SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/6/2018
10:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Redeemer
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
1:6b-10a
Message of the verses: “which He freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom
and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His
kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration
suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all
things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.”
In
our last three SD’s we have actually been looking at the introduction to the
verses that are seen above, and not in today’s SD we will begin to look at these
verses. John MacArthur entitles the main
section we will be looking at in the next few days as “The Elements of Redemption.”
MacArthur writes the following in his short introduction to this section “In
this passage Paul mentions five elements of the redemption God offers fallen
men through His Son, Jesus Christ: the
Redeemer, the redeemed, and the redemption price, results and reason.” In today’s SD we will begin to look at “The Redeemer.”
When
we look at the first part of verse six we see “to the praise of the glory
of His grace,” and the word “grace” is
the antecedent of “which.” The synonyms
of the word “antecedent” are “precursor,” “forerunner,” “ancestor,” “predecessor,
and “forebear.” It is in God’s grace,
which can be described as “undeserved love and goodness” that God “freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved,” and it is because that we are in Christ that we
have redemption, something we have looked at a number of times. It is Jesus Christ who is our Redeemer from
sin. John MacArthur writes that “the
Beloved (the word indicates the One who is in the state of being loved by God,
who Himself paid the price for our release from sin and death. Because we now
belong to Christ, by faith made one with Him and placed in His Body, we are now
acceptable to God.” One of the things
that I think about as I study this book so far is that all of this happened to
me at the point of salvation and the only thing that I knew right away was that
I was changed, and one of the reasons that I knew I was different was because I
no longer had a desire to swear, something I did a lot.
Matthew
3:17 states “and behold, a
voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am
well-pleased." The part of
this verse that we want to focus in on is “This is My beloved Son.” Those who have believed in Jesus Christ, that
is believed in Him “He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred
us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” as found in Col. 1:13. It is because that we are now in the Beloved
that we too are beloved of God as seen in Romans 1:7 “to all who are beloved of God in Rome,
called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul was talking
about all of the believers who were in Rome, and all of them are beloved of
God, and are called saints, so that means that all true believers are beloved
of God and are called saints. Believers
are saints! It is true that only the Son has the inherent right to all the
goodness of God, however because we are identified with Him by faith, that goodness
is now also our goodness. I think that
this statement is very difficult for me to comprehend, because of the fact that
I am a sinner, but God does not now see me as a sinner but sees me in His Son,
who is perfect, who is beloved by the Father.
I believe this by faith, but as stated it is hard for me to comprehend,
which is something that I want to do and that is one of the reasons that I am tackling
this book of Ephesians because in this book, which is written about the Body of
Christ, the church, Paul takes the time to show us all of these truths, truths
that are so wonderful that they are hard to believe, and harder to put into
practice.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Rachel” (Genesis 35:16-18).
Today’s Bible question: “Which epistle is addressed ‘Unto the Elect
Lady’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/6/2018 10:51 AM
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