Since I encountered the Spirit of grace (a day I will never forget), my life has been marked with joy. I know what “joy inexpressible” is now. There are times that I just can’t find words for the ecstasy I feel inside. It’s like the people who were witnesses to the healing of the man lowered through the roof:
“And overwhelming astonishment and ecstasy seized them all, and they recognized and praised and thanked God; and they were filled with and controlled by reverential fear and kept saying, We have seen wonderful and strange and incredible and unthinkable things today!” (Luke 5:26, Amplified, emphasis mine)1
The heart of that story is the reason for my joy:
“Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins…” (Luke 5:23-24, emphasis mine)2
My sins are forgiven. Sounds so simple. Have I not known that my whole life? I was raised in the church, but somehow I missed it all those years. Now there is “overwhelming astonishment and ecstasy” at the thought. It’s what the prophets studied about salvation and the “grace that would come to you…””3
(from pages 305-306 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible,Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman FoundationUsed by permission.”” (www.Lockman.org)
2Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
31 Peter 1:10
