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 “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 use to do 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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