Ephesians 1:7 declares that in Christ believers have redemption through His blood, and that this redemption includes the forgiveness of trespasses. The text shows that forgiveness is not a separate or secondary blessing, but part of the saving work Christ accomplished by His death. Our trespasses are real violations of God’s holy law, not minor mistakes or mere weaknesses, and they place us under guilt before a just and holy God. Yet the wonder of the gospel is that God does not simply ignore sin. Through the blood of Christ, the debt of sin has been fully paid, divine justice has been satisfied, and those who are in Christ are truly and completely forgiven.
The text also teaches that this forgiveness comes “according to the riches of his grace,” which means God forgives in a way that corresponds to the infinite abundance of His own gracious character. His grace is not small, reluctant, or limited, but rich, overflowing, and inexhaustible. What we found in this passage is a glorious picture of God as both just and merciful: just in that sin is truly paid for through the blood of His Son, and merciful in that He freely forgives sinners who deserve wrath. The passage calls believers to see the seriousness of sin, the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice, and the immeasurable greatness of the grace by which God forgives.
FULL TEXT:
Go ahead and turn in your copy of God’s Word to the letter of Paul to the Ephesians. As is our practice here, we’re going to pick up where I left off a couple of weeks ago. Last time we looked at the first part of verse 7 in chapter 1 and looked at, “In him we have redemption through his blood.” We’ll pick up after that phrase this morning.
But what we saw there in that first phrase of verse 7 was God as our great Redeemer. We saw the wonderful truth that in Christ we have redemption through his blood. That blood was the price paid for our ransom. And it was the price paid not to Satan, as you recall, but it was paid to satisfy the justice of God himself. And in that, that was God revealing himself, his holy character as the one who both hates sin so much that blood must be shed, but also loves sinners so much that he was willing to shed it.
And so now we pick up right there where we left off. We continue in Paul’s long sentence which began in verse 3 and goes all the way to verse 14 in the original language. One big long sentence, a doxology of theology, a wonderful praise that Paul just can’t help but express here at the very beginning of his letter to the Ephesians.
So this next part where we pick up this morning, we’ve got to remember, just as we do every week, that this is not a disconnected idea, but it is connected to the previous statement, to what we talked about before. It’s not that he redeemed us through his blood and now let’s talk about a different topic really fast over here, forgiveness for our trespasses. But what we find here in the next statement is the result of the first. “In him we have redemption through his blood,” which results in what we will talk about here this morning.
And I would remind us that this is still about God. This is still about what he has done to save his people. So today, we need to keep asking the same questions we’ve been asking ourselves along the way. What does this tell us? What does this show us about our God? How is God revealing himself here in this next part? This God who, as we saw last time, is our Redeemer, what else has he done? What more is he like? If that’s all we knew about God, how wonderful that is. But God has chosen to reveal more of his character and more of what he has done.
And these questions matter because our view of God really shapes everything that we believe.
So, if you will stand with me for the reading of God’s Word—eventually, I will have to take up a little bit later—but we’re still close enough to the beginning of this sentence that we’ll start in verse 3 and read through verse 7.
God’s Word says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption as sons to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.”
[PRAYER]
Father, this morning as we dive even deeper into this sentence, explore even further this great salvation that we have, learn more about who you are and what you have done, Lord, I pray that we are overwhelmed by the riches of your grace, that we see ourselves rightly before a holy God, as those who have trespassed, as those who have sinned against you, but also to see the glorious wonder of your grace in forgiving a wretch like me.
So Lord, this morning, speak to us through your Word. Use your Word for the purpose you sent it out for: to teach us the things we need to learn, to reprove us in those areas where we are clearly wrong, to correct us and show us the right things to believe and to do and to say and to feel and to think, and to train us in righteousness so that we continue to practice these things, so that we might become complete, equipped for every good work.
Lord, you do this for yourself, by yourself, through your Spirit that is in us, and to the glory of your Son Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
“In him we have redemption through his blood.” Amen.
And we pick up this morning, “the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.”
The forgiveness of our trespasses here. Notice here—and we only have two major points this morning—notice here point one: God’s release, the forgiveness of our trespasses.
