The Riches That Are Ours In Christ Religion Essay

Hello and thanks for listening to Word Alive – I ‘m Mark Williams and Dr Derek Stringer is here to take us through another transition in this enormous book of Ephesians. I ‘ll make the usual thing of dropping in a poetry of Bible or a quotation mark here and at that place when asked. Derek is both an writer and wireless broadcaster. He travels a batch to prophesy and learn God ‘s Word as the ‘voice ‘ for Good News Broadcasting Association – the squad behind Word Alive and tonss of other Christian programmes in more than 60 states.

I ‘ll manus over to Derek in merely a minute — but allow me acquire this edition of Word Alive off the get downing blocks this manner.

An aged adult male lived in an old train that was in awful form. The adult male lived in basic poorness, but he had 1000000s of lbs sitting in the bank. It ‘s one thing to populate that manner if that ‘s your predicament in life, but it ‘s another thing to populate that manner when you have wealths that are

available to you.

I think there will be a batch of Christians who go to their grave life as religious paupers — ne’er truly cognizing the wealths they have in Christ. It ‘s one thing to populate that manner if you do n’t cognize any better. But when we discover the wealths that we have in Christ, it ought

to dramatically impact the manner we live our lives.

Derek

Thankss Mark – and today as we look into the book of Ephesians we will detect the wealth that is ours in Christ.

The wealths that are ours IN CHRIST are non based upon our public presentation. It ‘s non based on

whether or non you had a good hebdomad spiritually. The wealths are ours because of our place — because of who He is, non because of how we ‘ve performed. So you may hold had a bad hebdomad spiritually, but you are still in Christ. Therefore these wealths are still yours because of who He is, and that ‘s really of import to maintain in head.

What Paul is speaking about is true of every individual who has trusted Jesus Christ as a personal Jesus. At that point, when you trust Christ, you are ‘IN CHRIST ‘ and you are

inheritor to the heritage we have in Christ. With that in head, allow ‘s delve into Ephesians 1 poetries 3 to 14.

We are introduced to our approvals, and we can truly take out what is meant by those approvals.

Now — WHAT ARE OUR BLESSINGS?

Paul praises God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because God has blessed us. That word for ‘blessed ‘ is a word that means God has poured out His premium upon us. So he says, ‘Praise to God because God has poured out His premium to us in religious wealths. ‘ He so says, ‘who has blessed us with every religious approval. ‘

Now — WHAT IS A Religious Blessing?

I think there ‘s a inclination to believe there are those approvals which are existent and touchable, and I can touch them and savor them. Those are the 1s which are practical. And so there ‘s the construct of abstract approvals, which are out at that place someplace, and I know they ‘re true, but they truly do n’t impact my life at all. We might state those approvals are sort of irrelevant to life, but it ‘s nice to cognize they ‘re at that place. But that ‘s non what he ‘s speaking about at all.

Religious approvals are those approvals that are brought to us by the Spirit of God that are really practical to mundane life. In fact, subsequently on we ‘re traveling to see the application of these approvals in a manner that tells us they are really practical to the manner we live out our lives every twenty-four hours.

The religious approvals that Paul negotiations about are those approvals which are in this

religious kingdom and he describes the religious kingdom as ‘in the celestial kingdom in Christ. ‘

When he talks about heavenly topographic points, he ‘s non speaking about geographics. He is speaking about another dimension that is right here with us besides. It ‘s non out at that place someplace ; it ‘s right here. But it ‘s a religious dimension, and in that dimension is where Christ is seated in the heavenlies. He ‘s on His throne, and we are seated at that place with Him. We are His kids, and we are inheritors to the household luck. All these things that are true of us in Christ are true in this religious kingdom.

Now when you walk through the shopping promenade, people ca n’t look at you and state the difference between those who are IN Christ and those who are NOT in Christ. They do n’t cognize that you have this unbelievable wealth in Christ.

Mark

Think about the innovation of the wireless, where there are all these airwaves in the air, and you merely merely alter the dial to tune into different frequences, leting you to tap into these different dimensions, in a sense, that are out at that place.

What if we could contrive a machine to make the same thing spiritually and we could travel from this physical dimension and re-tune to the religious?

