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.