Paul places forgiveness in direct connection to redemption. You see, they are clearly connected, and sometimes even last time we talked about redemption meaning that there was a forgiveness of sins. We were taken out of slavery to sin. So you can clearly see a connection there. But they are two distinct pieces of this salvation. I don’t want to say puzzle because it’s not something difficult. Puzzles are difficult, people. Okay. But they’re distinct enough that Paul uses both phrases here. We need to understand both of them properly.
He says the redemption that we have through Christ’s blood then results in the forgiveness of our trespasses.
Now perhaps you are not as familiar with the word trespasses, trespass. Nowadays we think of trespassing as getting onto somebody’s private land, right? But the word trespasses in the Scriptures is paraptomata, meaning a deliberate violation, false steps, or—and this ties together with what we would understand today—crossing boundaries that God has clearly set.
You see, we did not merely stumble into weakness. We rebelled against a holy God. We didn’t just find ourselves dead in sins. We crossed the boundaries that God has clearly set. We have offended God’s glory. We deserved his wrath. And yet God forgives.
This forgiveness, just like we talked about with redemption, is not cheap. It’s not careless. It was purchased. We were redeemed. It was bought with the blood of his own Son like we talked about. But the debt that we owed—you see, he could have redeemed us and left us with this huge debt to repay him with. But his redemption includes forgiveness of that debt, the sin, the trespasses, the crossing the boundaries, the violating God’s holy law. He has forgiven us, meaning the debt we owed to his justice has been paid in full.
God does not just overlook our sins. He doesn’t just say, “I have redeemed you and so I’m just going to overlook the sin in your life. That’s how much I love you. I just won’t look at it.” No, no, no. He paid for it. He cleansed us of it. He forgives it.
“Well, how can he do that?” The blood of Christ.
Through Jesus Christ, you are not just redeemed. You are forgiven of your sins. Your sins are gone. You owe nothing for your sins.
“Well, but Mark, I mean, yesterday I did something really stupid.”
Jesus paid it all. It’s been taken care of by Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. The debt is paid. It is cleared. It is gone. Your mortgage is no more. Can’t wait till I hear that from the bank. But how much better, Mark? Your sins are forgiven, buddy. That’s good because I sin a lot.
I mean, look at what this reveals about God himself. This God is merciful. He is forgiving. And he delights to forgive. Again, he is just. He’s perfectly just and abundantly merciful at the same time. And we talked about why that is possible, because of what Christ has done.
He’s not a lenient judge who will compromise justice, saying, “I know you’ve still got all of this, but I’m just going to let you go and you just stay guilty, but I’m just not going to convict you of that.” That’s unjust. He is just. He recognizes the sin for what it is, but he’s merciful in that he applies Jesus’s blood, Jesus’s payment to you. It’s paid off.
And more than that, it’s not just cleared. You have then been given the very righteous life of Jesus Christ in its place. He upholds his justice and also shows mercy, again, by providing the very sacrifice we need through the blood of Jesus Christ.
So we look at the cross and we see God. We see the one who was willing to bruise his own Son so that guilty sinners might be forgiven. Forgiveness flows from God who demands payment and provides it.
And we see this throughout Scripture. This is not a New Testament-only idea. In Psalm 25:11, David cries, “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” Well, how can he do that? Through Jesus.
You see, David even in this verse, “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great,” he’s not saying, “Hey, because I’m a really good guy, God, pardon me. Since I’m king, since I’m a man after your own heart, since I slayed Goliath, forgive me. Pardon me.” No. “For your name’s sake, O Lord.”
Over in the Gospels, you see the paralytic guy that was brought to Jesus. What were his words to this guy? The very first words: “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” This guy’s here to be healed, and the first thing out of Jesus’ mouth talks about is sin. As problematic as physical problems are, our spiritual problem is much worse.
And Jesus alone—you remember that account?—Jesus alone had the authority to forgive sins. And everybody else was like, “Who is this guy that forgives sin?” He’s the one that’s about to pay for it on the cross in his blood.
Over in Acts, Peter declares, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” You see, forgiveness is always, always, always tied to Jesus Christ and his finished work. There is no forgiveness round about Jesus.
“Well, I can get forgiveness this way.”
“Well, I can get forgiveness by being a really good guy.”