What if we could tune ourselves into this religious dimension that ‘s right here among us where the angels and the devils exist and where Christ is seated on His throne? What if we could acquire a glance, possibly merely be at that place for five proceedingss and truly understand our unbelievable place in Christ — who we are in Christ, and the wealth that we have in Him? We would be changed in such a manner that we would ne’er populate out our lives in this physical dimension the same once more.

Derek

Well, until we get such a machine invented, we merely have to take Paul ‘s words by religion — that what he says is true. We do be in this religious kingdom and all these approvals come from this kingdom and are true of us in a rather singular manner in Christ.

What are these approvals? What are these religious worlds? Paul is traveling to speak about them.

Mark

It might be helpful to cognize that from poetry 3 right on through poetry 14, in the Grecian linguistic communication it is one long run-on sentence.

Derek

203 Grecian words to be exact. That ‘s a really long sentence. So all the punctuation you see has been put in by the transcribers, to seek and assist us do some sense, or some order, of the sentence. It is really hard to seek to order and sketch this subdivision of Scripture. To me it feels like when you take a fizzing drink bottle and set your pollex over the top of it and agitate it up. When you take your pollex off, the drink does n’t be given to come out in an orderly manner. it merely spews out all over.

We get the feeling that Paul is so aroused, because he is observing what is true of us in Christ, that he fundamentally merely draw his pollex back and it comes spiting out, spilling all over the page. Therefore, it ‘s non easy to sketch.

We will look at it in three big classs to seek and do some sense of it as we roll

through these poetries.

Mark

The first approval that he talks approximately, this premium that God has poured out upon us is introduced to us in poetry 4.

Derek

THAT IS THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION — this scriptural instruction that God chose us before we of all time chose Him.

Do n’t you wish to be chosen? Remember when you were a child playing ball, or a game with sides, or “ Red Wanderer? ” There were normally two captains and they would take sides. They ‘d state, “ I choose you. ” “ I choose you. ” Kids love to acquire at that place and state, “ Choose me! Choose me! ” I remember one clip I was playing football with some older male childs and they were taking sides, and I was the really last one chosen. Was n’t that great for my self-esteem? They chose everybody else and so one of the captains pointed at me and said, “ Well, I guess you can hold him. ” That ‘s so difficult when you are non chosen. I have good intelligence for you though: In the most of import pick that was of all time made for you, God chose you! This is called the Doctrine of Election.

Expression at what he says,

Mark

“ He chose us in Him before the creative activity of the universe. ”

Derek

Now what does that intend? The Bible Teachs this really clearly, that before we of all time chose God, He chose us. Before you were conceived, before your parents were conceived, before the Earth was even created, God had already chosen you to be a receiver of His premium. You say, ‘Well why did He take me? ‘ The reply is: I do n’t cognize. I merely know that the Bible Teachs He did, and it ‘s called the philosophy of ELECTION.

Now I know there ‘s something within us that causes us to seek to somehow figure this

out. How does this work? How does God run? How does God travel about taking? But

the world is that a finite head, like ours, can non to the full understand what ‘s traveling on in the

infinite head of God. Nowhere does the Bible say we ‘re supposed to calculate it out.

The philosophy of election addresses the SECURITY of our redemption. If you believe that the

ground you are a kid of God is because one twenty-four hours person made a pitch to you about the

Gospel, and you merely happened to be in the right temper and responded to it, so you do n’t

understand your redemption at all. Because the Bible Teachs that sort of thought is a adult male centred, small-God type of divinity. What the Bible Teachs is that it is manner more than that.

It has been a God-thing since infinity yesteryear. Before the Earth was even created, before the

foundation of the universe, God already had you in head and you were chosen to be a receiver

of His premium.

Some people try to decide that by stating, ‘Well, here ‘s how it works. God knew in front of clip who would take Him, and those are the 1s He chose. ‘ But that does n’t work for a twosome of grounds. It does n’t work because that implies you deserve to be chosen,

because you somehow merited it. In other words, it would connote that God chose those who

deserved it. The point made in Romans is: ‘Nobody deserves it. ‘

Mark

Another ground that account does n’t work is because it puts this chronology on

God ‘s cognition. In other words, God looks out. He sees you. He sees you ‘re traveling to

choose. So He responds to that by taking you.

