Jessica Robinson

I         never cared about Valentine’s Day as a teenager. Every year, flowers, stuffed animals and candy overflowed the front office of the school. Student council came around and delivered candy to the popular kids. All the while, I focused on getting through another school day, knowing not one of those items had my name on it. 

If Valentine’s Day had a grinch, it was me.

Valentine’s Day has taken a deeper meaning to me. That day I take to loving the husband that God has blessed me with for the past 11 years. However, Valentine’s Day has moved beyond the material that culture likes to push on us.

Instead, I reflect on where I was in that time and give praise to who I am now because of the greatest Valentine’s Day present that was always there for me: Salvation through Jesus. 

The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:4-7, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” 

Just a few verses before that, in Ephesians 2:1-2, Paul wrote we were all dead in our transgressions and sins. Before Christ, we are unable to follow God’s perfect plan. We are spiritually dead, out of control and headed on a path to destruction. 

Ephesians 2:4-7 presents us with the essence of the gospel. There are four points that we can take out of this passage. 

The first is that we have life. God started loving us while we were dead in our transgressions. When dating someone, we present ourselves in the best possible way to be loved. Our relationship with God is different. He loved us when we had nothing lovable to present to him. In Christ, God brought us to life, rescuing us from our state of sin. He shared in our death so we could share in his resurrection in life. 

The second is we have hope. Because Christ has been resurrected, we have hope in this life, hope beyond it and hope even after death. When we hear the word hope, we think of it as wishful thinking. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking. It is a sure and confident expectation of receiving what God has promised us in the future. 

The third point is we have a position. It’s hard to grasp, while physically on earth, that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. Christ was not only raised from the dead, but he has been exalted to the father’s right hand in a place of authority and honor. His place and victory is shared with us. It’s like being seated in a VIP position in a banquet of honor. This helps us face the challenges of daily living with confidence and hope. 

The last point is we have purpose and potential. Paul emphasizes this in two dimensions — the present and distant future. God wants to put us on display in front of the entire world as a demonstration of his abundant grace and kindness in Christ. He wants future ages to know what God’s grace can accomplish. However, in the present, we are God’s “workmanship,” as stated in Ephesians 2:10, created specifically to do good works in our world. 

We can take joy in this passage as it directs us to look to Jesus and think about the wonderful salvation he has provided by grace through faith. We can reflect on who we are and what we have in Christ. Our salvation is not based on our works. Our standing with God comes by faith. God’s grace gives and maintains our salvation from beginning to end. That is the greatest Valentine’s Day gift we can receive. 

(Jessica Robinson is the youth pastor at Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Powell.)