Lutheran Devotional 11th July 2025, Friday Message
TOPIC: Fearless and Endless Growing
Colossians 1:13-14 – He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
After one year of college, I transferred to a different school. I’ll leave nameless the school I started with as I quickly realized that this was not the place for me. So, I transferred to Minnesota State University in Moorhead, which back then was called Moorhead State University or just MSU. It was a great move. I loved that school and the city it was in. Thank goodness I could transfer out of the first place to somewhere so much better.
Our text tells us that God has transferred us out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. Now that’s a transfer! Let’s think about the differences between our normal transfers in school or work versus what God has done for us by transferring us to the kingdom of His Son.
First of all, when you transfer from one school to another, or when you transfer from one department at work to another, you want your past work to come with you. No one is going to go to a new school and leave behind a year’s worth of class credit or go to a new department at work and start over at the lowest level. I’ll transfer, but I’m taking my past with me.
Isn’t it wonderful that when God transfers us into the kingdom of His Son, our past is left behind. We don’t want it to follow us. If it did come with us, it wouldn’t be a credit earned. We’re not bringing a 4.0 grade point average or an almost completed checklist of all that was required. But the good news is that God wipes out our past when He transfers us to His Son. He asks in essence: “Do you want a new start? Do you want to leave the past behind?” And we say, “Absolutely yes!”
Paul spoke of this transfer in Philippians 3 when he described all that he had accomplished before being a Christian. And though it was an impressive list, including being faultless in legalistic righteousness, Paul said this of his past: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7-8a). Like Paul, we are more than glad to see our past disappear so that instead we can stand on the accomplishments of Jesus alone in our place.
So in this transfer to the kingdom of God’s Son, we have a new beginning. That’s one difference between our normal transfers and that which God does. The other difference we’ll see today is one of location. When you transfer schools or work departments, you have to move. You might like the first school’s location but to make the change, you can’t stay where you are.
How different with the transfer with the kingdom of God’s Son. We might have expected that we’d need to leave home and go to some strange place to find eternal life. But God’s transfer leaves us physically in the same place as always. You stay home but you’re transferred to the kingdom of God’s Son and thereby become an heir of eternal life. No college and no work in this world can make that claim. That means that the transfer is immediate. When we’ve heard the Gospel message of forgiveness and believe God’s promises, the gift of forgiveness has already come. It is as our Colossians text says, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” While we stay physically where we are, we’ve already been moved into His kingdom. And, as a mark of being in this kingdom of the Son, we have His signature gift: redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Over our adult lives, we move and transfer many times. Some moves are nearby and simple; others are distant and complicated. But the transfer into the kingdom of God’s Son is the most important. In this transfer, we leave behind the condemning past. Instead, we’re taken entirely, immediately, into the kingdom of God, having the redemption, which is the forgiveness of sins. That’s a transfer for the ages. Amen.
WE PRAY: Heavenly Father, thank You for opening Your kingdom to us and bringing us into Your forgiveness, won entirely by Your Son. In His Name we pray, Amen.
Reflection Questions:
- Are you a person who likes change, or do you find it difficult? Why?
- How has God transferred or relocated us to the “kingdom of His beloved Son”? What does that mean for our lives going forward?
- How has God’s gift—redemption in Jesus, the forgiveness of your sins—empower you when sin and guilt would condemn you bring you down?
Today’s Readings:
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Daniel Paavola.