Derek

And that wrongly implies that God is n’t all-knowing — that He does n’t cognize everything. It implies that He learns something, and so because He learned something, He responded to it. But that is non true of God, so the account does n’t work. It ‘s merely an effort to seek and calculate out how it works, but I do n’t believe it can be figured out. I merely know that the Bible Teachs that God chose us, before we of all time existed, to be the receiver of His wealths.

WHY DID HE CHOOSE US?

He says He chose us that we would ‘be sanctum and blameless in His sight. ‘ Again, that is non speaking about your public presentation. You may non hold lived that manner late. You may non hold lived really holy or been inculpable. But it ‘s speaking about your place in Christ. Because of whom He is, when we were chosen, we were chosen to stand sanctum and blameless before Him.

When we talk about choosing so, we understand our security — the confidence of our

redemption. I now understand it was n’t merely something that I responded to one twenty-four hours, but this has

been the program of God since before the foundation of the universe and God has been transporting out His program. And if that ‘s God ‘s program, so my redemption is every bit certain as it can be.

Now I know sometimes people say that when you talk about security like that — knowing that our redemption is certain — that it can go a licence for people to transgress. They feel they can travel out and wickedness like the Devil and they ‘re non traveling to lose their redemption. But I ‘ve ne’er understood that thought, because security does n’t bring forth rebellion. Insecurity is what

green goodss rebellion.

When Pauline got married to me and said that no affair what we face, she will ever be at that place for me, that did n’t do me desire to travel out and hold an matter. That did n’t do me believe, ‘You know, she ‘s traveling to be at that place no affair what, so I ‘m traveling to travel out and be unfaithful. ‘ No, the more security there is — the more devotedness, the more love, the more familiarity — the more that relationship works. Our kids do n’t arise because they ‘re manner excessively unafraid. Our kids rebel because they ‘re insecure.

One of the inquiries that frequently comes up is: How did He take us? Did He merely open up a type of heavenly phone book and throw darts at it and state, ‘Okay, those are the 1s

I ‘m taking ‘ ? No, as a affair of fact, it ‘s a really warm, loving, sort procedure whereby God chooses us.

Mark

“ In love he predestined us to be adopted as his boies through Jesus Christ, in conformity with His pleasance and will. ”

Derek

Those are footings of compassion and kindness. He chose us. He predestined us. The word ‘predestined ‘ agencies He predetermined us to adoption as boies. What does that intend? If the choosing is the class, within that there is this predestination — this predestination — to be adopted as a boy of God. We are born into the household of God, but when we are adopted, at the same clip, we are made a legal inheritor to the household luck. That ‘s what acceptance refers to — that we have been made a legal inheritor to the wealths of Christ. That ‘s why we ‘re called boies of God. That ‘s non a statement of gender – it ‘s irrelevant what our gender is. It ‘s stating that we have become boies, because in that civilization a boy was the legal inheritor to the heritage. So we ‘ve been all made legal inheritors of the wealths that are ours in Christ, and this was predetermined by God.

God has already predetermined what he wants you to go. He wants you to conform to the image of Jesus. What is God ‘s will for your life? Peoples say, “ I want to cognize God ‘s will. ” God ‘s will for your life is to be like Jesus, who is holy and blameless. Granted, when Jesus comes back for you or you die and you go to be with Jesus, you ‘re traveling to be like him, wholly and absolutely-but, right now God is seeking to alter you bit by bit to be more like Jesus. Are you more like Jesus today than you were one hebdomad ago? Are you more like Jesus today than you were one twelvemonth ago? That ‘s God ‘s will for your life to conform you to the image of his Son Jesus. He wants to alter you.

I heard a amusing narrative about an old American cowpuncher. He grew up on a spread and had ever

lived at that place. He visited the large metropolis. He had ne’er seen a three-story edifice or a lift. He walked into the anteroom and was looking about. He saw the lift doors unfastened and an old lady with a cane walked into it and the doors closed. He saw the visible radiations blink a small spot and in merely a few proceedingss, the doors opened once more and a beautiful immature miss walked out. His eyes got every bit large as disks and he said to his boy, “ Travel acquire your Ma-we privation to run her through that thing a twosome of times. ” That ‘s precisely what God wants to make to you. When his lift comes down which is his Holy Spirit he wants to take you and alter you to do you like Jesus.

