All means All

When my oldest son was in high school, I realized that being the parent of a teenager was going to be the death of me. There were several occasions in particular where he and I would just clash completely on anything. One time I remember so vividly; I wanted him to understand why he had gotten a bad grade on a test. I explained that when he was asked to list the particular characteristics of something, he had only listed some of them and not all of them. His response to me was, “While it did say to list them, it did not say to list all of them, so he was right, and the teacher and I were both wrong.” 

The funny thing is, looking back, I don’t disagree with him because that really was a valid point. The truth is, while context does give clues and leads us to things, a single word can totally change everything. For example, I have found many times when I read the Bible that a single word can explode off of the page and make such a profound difference in my thinking and understanding. Today I want to look at a verse that really has a lot to say in just a few words. 

In Colossians 2:13-14 we see: 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, 

So the first thing that we need to know is that Paul is talking to the Colossians, a church in Colosse that he didn’t plant and he had never been to, just like all of us. See, these believers were primarily all Gentiles, like most of us, and they had a lot of influences coming in to confuse things around them, and they needed to understand that Christ was all and that Christ had already done everything for their salvation. So Paul reminds them that not only were ALL their sins forgiven, but he specifically says ALL of their transgressions were forgiven. See, while sin means to miss the mark or not live up to Gods standard, transgressions mean to do something that we know is wrong on purpose. 

See, every single word in the Bible is Gods word, and thankfully, He is very specific. So when God says ALL, He is letting you and me know this isn’t about the ones here or there or the ones before or later. He means ALL. Then the fact that God chose the word transgression is huge because while all of us have not, or ever will, live up to His standard to begin with, we will go against what we know is right and make wrong decisions on purpose. Those wrong decisions can cause us to think that we might lose Gods love or grace and even think that He’s done with us. The truth is God wants you and me to know that when Jesus said it is finished, that meant that He had now taken the wrath of God and the punishment we deserved for every transgression on the cross and paid the price with His life. We, just like the Colossians, need to remember that Jesus did all of this while we were dead in our transgressions, and when we surrendered to Jesus, He made us alive in Him. See, my son, without knowing it, really was making a huge statement; every word truly does matter. So today, if you are in Jesus, fight for the purity He calls you to and know that you are secure and you can rest in Him because when He says ALL, it really means ALL.  

"He foresaw my every fall, my every sin, my every backsliding: yet, neverless, fixed His heart upon me." - A.W. Pink

Today, if you don’t know Jesus, I want you to know that He is specifically speaking to you right now. We all have sin and transgressions, but Jesus can take ALL of it and wants to forgive you. He took ALL of Gods punishment for you on the cross, and ALL you have to do is repent and surrender and turn to Jesus today. He will not turn you away no matter what. Today is the day of salvation.