Month: March 2019

217.  Habitation of God

Ephesians 2:21-22 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

It is rather remarkable for us to realize that God inhabits the very body we inhabit; the human body is the dwelling where God lives on the earth. The body of an individual believer is a temple of God, and the temple of the Lord is also considered to be the whole body of Christ, the Church, and all the believers as a whole. 

The promise is that God is at work building a temple, designing the building, and framing it all together for Him to live in. If the God of the universe is going to be present on the earth in a special place He is going to put a lot of thought into it and take great pains to frame it all together. This is exactly what the Lord is doing with His Church, creating a place for Him to dwell.

This “temple” promise helps us to see the true importance of the church, the people of God; they don’t look like anything special when we look at them from a worldly point of view, but God sees something very special: He sees the reflection of Himself in His people; He sees His own love emanating out from His temple, His people, to the people of the world.

When the Lord looks at your own body He sees His own dwelling place, a special space cleaned out and furnished out for God. When we see ourselves the way God sees us we will think differently about our lives. We will also seek to maintain the body and the body of Christ with the preaching and application of the Gospel. God uses the Gospel as the means of getting His Grace to us. The Gospel is the tool of maintenance, and we do everything we can to support the preaching of the Gospel; we strongly desire to maintain the upkeep and healthy functioning of the habitation of God. The place where God dwells is within the individual body and among the body of believers wherever they are found gathering together in Christ’s name.

God is present everywhere according to his general omnipresence, but He is especially present in His designated places to bring a blessing. Enter into His presence with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. His Word is continually on our lips.

216. Fellow Citizens

Ephesians 2:19Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

We are strangers and foreigners on the earth, but we are no longer strangers and foreigners to the Kingdom of God. We are fellow citizens with the saints, in the same kingdom with the same king. In addition to being included in the spiritual and eternal kingdom with the Good Shepherd caring for us, we are also members of the family (household) of God.

They say family is the place you can go where they have to take you in; actually, it is the place where you will be accepted no matter what you have done or where you have been. Being accepted, loved, welcomed and warmed is the greatest and most needed feeling we can experience on earth, and that is in an imperfect family. How much better is the family of God! The Lord will always take us in, welcome us, and make a comfortable home for us. And that’s a guarantee.

No one enjoys dwelling in a strange place where it does not feel comfortable and one can’t seem to get settled. Humans were created to live in community to take care of others and be taken care of by one another. God created family and communities where everyone knows your name, a place where it feels like you matter. This is the kingdom of God. Since Jesus came for us we are no longer on the outside looking in. With Jesus, we are in. Inclusion is important. And as a citizen, a person is guaranteed certain rights, according to the government in place. Even though the governments that be are ordained by God, sin ruins every human government; so justice, rights and protection are not always guaranteed. However, in the Kingdom of God, where Jesus rules in love and with love, everything we need is solidified for us. We may not like human rule, tainted as it is by sin, but we will always enjoy the rule of Christ in our lives; and we are happy citizens. Our so-called “inalienable rights” are promised to us. “Repent and believe the Gospel, the kingdom of God is at hand.”

215. Access

Ephesians 2:18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Access to God the Father is a very great and precious promise. The promise is clear enough in Scripture. God is ever near, never far away, and He will never abandon us or leave us alone, unless we should demand that He leave. Access to the power and love of God is always available since He is always with us. “We have obtained access by faith.” With such ever present access to the grace of God at any time 24/7 we are in the presence of His throne, where He listens to our prayer and encourages us to ask for help in any kind of need. Simple faith grants access. The Father is always accepting us on account of Christ. Acceptance and approval means access to might and mercy.

Who are the “both” in “we both have access?” In this context God is giving the same access promise to the Jew and the Gentile. Neither Jew nor Gentile has different routes of access to the Father, but we all have access by one Spirit. Jews and Gentiles are very diverse from one another in culture, language, customs, background, lifestyle, race and religion; yet the one and the same Spirit of God grants the same access to both diverse groups. The Holy Spirit convinces all people of sin, righteousness, and judgment through one Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit unites all diverse groups of people and brings them all before the Father on an equal footing. 

