SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/21/2018 10:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Salvation
is With a Purpose”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
2:6-7
Message of the verses: “6 and raised us up
with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
I
suppose that it is true that when a person becomes a believer in Jesus Christ
that he realizes that he has been saved from his sins and now belongs to
Christ, but the question is what is the purpose of our salvation to God. How does our salvation affect God? Perhaps you have never thought about this
question let alone the answer to it, I don’t remember if I had or not, but the
question comes up in this section of Ephesians, and the answer too. John MacArthur writes “The most immediate and
direct result of salvation is to be ‘raised up with Him, and [to be] seated
with Him in the heavenly places.’ Not
only are we dead to sin and alive to righteousness through His resurrection in
which we are raised, but we also enjoy His exaltation and share in His
preeminent glory.” This small section of
Ephesians “seated us with Him in the heavenly” has always been somewhat of a
mystery to me, but now the light is beginning to come on for me as I realize
that this has to do with what my salvation does for God.
I
read the commentaries that I read as I study the Bible to help me to understand
what the Word of God is saying, and since I have had trouble with this section
I want to see exactly what MacArthur’s commentary has to say about this so that
I can understand it better. He writes
“When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead His first instruction was, ‘Un-bind
him, and let him go’ (John 11:44). A
living person cannot function while wrapped in the trappings of death. Because our new citizenship through Christ is
in heaven (Phil. 3:20), God seats us ‘with Him in the heavenly places, in
Christ Jesus. We are no longer of this
present world or in its sphere of sinfulness and rebellion. We have been rescued from spiritual death,
and given spiritual life in order to be ‘in Christ Jesus’ and to be ‘with Him
in the heavenly places.’ Here, as in
1:3, ‘heavenly places’ refers to the supernatural sphere where God rules,
though in 6:12 it refers to the supernatural sphere where Satan rules.”
He
goes on to write “The Greek verb behind ‘seated’ is in the aorist tense and
emphasizes the absoluteness of this promise by speaking of it as if it had
already fully taken place. Even though we
are not yet inheritors of all that God has for us in Christ, to be in ‘the
heavenly places’ is to be in God’s domain instead of Satan’s, to be in the
sphere of Spiritual life instead of the sphere of spiritual death. That is where our blessings are and where we
have fellowship with the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and with all the
saints who have gone before us and will go after us. That is where all of our commands come from
and where all our praise and petitions go.
And some day we will receive the ‘inheritance which is imperishable and
undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for [us]’ (1 Peter 1:4).”
I
really am not that comfortable because the majority of this SD to quote this
much, but as mentioned this section of Scripture has been a great problem to me
and in order to understand it and this section from MacArthur’s commentary has
been very uplifting to me and therefore I want it to be uplifting to all that
read it.
He
goes on to conclude his commentary on these verses by writing “The phrase ‘in
order that’ indicates that the purpose of our being exalted to the supernatural
sphere of God’s preserve and power is that we may forever be blessed. But it is not only for our benefit and
glory. God’s greater purpose in
salvation is for His own sake, ‘in order that in the ages to come He might show
the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.’ That, too, is obviously for our benefit, but it is first of all for God’s,
because it displays for
all eternity ‘the surpassing riches of His grace’ (cf. 3:10). Through His endless ‘kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus’ the Father glorifies Himself even as He blesses us. From the moment of salvation throughout ‘the
ages to come’ we never stop receiving the ‘grace’ and ‘kindness’ of God. ‘The ages to come’ is different from the age to come in 1:21 and refers
to eternity. He glorifies Himself
by eternally blessing us with ‘every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ’ (1:3) and by bestowing on us His endless and limitless ‘grace’ and
‘kindness’. The whole of heaven will
glorify Him because of what He has done for us (Rev. 7:10-12).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Realizing that the salvation that I have as
being a gift of God will bring glory to Him is something that truly blesses God
is great and wonderful news to me. I
think that as my wife pointed out that I have known this before as she
mentioned the wedding supper of the Lamb which will happen in heaven when we
will be given as a gift from the Father to the Son and then laying are crowns
down to give to the Son makes me realize that my salvation will be a blessing
to my Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord to enable me to better
understand what I am to teach this upcoming Sunday in my Sunday school class.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Peter” (Matthew 14:28).
Today’s Bible question: “Of what country was Jehoiachin King?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/21/2018 12:04 PM
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