Acclimatizing Part 2...

Acclimatizing to living life in the Room of Grace, as we mentioned in the previous post, takes time and I believe it begins with embracing forgiveness. Look with me at these realities of God's forgiveness as described in the Old and New Testaments.

In Isaiah 43:25 our God says; 
"I--yes, I alone--will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.



In Psalm 103:12, the Psalmist says: "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west."

1 Peter 3:18, the apostle Peter affirms these truths from the Old Testament..."For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 

Romans 6:10 - "The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."

Hebrews 7:27 - "Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins."

A great visual of the eternal expanse of God's forgiveness was given to us by pastor Rusty Kennedy on our 25th anniversary cruise. (see ocean photos) Rusty encouraged all of us to look out from the deck to gaze upon the never-ending ocean seascape. He then boldly proclaimed from the Scriptures above (others too) that we all swim in the Father's ocean of forgiveness, forgiveness for sins committed in the past, present and future. Christ died one time for the forgiveness of sin. It is finished! 

What if we lived day to day with our spouses and others, swimming in the Father's ocean of forgiveness? What if we experienced the complete forgiveness Christ died for on a minute by minute basis and offered it to one another? Radical love? Radical grace? Do we really get forgiveness? 

I think forgiveness sets us on a course to experience God's grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says; "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God," Forgiveness is a gift! 

We can give it away as it has freely been given us, by faith. Watch yourself begin to acclimatize by His grace when you live in the never-ending ocean of forgiveness in your marriage. 

---