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For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

~ Romans 8:15-17

For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

~ Ephesians 2:14-16

In Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Danny explained the Gospel’s impact on the believer’s identity and community. As Christ fully satisfies the Father’s wrath on our behalf with His propitiating death on the cross (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2), we stand guiltless before the Father hidden in Christ’s perfect righteousness. Rather than receiving the punishment that you and I rightly deserved, we are graciously reconciled to God as our Father and to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Anchor brothers and sisters, if you are like me at all, sometimes you can have a tendency to forget the ongoing relevance of the Gospel and relegate it back to when God first brought you to saving faith. You can forget that Christ’s finished Gospel work is the perpetual foundation of confidence we have that the Father will forgive us and continue to cleanse us as we regularly confess our sin to Him (1 John 1:9). And you can, at times, be given to the belief that there are certain divisions with your brothers and sisters in the faith that are just simply insurmountable. Meanwhile, the beautiful truth of the Gospel reminds us that we have a Father who is graciously eager to forgive us our sins and a Savior who has broken down the dividing wall of hostility even between Jews and gentiles!

With the beauty of the Gospel fully in view, will you consider these points of application with me this week?

  1. As Pastor mentioned on Sunday, we don’t want to simply assume that all among us have been brought to saving faith in Christ.
    So, if you know that you have not yet, would you, by faith, “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9)? There is no true reconciliation with God outside of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
  2. As believers and fellow church family, remind ourselves of the Gospel and

a) go to the Father daily confessing our sins knowing that Christ has FULLY satisfied His wrath and punishment on our behalf; and

b) go to one another to seek and grant forgiveness knowing that Christ’s work not only makes reconciliation with one another possible but pushes us on to it!