SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/10/2014 8:58 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Genuine
Conversion
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2
Thessalonians 1:1b-2
Message of the
verses: “in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now I mentioned in our introduction to 2 Thessalonians
that the beginning verses are almost exactly the same as in 1 Thessalonians and
so some of the material in these early verses may be the same also.
There is a little word in this section that is in a lot
of Paul’s writings and the word is “in” and as believers we are in Christ, and
this word emphasizes the believers’ eternal life with God the Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. When a person comes
to God in repentance realizing that he is a sinner and in need of a Savior, and
then believes in his heart that Jesus Christ has already paid the price for his
sins, and then he invites the Lord Jesus Christ into his life to be his Savior
and Lord he is then “in” Christ. In the
cause of Paul’s writing to the Thessalonians he is recognizing that this church
is a believing church, that all the people who are in this Church are in
Christ. The true church is made up of
all born-again believers in Jesus Christ, and although there can be people in
churches that are not true believers the true church is made up of all
believers.
I mentioned in our introduction to this letter that there
is a slight difference in the introduction to these two letters and that is the
word “our” God and Father is seen in this letter whereas in 1 Thessalonians it
states “God ‘the’ Father.” John
MacArthur writes on this word “our” “which emphasizes that God is the Father of
believers (cf. 1 Thess. 1:3; 3:11, 13; Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal.
1:3,4; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; 4:20; Col. 1:2; 2 Thess. 2:16; Philem. 3). But though Paul frequently speaks of
believers as being in Christ, only here and in the first verse of the first
letter does he describe them as being in God the Father. It is, however, an appropriate reminder of the Father’s care for a
church undergoing severe persecution.”
Let us look at 2 Peter 1:4 to show us more about
believers being “in Christ.” “4 For by
these He has granted to us
His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” When we become true believers in Jesus Christ
we become partakers of the divine nature, and there is no other “religion” that
speaks about this kind of thing happening.
Galatians 2:20 states “ I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for
me.” MacArthur writes “Out of that living union flows
grace and peace. Those two
wonderful words sum up the gospel; grace is God’s unmerited favor to the
sinner, and peace is the result of that favor.
It is no wonder that they appear in the greetings of all of Paul’s
epistles.”
We see that the Lord Jesus Christ is alongside God the
Father in our text for today and without any comment or defense this clearly
affirms Christ’s deity and full equality with the Father. This presents a problem for some, but the
truth of the matter is that there are three persons in the godhead, the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit, and they are all equal, and all God, and this is
exactly what the Scriptures teach.
We can find in the book of Revelations dead churches that
are unlike the Thessalonian church.
Sardis is seen in Rev. 3:1-6, and Laodicea is seen in Rev. 3:14-22, and
they are both dead churches whereas we read the following in 2 Thessalonians
2:13-14 “13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved
by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation
through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. 14 It was for this
He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” These verses show us that this
is surely not a dead church.
9/10/2014 9:33 PM
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