When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt

 Good morning. We did not have to become perfect before God would accept us: but when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt (My Bible says that that is a business term, meaning a certificate of indebtedness in the  debtor’s handwriting) consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed to the cross. We were far from perfect; in fact flat out dead. Who would want someone who is dead? It says that He forgave us all of our transgressions. Too many times people who become Christians feel guilt about something they did before being born again. This says that we were forgiven. That does not mean that there won’t be consequences from what we did before we became Christians. Also we might have to make restitution and/or ask forgiveness of someone that we wronged. Even if we did not do things that people would consider bad, we still were not right with God. We all owed a debt we could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe. The Cross made us all start from scratch. Father thank You that no matter how “good“ (our righteousness was as filthy rags) or bad we were, You made us all brand new in Christ.

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