Colossians 1:13-14 “ He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Today's episode talks about how difficult it is sometimes to accept God's love and forgiveness. However, it is so important that we learn how to do this. The consequences of not accepting His forgiveness are too great to think about. It is not worth it. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
We Have Redemption and Forgiveness of Sins!
Colossians 1:13-14 “ He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Original sin came about when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. This means sin entered into our hearts. The power of darkness had more of a hold on us, and our hearts were more attuned to sin. However, when Jesus came and died for us, He rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of God. Jesus redeemed us. He died for our sins, even when we didn’t deserve it. That is the part that gets me. It is not as if we deserved that mercy. It is not as if we were all loving God and treating Him the way He deserves to be treated. God loved us even after all the years of rebellion. If you look back at the Old Testament, you will see the people of God turning away from Him time and time again. Yet, He still went through with His plan to save them.
The people of the Old Testament did not have a Baptism of repentance. They had the Lord looking out for them. However, they didn’t have the Holy Spirit living inside of them, and they didn’t have Jesus yet. Jesus hadn’t yet died on the cross, so they weren’t saved from the original sin. Sin had more influence over them because they didn’t have the Spirit of God living inside of them, helping them make the right choice. They didn’t have the power and authority that we have from Jesus. This is not to excuse their behavior, but it does explain it a bit. It does help us to have a bit of empathy for them.
Look how much we mess up even with the Spirit of the Lord living inside of us. Now, imagine we didn’t have it. Imagine what life would be like if we couldn’t go to confession when we mess up. Imagine we didn’t have the gift and grace of forgiveness of sins. Imagine if every time we did something wrong, we needed to bring an animal to the temple and sacrifice it. When we look back at the Old Testament, we, or at least I, struggle to understand how and why God’s people were always turning away. It seems like if I saw a miracle, like the parting of the Red Sea, I would never want to turn away from the Lord. I would know without a doubt He was the one true God and would want to do whatever I could to please Him. I wouldn’t complain about what I was eating because what I was eating was a miracle from God each and every day. I love to think I would do things differently if I lived back in the Old Testament times.
However, would I really? I have seen God do extraordinary miracles right here in my lifetime, and yet I don’t always put Him first. I can eat whatever I want to eat, and yet sometimes I still complain. I have the Holy Spirit, the one who raised Jesus from the dead, living inside of me, and yet I still sin, I still doubt at times, I still complain. Why is that? Why is it that I know how amazing our God is? I have the power of the Spirit living inside of me, and yet I still mess up? Imagine if we didn’t? Imagine if we didn’t have the opportunity to go to mass daily. Imagine if we didn’t have the Eucharist to be providing us strength and fortitude each day or each week. We are very lucky that Jesus came and died for us. We are lucky we receive His Spirit when we are Baptized and again when we make our Confirmation.
The verse above says, “ He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” There is a caveat to this redemption and forgiveness. The caveat is that we accept it. It says in the Bible that Jesus gave His apostles the power and authority to forgive sins in His name. It says in John 20:23, “ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Your sins can be forgiven, but you have to accept that forgiveness, and this is hard for many of us. We believe that this can happen to other people, but somehow we believe that our sins are too big. God couldn’t possibly forgive me. If He knew what I did, he would hate me forever. These are the types of thoughts that go through our minds. We think forgiveness is for others.
This is not the case. Forgiveness is for every single person on the planet who will accept it and is ready to repent for what they have done. It says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1864, “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of the heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.” Jesus died for our sins. Why is that so hard for us to accept? This verse from the CCC says that if we don’t accept this forgiveness, it can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss. I don’t know about you, but that is not anything that I want. I just looked up the definition for final impenitence. I had a pretty good idea of what it meant, but I wanted to make sure of the exact definition. Here is what I found: Final penitence means dying unreconciled with God, whether through loss of faith, or through despair, or a blasphemous rejection of God's love.
I am 100% sure I do not want that for myself or anyone else. Dying unreconciled with God would be awful. If I want to make sure this does not happen, the answer is found in the definition. I need to make sure I do not lose my faith. I need to make sure I do not fall into despair and that I always remember there is always hope in our Lord and Savior. I also need to make sure I do not reject God’s love and forgiveness. I need to accept it with open arms. The stakes are pretty high. If you struggle to accept God’s forgiveness, I urge you to try and work on that. God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He did all the hard work. Now all we have to do is accept this forgiveness and love. I know it is not easy to accept it at times, and yet the alternative is hard as well. We must find a way to accept his forgiveness so we don’t end up separated from God for eternity.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we love you so much. We are so grateful you sent your one and only son to rescue us from the power of darkness and to transfer us into Jesus’ kingdom. You are the best! You are always looking out for us. We are so grateful. We are sorry when we struggle to accept your forgiveness or your love. We live in a broken world, and sometimes it is hard to believe someone could love us as the enemy tells us constantly that we are unloveable. It can be hard to believe we are forgiven when the enemy tells us no one would ever forgive us. Forgive us, Lord, for believing the enemy over you. Give us the strength to believe you above all else. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Thank you to those who have signed up for the retreat and those who couldn’t attend but wanted to donate money so someone else could attend. I really appreciate all of you! Registration for the retreat closes soon, so make sure to get registered if you want to attend. CLICK HERE for retreat info. I look forward to meeting you here tomorrow with another witness. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!