SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/16/2018 10:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Ground of Our Inheritance
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
1:11
Message of the verses: “In Him also we
have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose
who works all things after the counsel of His will,”
As
we begin this SD there are a couple of things I want to point out before we
jump into this verse. First of all the
“In Him” is at the end of verse ten, but fits better at the beginning of verse
eleven. Second the title of this SD “The
Ground of Our Inheritance” is actually the first main point and covers verses 1:11-13a, but
there are going to be two sub-sections that follow our discussion on verse
eleven. It is unlikely that we get
through this first section today, but we will see.
We
have gone over this phrase “In Him” in earlier SD’s and said that it means that
all believers are in Christ, but there is another side to this and that is that
He is in us, something we will write about later on. We have mentioned that because we are In Him
that we have what He has. As far as in
verse eleven begin In Him speaks of Jesus Christ being the ground or source of
our divine “inheritance.” The following
quote from John MacArthur should make all of us who read it think: “Apart from Jesus Christ, the only ultimate and eternal thing a person
can receive from God is condemnation.”
We have talked about what can be described as “common grace” which all
people on planet earth receive from God, things like sunshine, rain, and many
other things that all men receive, however the spiritual blessings that come
from God are bestowed only on those who are “In Him.” There are some verses that we have already
looked at that go along with this theme:
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by
the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus (Eph.
1:1).” 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
(Eph. 1:3-4).” 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, 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 (Eph. 1:6-7).” 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 (Eph. 1:10).”
In
the sixth chapter of the book of Romans Paul gives the spiritual biography of
every believer: “1 What shall we say
then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be!
How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of
life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His
death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection
(Romans 6:1-5).” These verses show us
what happened to us when we were saved, and all that we have is because of
Jesus Christ, and the fact that we are “In Him.”
John
MacArthur writes the following as he comments on these verses from Romans
six: “By a marvelous miracle that only
God can comprehend, every believer has been to the cross of Calvary, been
nailed there spiritually with the Savior, and been buried and raised with
Him. Jesus Christ not only was crucified, buried, and raised
for every believer but with every believer. Not only that, but ‘we know that, when He
appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is’ (1 John
3:2). On that glorious day we will
finally and fully ‘become conformed to the image of His Son’ (Rom. 8:29).”
I
will just give a little preview of what we will be looking next as we look at
verse eleven and it has to do with the words “We have obtained an inheritance,”
and these five words are actually one compound word in the Greek language:
“Eklerothemen.” We will look at this word
and see two different possibilities of how it can be used in verse eleven.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Understanding or should I say better
understanding of the inheritance that I have “In Christ,” has caused me to
think about it and to praise the Lord for all that I am “In Christ.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to continue to cause me to
better understand what I am studying in this first chapter of Ephesians.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “All things” (Hebrews 2:8).
Today’s Bible question: “How did Jesus come into Jerusalem at His
triumphal entry?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/16/2018 11:14 AM
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