“Well, I can get forgiveness by blaming it on somebody else. It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it.”
It comes through Jesus. We are all sinners, and the only way to find, to receive forgiveness is through Jesus Christ alone.
So all throughout Scripture, this is the consistent testimony of God in his Word. God is the one who forgives. But it’s not cheap. It’s not just because he wanted to. He forgives because of the blood of his Son. He forgives because he has been satisfied. That’s who our God is.
I thought it would be important to address the fact that our culture—we hate talking about sin. We hate talking about trespasses. We hate talking about being guilty before a holy God. Our culture doesn’t want to hear the word sin. And unfortunately, I’m not even just talking about the culture outside the church. I’m talking about even inside the church.
We dodge it. We say things like, “It’s trauma. It’s not sin. It’s stress. It’s not sin. It’s what happened to me as a kid. It’s not sin. It’s my anxiety. It’s not sin. It’s that guy’s fault. It’s my parents’ fault. It’s my grandpa’s fault. It’s that person or this person or that teacher or this—it’s somebody else’s fault. It’s not sin.”
We end up treating problems like they’re outside of ourselves, like we’re victims of our circumstances, never guilty. I’m not saying we’re not victims at some point, but our culture doesn’t want any kind of guilt. “Don’t call me guilty of something. I have a reason to act and think and believe the way I do. It’s somebody else’s. It’s something else that has done it to me.”
Listen, honestly, every one of those excuses, that’s all they are. It feels safe. I get it. I understand why our culture does that. I understand why maybe even some of us in this room have said things like this, used these excuses. It feels safer. It feels nicer. If my mess is someone else’s doing, I don’t have to do anything about it. I don’t have to change. I just need therapy. I just need medication. I just need better boundaries. I just need whatever.
But here’s the twist. Listen. I’m not saying these things to put anybody down who’s thought them. I’ve thought some of these things. We’ve all been there. Again, it feels good to use these. But here’s the thing: there’s no hope in that. There’s no hope in those answers to those problems in the world.
Calling our problems sin when they’re truly sin—again, talking about those things that are actually sinful in our lives that we use other things as excuses for—calling those problems sin when they are isn’t depressing. It’s hopeful. Because Scripture doesn’t leave us there as sinners.
Right here in Ephesians 1:7, Paul says that Christ has forgiven us our trespasses, not excused them, not explained them away, forgiven. The blood of Jesus doesn’t cover over sin like makeup. It washes it clean. It’s gone.
So when we name sin as sin, we’re not stuck in shame. When we name sin as sin, we point to Jesus. We point to the cross. Yes, your anger, your lust, your bitterness, your pride—those are real sins, but they’re not the end of the story. Christ died for those sins. He rose for those sins.
And so every time we confess our sins—this is my sin, God. This is my anger. This is my lust. This is my pride. This is whatever—what we’re actually saying is, “This is why I need you, God. This is why I need a Savior. This is why I need Jesus, his blood shed on the cross for me.”
And thank God you have a Savior. That’s not being a victim. That’s not victim mentality. That’s victory in Jesus. That’s hope.
Talking about sin isn’t cruel. It’s the most kind thing you can do. Because only when we confess our sin can we be forgiven of it because of what Jesus has done.
So Christian, when guilt arises because you’ve been convicted of your sin, don’t excuse it. Don’t excuse it. Don’t run to some other reasoning or empty answer that the world provides. Confess the sin to God. That’s how we handle sin in our lives. Confess your sin to God. Be specific. And then thank him for the blood of Christ that has paid for that sin and forgiven you of that sin, and walk in freedom.
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”
And number two, “according to the riches of his grace.” This is God’s measure. Paul does not say that our forgiveness comes in a small measure of grace, like a teaspoon size. He says it comes according to the riches of his grace.
We know his grace. We know what that is. We know his help. We know what he has done. But let’s look at this word riches. I love this. This is so good.
When you think of riches, what do you think of? You think of just an enormous amount of wealth. Actually, to be honest here, I didn’t write this down. Probably shouldn’t even say it out loud, but I’m going to. Anybody remember DuckTales? Yeah, that’s right. Diving in that pool of gold.
