Ephesians 1:3-5.
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Again, look at vs 3. Who’s doing it? God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing. In verse 4 we see it just keeps getting worse. Now look. It says He chose us to be holy and without fault, and He did that BEFORE HE MADE THE WORLD.
Wait a minute. Didn’t he realize what a wretch I was? Or I guess I should say would be since He chose me before He formed the world. In other words, I was way more important to Him than the world was or is for that matter. How can that be? Well read on. The answers in the next verse.
Verse 5. He decided in advance to adopt us. It’s what He wanted to do. It brought him great pleasure. So when people don’t receive his great gift of grace they are in affect, removing from God a great pleasure.
He has chosen me and you and then set up camp inside us to destroy hell around us. Now I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty great deal to me. The problem remains that there are those who will not receive this truth. As a result, they cannot enjoy and live the truth in Hebrews 2:11 – “So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters”.
Had enough yet? Well, it just keeps getting worse. You know what I mean by that…..correct? It’s a facetious statement. When I say that I mean it keeps getting more powerful and confirming of the Truth of grace for those who believe, and that is bad news for the religious minded, rule-keeping, performance oriented individuals. Here’s more truth.
Gal 3:23-25.
23 Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
Said another way, we do not have to walk out the law in order to be right. We get to walk it out because we are right.
Gal 3:26-29.
26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
We are His heirs. Do you see that? It’s right there in front of your eyes. Do you have eyes to see this? What’s the Holy Spirit saying through Paul in all of these scriptures? He’s saying sin was an issue, but under grace, sonship is the issue, and it has been settled.
2 Corinthians 3:5,6.
5 It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. 6 He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.
Not only has God qualified us, but He has enabled us to be ministers of His New Covenant, not Old Covenant. In verse 6 it says this and goes on to say that the covenant He made us ministers of is not the “covenant of written laws, but of the Spirit”.
Finally, in verse 6 it says the old written covenant ends in death; but under the New Covenant, the Spirit gives life. So if God says the old covenant is not the ministry given us, and that it ends in death, why would anyone try to live under it’s impossible demands?
What do you believe? If you say you believe in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us, but you are still trying to perform for God and keep all the man-made rules, then you’re in bondage to religion and legalism. Time to get set free. Go back through this study and the numerous other studies on Grace. They will help you get started studying the truth of God’s word, rather than just reading it or taking for truth what you hear from someone in the pulpit.
Funny word pulpit. Many times what happens from that place is it pulls people into a pit. Pull-pit. Don’t let that happen. There is plenty of powerful grace messages in the scriptures contained in this teaching alone, to prove that it is not by works that we are saved, but by grace through faith. Time to get set free. Grace and Peace.
