Psychiatrist Karl Menninger once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day.1 His thoughts remind us that freedom, in our lives and minds, comes through forgiveness. Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14 both say that through Jesus Christ we have “redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” It is not that we have redemption and forgiveness, but that redemption, being freed from slavery, is the forgiveness of our sins. Through God’s forgiveness, we are free to live, and to worship.
1. Today in the Word, March 1989, p. 8
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©2012 Paul Tillman
