SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/19/2018
10:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to
Eph. 1:3-6a
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
1:3-6a
Message of the verses: “3 Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and
blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the
praise of the glory of His grace, (NASB-95).”
3 Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving us
through Christ every spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven! 4 For consider
what he has done—before
the foundation of the world he chose us to be, in Christ, his children,
holy and blameless in his sight. 5 He planned, in his love, that we should be
adopted as his own children through Jesus Christ—this was his will and pleasure
6 that we might praise that glorious generosity, (Phillips).”
I
mentioned in an earlier SD that the first few verses in the Greek comprised one
sentence, and actually it is verses 3-14 of Ephesians chapter one that comprise
a full sentence in the Greek language.
We see in verse three the words “in Christ” and then in verse four we
see “in Him,” which is speaking of Jesus Christ. “In Christ” is seen 13 times in the book of
Ephesians, and “in Him” is seen a total of seven times. We will see that this is talking about what
believers have because we are in Christ, and this is something that is amazing
to each and every believer.
Verses
3-14 comprise one sentence as we have noted and they encompass the past,
present, and future of God’s eternal purpose for the church. Now we also mentioned that the book of
Ephesians is about the church, and this is why I believe that it was a circuit letter
that went to the churches in Asia Minor so that they could understand what the
function of the church was all about.
John MacArthur writes “In 3-6a we are shown the past aspect, election;
in 6b-11 we are shown the present aspect, redemption; and in 12-14 we are shown
the future aspect, in heritance. Within
God’s master plan of salvation is every believer who has or will ever trust in
God and be saved. As it is sometimes
expressed, history is simply the outworking of ‘His story,’ which has already
been planned and prewritten in eternity.”
He
goes on to write “This passage can also be divided into three sections, each of
which focuses on a different Person of the Trinity. Verses 3-61 centers on the Father, verses
6b-12 center on the Son, and verses 13-14 center on the Holy Spirit. Paul takes us to the very throne room of the
Godhead to show the greatness and vastness of the blessings and treasures that
belong to those who are in Jesus Christ.”
As
I think about what Paul is writing about here I have to admit that there have
been other things in the past that I have looked at to bring fulfillment to my
life, and what I am mostly referring to is things from before I came to know
Jesus Christ. I can’t remember a day since
I have been saved when I have not thought about God, and I suppose that is
because the Holy Spirit lives within me since I have become a believer. I suppose that there have been many times
that my thoughts of God are because of my need for forgiveness, but none the
less God is and has been at the forefront of my mind since He saved me in
January of 1974. With that said I still
have a hunger and thirst to know Him better and when I read the verses that I
am previewing here and better understand that as MacArthur stated that Paul
takes us to the very throne room of God that I desire to understand this better
and to care about it more than things that are here on planet earth which will
one day be burned up.
If
someone is reading this SD and wonders how it is that they can achieve a true sense
of self-worth, meaning, and significance in their life they must understand
that they have to have a right relationship with their Creator. A person without Christ has no spiritual
value, no standing before God and no purpose or meaning in the world. There is a song that was written in the 1970’s
and was sung by a man who had gone to the top of the corporate latter only to
fall to the bottom very fast. He ended
up living in a one room cabin and was told that he only had six months to sing,
for he was a singer. Christ invaded his
life as he says in the song “He saved me, He saved me,” and then life had real
meaning for him, meaning that could only come from the God who saved him.
I
have mentioned the many times we read “in Christ” or “in Him” that are found in
this book and as a child of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ we have to
understand what we have in Him in order to live a life that is pleasing to our
Lord. Paul wants those who read this
letter to have the right understanding of their position and possession and this
is the foundational thrust of his letter that we are beginning to study.
I
want to close with another important quote from John MacArthur and then will
give us the outline that we will look at for these verses. He entitles this chapter “The Body Formed in
Eternity Past,” and this quote will help explain that title.
“If we belong to Christ,
Paul says, we can be sure that God put our name down as part of His church even
before the world began. Out of grace and
in divine sovereignty, He chose each one of us to belong to Him. It was not because we were more worthy than
anyone else or more deserving or meritorious—but simply because God willed to
chose us.”
“Paul gives us a glimpse of eternity
past. He lets us eavesdrop as God
planned to save us—not only long before we were born but long before the earth
was born.” We will begin by looking at “The
Aspects of Blessing” which has several section in it, and then move onto “The
Elements of the Eternal Forming of the Body” which also has some sub-sections
in it, and that is basically the outline of this short section from the first
chapter of Ephesians.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Loss for Christ” (Philippians
3:7).
Today’s Bible question: “Upon finishing his message to the multitude,
Jesus as Peter to do something, what was that?
Answer in our next SD. 10/19/2018 10:51 AM
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