SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/25/2018 9:23 PM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Pledge
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 1:14a
Message of the
verses: “Who is given as a pledge of
our inheritance.”
The word in the Greek for our word “pledge” is “arrabon” and this word was used for a
down-payment so as we look at this in reference to this part of verse fourteen
we see that the Holy Spirit is God’s down-payment to all believers that they
will get to heaven, and that all of the inheritance that we have been looking
at along with what it says in this portion of verse fourteen.
The Holy Spirit is “God’s first installment of His
guarantee that the fullness of the promised spiritual blessings “in the
heavenly places in Christ” (v.3) will one day be completely fulfilled. They are assured and guaranteed with an
absolute certainty that only God could provide.
The Holy Spirit is the church’s irrevocable pledge, her divine
engagement ring, as it were, that, as Christ’s bride, she will never be
neglected or forsaken (cf. 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).”
The Goal of Our Inheritance (Eph. 1:14b)
“with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession,
to the praise of His glory.”
We have been studying what our inheritance is for a number
of weeks, and as we look at it in view of our salvation we will see that this
was not the primary purpose of it. So
what is the primary purpose of our salvation if not receiving an inheritance
from our Lord? MacArthur writes “The
great, overriding purpose of God’s ‘redemption’ of men is the rescuing of what
is His ‘own possession.’ All creation belongs to God, and
in His infinite wisdom, love, and grace He chose to provide redemption for the
fallen creatures He had made in His own image—for His own sake even more than
for their sakes, because they do not belong to themselves, but to Him.” Now as I think about that statement for a
while it seems to me that this may have been the first time we have heard
something like this.
The
key thing that Paul states here and has already stated in verse six and twelve
is “to the praise of His glory.” We are
not saved for our own glory, but for the glory of God. “20 “The beasts of
the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given
waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen
people. 21 “The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise (Isa.
43:20-21).” If we desire and bring glory to ourselves then we
are robbing God of what He alone deserves as He saved us to serve Him and to
praise Him. MacArthur adds “We
are saved to be restored to the intended divine purpose of creation—to bear the
image of God and bring Him greater glory.
“This
is fully accomplished at the believer’s glorification, when we receive full
glory and redemption and are made the perfect possession of God.”
This
SD ends the very long sentence from the original language which covers verses
3-14, and so in tomorrow’s SD we will begin “Our Resources in Christ” which
covers 1:15-23.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “He went out and weep
bitterly.”
Today’s Bible Question: “What was the first statement Moses and Aaron
made to Pharaoh?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/25/2018 9:50 PM
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