Discipleship According to the Letter to the Ephesians cont’d
“According as He hath chosen us before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved. In whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace: wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.”
-Ephesians 1:4-8
Holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord, a lofty idea, at first glance it seems
impossible. Yet, have not men throughout
the ages exhibited this in their lives?
Amidst our carnal flaws, have not certain men throughout time proven
what it means to walk according to the Holy Spirit and not according to the
flesh. This is the destiny we will
discuss; leaving aside doctrinal divisions of predestination vs. free will, but
speaking, for the sake of this study, solely of the destiny of Jesus.
God knew from the beginning of
time, mankind would need a savior. He
gave circumcision to Abraham knowing it would never in itself perform the task of
separating the Israelite from the stranger.
He gave the law to Moses knowing no man would keep it. He did these things knowing all along it was
going to take the life of Christ to be fulfilled. These are things that Moses brought forth in a
mystery. Moses told the people to circumcise their heart; to love the lord your
God with all thy heart, to love thy neighbor as thyself. He brought forth the Ten Commandments. Only to break the tablets at the shock of how
quickly his flock, in his absence, had turned from God. It took Jesus to live a sinless life to be
the final sacrificial lamb. It took
Jesus to die, so that the Holy Spirit, the comforter could be loosed upon this
world. So that men could experience freedom from sin through the indwelling of
the Spirit. This was the plan from the
beginning. Upon understanding this great
mystery are we not left in awe at the power of God?
This awe should compel us to
believe certain things about our Creator.
First, He is truly all-knowing.
What can we know, next to Him? In
the words of King David, what shall we render?
What shall we give? Does not the
answer come back to where we started?
Holiness without which no man shall see the
Lord. Is not any less only standing in
the way of God? Have we not proven that
He knows all things, why would we
fight against Him?
That said, being honest, we know
we have done just that. This brings us
to the second thing we believe of our Creator.
He loves us and shows us unbelievable mercy. He has grace upon us, so much that it was
the good pleasure of His will to suffer the death of the cross that we may be
saved. What an awesome God!
This is the change spoken of in
the previous page. Upon this
understanding, are we not compelled to put certain things out of our lives? As
the Holy Spirit convicts us should we not walk away from sin? Jesus paid the penalty for it. There is no
reason to hide from it. Furthermore,
there is no way to hide from
it. Look briefly at the gospel of John
(1:12) ‘as many as received Him, to them he gave power to become the sons of
God.’ This is that power revealed
through the writing of Paul; being redeemed by Jesus, our sins are no longer to
be a stumbling block in our path. So
long as we have a repentant spirit with godly sorrow, unashamed to confess our
sins, forgiveness is an everlasting present.
This should bring about great joy and peace. This is the entrance into the body of
Christ.
This first
chapter of Ephesians is dealing with this first revelation of the gospel. The inward man is being strengthened by
faith. Our eyes are being opened to the kingdom
of heaven as was mentioned earlier. We
can begin to see the tapestry of different people and places in Christ. Verse 10 speaks of the dispensation of the
fullness of times. This means
arrangement or administration by God, this speaks of the day when Jesus will
take the wheat from the tares or divide the sheep from the goats. Those that have passed away and those still
among the living will stand together as one in Christ Jesus. This is a reminder that it will be Christ who
decides who is saved, and not our vain imaginations. This is a call to holiness
and obedience to God's perfect will. Jesus said (John 5:30), “I can of mine own
self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and
my judgment is just: because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father
which has sent me.” As disciples, should we not be as our Lord was before us?
Verse 13 says
that we should be the praise of God’s glory.
As He trusted Jesus, we trust in Jesus which allows us to believe and
live sealed in the promise of salvation.
This is the fountain of the Holy Spirit by which all the works of the
kingdom are performed. This is where the
anointing springs from. We must stand
on this pledge of redemption until the day He comes to carry us home.
We, as
saints, should learn to be grateful for one another. Follow the Apostle Paul’s lead by making
mention of one another in prayer. We
should pray for wisdom, revelation
and understanding one to another. We
should hope to see His mighty power exemplified that we may gain blessed
assurance that we are His. The
inheritance of the saints may be the fruits of the Spirit shining in our life:
joy, peace, love, longsuffering, gentleness, kindness, meekness, faith, temperance
(Gal. 5:22). For Jesus is above
everything in this world and the next and is able to reveal Himself. Furthermore, it is His good pleasure to do
just that. If our eye be single then the whole body be full of light (Mat.
6:22). This is the body of the
resurrected Christ living here on earth through the faithful, through us His
disciples.