this point in my life I had always imagined God as a righteous judge.  A keeper of scores who watch me day and night keeping a tally of all my actions.  I had imagined a God who would one day take out the score card to determining whether or not at my death I had done enough to earn a life in God’s presence.  I think it is fair to say up to this point I was more afraid of God then I was certain of God’s love.

As my teacher opened up the meaning and the power of this passage from Ephesians, for the first time in my life I felt a sense of freedom.  It is really hard to describe but I think the best way to describe it is in describing the removal or a weight that I didn’t know that I carried.  Up to this point in my life I believed that my salvation was ultimately in my own hands based primarily on my ability to earn God’s favor and love.  However, as this text was open up to me through a wonderful and faithful teacher, I discovered that I didn’t need to earn God’s love and approval through my works, I already had it.  So rather than earning God’s approval and love I was invited to live in the knowledge and promise of being claimed.

The power of that claiming love provided me with freedom.  Freedom from feeling that I never fully measured up.  Freedom from living in the uncertainty of wondering if I had done enough.  Freedom to live my life trying to love my neighbors not because it mattered for my salvation but rather because it mattered to my neighbors.  Freedom to rest secure in the knowledge that God had freed me by claiming me and inviting me to live in the freedom of that claiming love.  What a wonderful and precious gift to know that we are God’s!

Prayer:  God who claims us, help us to live in the certainty and the power of your freeing grace, guide our living that we might reflect your love to our neighbors in need for we ask in Jesus name.  AMEN