And to be quite honest, it’s even more than that. Overwhelming wealth, abundance. It’s inexhaustible supply. That’s what this riches word conjures up.
So God does not forgive us—listen to this—he doesn’t say forgiveness of our trespasses comes out of the riches of his grace. It says according to. So God does not forgive us out of the leftovers of his grace. He does not forgive us with a little bit of grace. He forgives us according to, out of, in measure of the full treasury of his grace.
Do you get that? Do you get the difference between out of and according to? You see, I’m not a very rich man. So if I gave you out of my riches, you’re not getting very much. But out of my riches would be like what I feel like giving you. Yeah, good luck. I say that tongue in cheek because you’re church family, so I would give you whatever you needed. But you get my point.
Now, if I was to give in accordance to my riches, that would mean I would be giving anything up to all that I have. And I’m just a guy who doesn’t have a whole lot of money. Now let’s translate this over to God.
What do we know about this God? He’s infinite. He’s eternal. He’s never-ending. He’s inexhaustible. So how many riches does he have? More than all of it. I don’t even know how to express that.
So if God decided he would give us out of the riches of his grace, he would just give us whatever he felt like. Now praise the Lord, he’s not like us, but he doesn’t even use that word. He doesn’t even use that concept. He goes straight to according to the riches of his grace. Infinite, never-ending, inexhaustible grace according to the riches of God’s grace is mind-blowing. We can’t even wrap our thoughts around it. I can’t even express it well enough in my feeble way of speaking.
God forgave us our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. So then the measure of our forgiveness is not according to our repentance. It’s not according to our feeling bad about it. And it’s definitely not according to how worthy we are of receiving it. It is measured out by the infinite riches of God’s own grace.
You get in accordance with what he has, which is all of it, not in accordance with how you respond or how you act or how worthy you are. Wow.
This is a God who doesn’t just have grace, doesn’t just have abundance of grace. It’s like a super-abundant grace. It’s infinite grace. And God is not stingy with it. He’s not like the guy who dives down into that gold pit holding it all in that building. He’s not reluctant to give any of it out, thinking, “Oh man, if I give this up, I won’t have it anymore.” No, he’s rich in grace. And so he forgives in a way that matches the fullness of that riches.
And this isn’t just in one spot. Paul talks of the riches of God, his riches of his grace, riches of his glory, riches of Christ. Our forgiveness flows according to those riches.
In Ephesians 2:7, he speaks of God showing the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Over in chapter 3, he calls the riches of Christ unsearchable. In Romans 2:4, he asks, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience?” God’s grace is not small. It’s not meager. It’s not little in any way. It’s rich. It’s immeasurable. It’s unsearchable. It is infinite. And it is located in Christ.
Look at the cross and you can see the wealth of God’s forgiveness. You see, the blood of Christ was not a small payment. It wasn’t a one-for-one. Christ’s blood was not worth just one other person’s salvation. Don’t you forget that the person who died, Jesus Christ, was the eternal infinite God. And so the blood that was shed is infinite and eternal in power.
There is no sinning beyond the blood of Jesus. There is no sinning beyond his sacrifice. He is eternal. The payment of the eternal Son is eternal forgiveness. Christ’s blood that was shed results in the riches of God’s grace flowing freely, offering forgiveness.
Beloved, our God delights to forgive. He finds joy in forgiving those who only deserve his wrath. That’s the God who we serve. That’s the God who we believe in. That’s the God whose grace is greater than all our sin, greater than we can ever imagine.
So when you doubt, when you think God’s done with me, his patience is exhausted, listen: we can remind ourselves that God is not a man like us who can be exhausted of his riches, can be exhausted of his grace, can be exhausted of his patience, can be exhausted of his help. Our God is rich. So we need to thank him for this abundant grace.
So here’s the truth we need to stand on today, church: in Christ, we have redemption through his blood and with it the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. This is God showing himself to be both the Redeemer who pays the price and the rich God who forgives according to the abundance of his own grace.
This God is the one who did not spare his only Son, who did not withhold the blood that would secure our forgiveness. He is the one who will forgive and has forgiven according to the riches of his grace.
So we must pray and ask the Lord to fill our hearts with awe and our lips with praise at the one who has forgiven us according to the riches of his grace. Amen.