So not only both, but also all, diverse people groups have access by one Spirit. All the different races, religions, cultures, tongues, tribes and people groups have strengths that they love, which make them feel superior to others who are different. We know that there is no superior and inferior, just differences and diversities; but they all have the same access to the Father by the one Spirit. There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father; and one access.

Thank God for free access; nothing but sin can block access to God, but in Christ the separating sin has been taken away. Now only faith is needed, and the one Spirit grants that by grace though the Gospel.

214. Made Near

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

We were all sometimes far off from God, each one of us wandering in a far off country, but the blood of Christ has brought us close to God. He made us near. Our own sins were the problem; Sin separated us from God. We could not approach God or get anywhere near close to His beauty, holiness and love, or we would be consumed by God’s holy fire. 

However, when the blood of Christ washes away our sins then there is nothing in the way between God and us sinners. Now we are made near to God and we are engulfed in His love; we are not blinded by the light nor consumed by the holiness. We do not have to be far off. It may seem to us at certain times that the Lord is absent or removed from us, but we may easily come near again through repentance and faith in the Gospel. The feeling of God’s Presence may not return right away, but the Truth of His Presence and nearness certainly will.

The promise says that it is the Father who makes us near; he draws us. We do not “come near,” we are “made near.”We do not naturally have the desire or ability to draw near to God or to come close to Him. But Jesus Christ died for me, the ungodly, while I was still a far off sinner. The Holy Spirit has called me by that Gospel word and drawn me with cords of love. God does it all: He sent the Son; the Son died; the Spirit makes near.

From a worldly perspective it may seem as though I came near (became a believer in Christ) by accident: I was born in the right place, I met the right people, I happened to hear the gospel of salvation, and the right things happened to me at the right time. But from a heavenly perspective it wasn’t an accident at all: God met me and by design and brought me near. The Lord is orchestratingevents, people, and places to make me nigh; He is moving heaven and earth to bring about my forgiveness and salvation. I may have thought I was seeking Him, but all the while He was looking for me. The Lord found me and brought me near.

213.  God’s workmanship

Ephesians 3:10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

God promises He will make us His workmanship; He has created us in Christ for good works. He has ordained even before Creation that we should live in these good works. And, as his workmanship, He is continually shaping and polishing us, and this process goes on as long as we live. When we die and rise again the work will be finished through the transformation process of death and resurrection.

It appears to us that the human decides to do a good work, or not, but it appears in this promise that God has before ordained the good work that we decide to do. Our union with Christ is so mixed that we cannot discern which one of us is actually doing the deciding and acting. Either way, the life we live is planned and designed by the Lord who saved us for His purposes.

The word for workmanship is actually “poema,” or in English, a poem, a beautiful work of art, sometimes translated “masterpiece.” We don’t usually think of ourselves as masterpieces, or beautiful poems; but this is how God thinks of us and what He is doing in us. The shaping, sanding, chiseling, and polishing may not feel so good at the time, but the end result is marvelous. The experiences of life are tools in the hands of a master artist. He knows what He wants to do with us; He doesn’t make junk; He doesn’t make mistakes.

Believing this promise helps me think differently of God and of myself; it helps me entrust myself into God’s hands; it helps increase my self-esteem; it helps me remember that God is doing some beautiful things with my life; it helps me see life in a more optimistic way and my future is bright; it helps keep me humble realizing that the Lord is the creative one who gets the praise for good works done by a sinner.

“I am a masterpiece!”That statement of belief makes me proud of my God and humble in myself.Jesus gets the praise and I enjoy the result. That’s grace, isn’t it? Jesus does the work and I get the benefit.

212. Salvation is a Gift

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a the gift of God.

