SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/11/2019 9:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Access to God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
2:18
Message of the
verses: “for through Him we both
have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”
As we begin to look at this verse we have to know that
the “Him” is the Lord Jesus Christ as we see that the word is capitalized,
which indicates it is speaking of Christ.
It is through Christ that we have our access to the Spirit and then to
the Father. This shows us that the
resources of the entire Trinity are ours the moment that we receive
Christ. MacArthur adds “It is not just a judicial
reconciliation but an actual intimate relationship with practical value as we
bring our needs to the Father.
“Prosagoge
(‘access’) is used only three times in the New Testament, in each case
referring to the believer’s access to God (see also Rom. 5:2; Eph. 3:12). In
ancient times a related word was used to describe the court official who
introduced persons to the King. They
gave access to the monarch. The term
itself carries the idea not of possessing access in our own right but on being
granted the right to come to God with boldness, knowing we will be
welcomed. It is only through our
Savior’s shedding of His blood in sacrificial death on Calvary and by faith in
Him that we have union in His Holy Spirit and have access to the Father. The Spirit is at work to draw us continually
to God (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6-7A). Both
and one spirit emphasize again the commonality of Jew and Gentile. The work of Christ and the establishment of
His church reach to all men.”
The truth that is described in the previous paragraph is
something that all new believers need to understand, for there are some
believers who only rely their emotions and not find the truth in
Scripture. When Jesus Christ died on the
cross the curtain was torn from top to bottom indicating that this was a
supernatural act, and this meant that all believers would now have access to
the Holy of Holies which is where God dwelt in the OT temple, but now the
Spirit of God indwells all true believers making all true believers the temple
of God.
MacArthur writes the following about this subject: “The only access into God’s presence, the
only door into the sheepfold of His kingdom, is through His Son. But it is a wonderful glorious access that
can never be taken from us. We can
always ‘draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy and may find grace to help in time of need’ (Heb. 4:16). Through God’s giving Son we, too, become His
sons. Consequently we ‘have not received
a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but…a spirit of adoption as sons by
which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8:15).
It makes no matter what background that you came from as
we have learned that those who are far off our Gentiles, and those who are near
are the Jews, once we come to Christ we are all one in Him. Then because of this new birth as we have
mentioned we have access to the very throne of God. In the Old Testament Day of Atonement the
High Priest once he offered a sacrifice would then come into the Holy place
where he would take a sensor filled with incense from the altar of incense and
wave it before the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was thus
preparing for him to go into the Holy of Holies by the prayers of the
saints. He would then place seven drops
of blood onto the Mercy Seat to cover the sins of Israel for a year. Today we need not offer a sacrifice in order
to have access to God because Christ did this on the cross for us, however we
do need to pray so that God can hear us speaking to Him just as the altar of
incense was used for in the OT. Today
there is a temple in heaven and when we pray to the Father our prayers are like
incense flowing to the Father.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful
that I have access to the Father and I never want to take that for granted.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to learn humility by studying Romans
12:3, and to continue to seek the truth as I study His Word and not get
emotional as I stand on the truth.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Lo, we have left
all and followed thee’?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/11/2019 9:32 AM
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