Devo 2: Pardoned!

(I have been asked to write a couple of devotionals for our church and thought I'd include them on this site. Enjoy!)

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins…” (Col. 2:13)

What does it mean to be circumcised from our sinful nature? How are we made alive in Christ and what does it mean to be forgiven of all of our sins?

In the Old Testament, God required the Israelites to circumcise all males. This was done to symbolically distinguish them as God’s chosen people. Anyone who was uncircumcised was considered a Gentile or pagan, those who practiced “lawlessness” and not citizens of Israel. Before we accept Jesus as Savior, we are “uncircumcised” in our soul. We willfully sin and rebel with little conscience, lost in our own abyss of wrongs. When Christ comes to live within us, we become “circumcised” in spirit. We are washed clean of all of our sins, forgiven of the life we lived before salvation, and secured into God’s family as His chosen people through Christ.

Imagine Saddam Hussein in his Iraqi jail cell days before his execution. Guilty of multiple war crimes, such as genocide and other horrific murderous plots, Hussein continues to rant and rave hateful threats, completely unashamed of his life and unchanged in his behavior. Now imagine President Bush coming to visit Hussein. Stepping into the cell and taking a seat directly across from his enemy, Bush presents an unthinkable proposal. He offers to release Hussein from his prison sentence, completely pardon every crime he has ever committed, and totally wipe out his criminal record. Bush promises all of this and more if Hussein would become a U.S. citizen.

It sounds like an outrageous scenario, but did you know that that is exactly what Christ does for us? We are overwhelmingly guilty of sin and shame; we are stuck in our prison of sinful, filthy hearts and minds. Even so, while we are locked in our own sinful ways, Christ comes to us, sits down with us in the midst of our messes, and offers complete forgiveness of sin and renewal soul if we will simply believe in Him. It is when we accept this amazing offer of salvation that we are “circumcised” into the Body of Christ, no longer pagans or sinners, but children of God. Our record of wrongs is forgiven and wiped clean, and we become God’s chosen people, citizens of Heaven.