The central and crucial doctrine of Justification by Grace through Faith is the promise of salvation. The emphasis in this verse is on the free gift of grace. The emphasis is on God’s doing it all; it is all God’s action. The Father plans it; the Son earns it; the Spirit distributes it. Grace is amazing because it is hard to believe and hard to fathom. We are so used to getting what you pay for; it is the gift of God, not of works; it is getting what someone else paid for. Grace = earned by Christ and given to us as a free gift. It is difficult, actually impossible, for the human mind to conceive of anything so precious being so free. “There must be something I can do.” Grace says, “There is nothing you can do; it’s all been done.”

We are saved by grace and through faith; it sounds the same, but it is actually a little different. Grace saves, or even more exactly, Jesus saves. Faith does not save; it only receives; faith does not do anything or contribute anything to the saving. Faith does not make it so; faith does not make it happen; grace does. Faith is not a good work; faith does not merit anything; the merit and blood of Christ is the work. I am a mere recipient of the favor and blessing of salvation; the Holy Spirit implants the faith in the heart when He opens the heart by the Gospel. In this way it is through faith: faith makes it personal; faith makes it my possession.

By grace through faith = grace saves, faith receives. The promise of salvation is a free gift, and it must often be remembered that it is free. However, that does not mean that grace is cheap, and we cannot just use it for license. Grace is extremely expensive:it costs the sacrifice of the Father and the life of the Son and the work of the Holy Spirit. Great love makes grace free to me. Thank you, Lord.

211. Kindness

Ephesians 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through  Christ Jesus.

This promise of great kindness toward us is a future promise, as it is meant for the “ages to come.”We know about the present age, and we know about the next age after this present one. But what are the plural ages? There should be only one age to come, the eternal state in which we dwell with God in righteousness forever. It could mean there are several “ages” in the coming eternal future; we don’t know any more about that. It could also mean there are still to come several “ages” during this present age. We are living in the New Testament Age, which exists alongside the present age of the evil world. Perhaps there are divisions of ages within this present age.

At any rate, in the ages to come He will show us the riches of His grace. It takes a lifetime to search all the riches of grace; these riches are unfolding every day since “His mercies are new every morning.” We receive new experiences, little tokens, fresh insights and revelations into the depths of grace. We will never exhaust those riches in one lifetime of studying God’s Revelation; so the Lord extends our lifetime into eternity so that He can show us these vast riches earned by Jesus and granted to those in Christ Jesus.

One way of expressing grace, and our experiencing of it, is kindness. God is the kindest person we will ever know. He is kind toward us every day, and He continually shows us new kindnesses. We can understand kindness, while we cannot fully comprehend grace with the human mind. God shows us kindness daily, although we miss it very often; we miss it partly because it usually comes through ordinary people and ordinary circumstances in life, and so it doesn’t look like God. To aid us in seeing what God is showing we need to look for “God sightings.” Once we start looking we will see God’s kindness everywhere. He is rich in kindness; in eternity we will be overwhelmed; but in this age also we can be bowled over by kindnesswhen the eyes of faith are enlightened. Prepare for a “God sighting” soon.

210.  Sit together in heavenlies

Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

The Bible says that we are crucified with Christ, we were buried with Him by Baptism into death, we rose from the dead with Christ, we ascended with Christ, and now we sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We also have the prophecy that we shall come with Christ to the earth at the end of the age to judge.

It is amazing what faith in Christ accomplishes: we identify with Christ in all of His redemptive work. We are with Him through every step; and He even promises He will be with us to the end of the age. The unity we have with Jesus by faith could not be expressed in stronger terms. Being with Christ, being in Christ, identifying with Christ in every way, except insofar as He is God. 

Sitting in the heavenly places says that we are glorified with Christ and we are rulingwith Christ. We cannot understand this promise fully because it is taking place in the spiritual world, in the kingdom of God, which we do not see. Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: this we believe, teach, and confess, for the Bible tells us so. But the promise also says that we are sitting with Him, on His throne or on a throne next to His. Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Under that authority He commands us to go and make disciples of all peoples, baptize, and teach them to observe. We the Church carry out the mission of Jesus Christ, who directs His Church from the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

Jesus Christ is ruling, and, hard to believe, He rules though His people, the humans who believe in Him. We, weak humans though we are, are ruling and exercising dominion and authority over “all nations.” We, and Jesus, do not bend others to our will as the world’s rulers try to do. But we rule through witnessing, praying, loving, serving, giving, and many other such humble activities. Christians do such lowly good works and activities from a position of sitting and ruling with authority. The Church rules by preaching the Gospeland serving the Sacraments according to the Word of the Gospel. The Christian sits and rules by supporting the work of the Church, the body of Christ, which exercises the will of God in the world. We preach and support the preaching of the Gospel: that is sitting in the heavenlies. 

209. Saved by Grace

Ephesians 2:5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved.)

This promise of quickening completes the sentence begun in verse 1, but the new promise is given in parentheses: saved by grace. The promise is that we are saved, not will be, not were, but presently are saved; we are perpetually in a state of salvation, or in a state of grace.

We are saved from Sin, from its penalty, from its corruption, from its condemnation, and from its guilt. We are not presently saved from the presence of sin and its temptations, for sin still remains as long as we are in the world and in the flesh. We struggle regularly against sin with faith and the power of the Spirit. We will be, for sure, saved from its presence in eternity when the soul and body are transformed through death and resurrection.

We are saved from Death, from the Second Death, from the finality of death, and from the fear of death. We will still die when the soul separates from the body, this much is certain, but we shall see the reunion of the soul and body that lives before God forever without end; and then there is no more the prospect or even the presence of death

We are saved from the Devil, from his lies and deceptions, from his temptations, from his threats, and from his condemnation. He is no longer a master and prince who has control of our lives. We still give in to his lies and deceptions, but we may turn again back to God, renounce the devil, and regain the Lord’s good control of our lives.

Salvation is real and it is wonderful and free; and it is by Grace. Grace is the means of salvation, the instrument through which salvation comes to us; salvation comes through the means of grace, namely, the Gospel through Word and Sacraments. Grace means it is free for us, but grace is not free: it is extremely expensive and very precious; the cost is the innocent suffering and death of Jesus Christ; it costs blood. And it is completely paid for, meaning that nothing is left for us to do. It is finished. Grace means that Jesus earns salvation, and He gives to us what He earned. Grace is earned by Christ, but unearned by us. Grace = God did it all. Grace is the earning, the paying for, the deserving, the working for salvation; and it is the giving, distributing, sealing, and securing of salvation. Grace is great and free, but it is hard to believe. Thus it is a promise to be received by simple faith in Christ. Believe the Gospel.

208.  Quickened

Ephesians 2:1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Through Jesus Christ God has made us alive, and He promises to keep on making us alive. He has given us life and He continues to give us life. By God’s own life-giving power the Lord has caused us to be born from above through Baptism and faith. Our inner spirit was born dead to God; our human spirit is born to new life when the Holy Spirit enters our spirit and makes it alive. This is quickening.

Once this conversion event has taken place and the Spirit resides in our spirit and our spirit lives, that spirit continually affects the soul and gives life and positive energy to the soul; this process makes the dead soul live again with new life, life that arises out of the source of Life, God’s Spirit in the human spirit. The Holy Spirit convinces me of two things: I am dead in sins, and I am alive in Christ. Both are side-by-side true at the same time. By life, we mean a spiritual connection to the life of God; by death, we mean a spiritual separation from the life of God.

Human pride prevents us from seeing the deadness and darkness in which the soul exists. The Law brings repentance, which breaks the deadness by revealing it and by making the soul realize the need for the Gospel of forgiveness and life. Then the Gospelbrings the refreshment of new life. This is quickening. For the sake of life and living we need to hear Law and Gospel daily; for we are ever and always in danger of losing life and coming closer to death. If we absent ourselves from Law and Gospel for too long we discover that we are losing the freshness of life and gradually drawing closer to the stench of death. Daily we come before the Lord and say something like this: “I am dead in sins, I repent; I am alive in Christ, I believe.”

We have been promised a quickening. We may also employ this quickening power by applying it to the specific needs of living. The Spirit is ever present to make the forgiveness of sins real and effective and to apply the true and powerful life of God to the soul and the body. Quickening is real.