What does it intend to be like Jesus? Does that intend I have to hold long hair, turn a face fungus and have on a robe and sandals? ” No. We ‘re speaking about the interior qualities of Jesus. If you want to cognize what those are, they ‘re the fruits of the spirit: Love, joy, peace, forbearance, gradualness, goodness, submission, religion, self-denial as you are going more like Jesus. That is God ‘s predestination for you.

We do n’t truly cognize why we were chosen. Paul is merely stating we celebrate the fact

that God has chosen us. One of the grounds we struggle with this whole philosophy of election is because we ‘re determined to seek and calculate out what is our portion in all this. We want to cognize what our function is and how we figure into it. This transition points to the fact that it truly is n’t about us at all. It ‘s about God and His nature and His character. It ‘s about His desire to

show this property of His, in such a manner, to the congratulations of the glorification of His grace. To make that,

He merely chose people upon which He would pour out His premium. It ‘s about God ; it ‘s non

about us. What God wants from us is merely to have it — merely to accept it and to believe it to be true.

So the first approval Paul negotiations approximately is this whole thought of GODS CHOOSING — which

helps us understand the unbelievable security of our redemption. It helps us live in a secure,

confidant relationship with God, and we celebrate these approvals.

Mark

The 2nd approval that he talks approximately is the construct of REDEMPTION.

“ In Him we have redemption through His blood. ”

Derek

The word ‘redemption ‘ was non a spiritual term. It was a street term that came out of the slave market. Equally shortly as that word salvation would hold been spoken, the people instantly would hold thought of the sights, the sounds, and the odors of the slave trade. They would hold imagined a sight they had seen 100s of times — of people brought up on the slave block, typically in ironss and bonds, to be sold. The maestro would take them and they would go his ownership. So, for the maestro to come along and to pay the

purchase monetary value to purchase that slave and to put him or her free, was to deliver that slave. That ‘s

the imagination they would hold had when they heard the word salvation.

Mark

I think it ‘s besides of import to retrieve Paul is composing this from ironss and bonds in a Roman imprisonment, as he was chained to a Roman guard. So the thought of the ironss and

bonds would hold been really intense for him. But he ‘s observing the fact that at one clip

he was enslaved to transgress.

Derek

We are all on that slave block. We are in ironss and bonds — and there ‘s non one thing we can make to take ourselves from that status. Therefore Jesus came along, and the purchase monetary value, Paul says, was His blood. We are no longer slaves.

It does n’t count how bad your yesteryear. It does n’t count what you ‘ve done in your yesteryear

or what wickedness you ‘ve committed. You have been redeemed. You have been purchased with the

blood of Christ, and you have been set free. How it must let down God when He removes

the ironss and sets us free, and so we go on to populate our lives as if we were still in bondage.

still enslaved. Some of you struggle with this construct of forgiveness, and you live in the

shadows of your yesteryear. You live with the guilt of past picks and past determinations, and it ‘s difficult

for you to acquire beyond that. If that ‘s true of you, you need to detect really carefully what Paul says. He did non state that your forgiveness comes out of the wealths of His grace, but harmonizing to the wealths of His grace.

There ‘s a large difference between those two phrases.

Let ‘s conceive of that there are two people — one a millionaire, and the other earns minimal pay. Suppose the offering bag is passed and the minimum-wage cat puts in ?10, and the millionaire puts in ?10. Both gave out of what they have. But allow ‘s conceive of that we pass the offering bag once more. The minimum-wage cat gives ?10, but the millionaire gives ?50,000. Now they have given harmonizing to what they have. That means they have given in proportion to. So if God has forgiven you harmonizing to the wealths of His grace, it means in proportion to an limitless supply of grace. And if God has an limitless supply of grace, so the proportion needed to cover your wickedness is limitless.

God ‘s grace is lavished on us. God does n’t desire us to walk through life someway seeking to convert Him that we deserve to be forgiven, so we carry our guilt, and round ourselves up.

Mark

We think somehow that ‘s traveling to convert God we truly merit to be forgiven.

Derek

But God does n’t desire that, because the point is: it is n’t about us at all. This is a jubilation of His grace. We are to allow God observe His grace in us. That ‘s what He wants from us — merely to have what He ‘s so freely given. That we might be redeemed and set free, and so live like we ‘ve been set free.

God will look at you and compose across your life FORGIVEN the debt is paid. ” Gordon McDonald is a curate and writer. He said he had a dream one dark where a clump of people were walking about in a room. ( like a party or something ) You know how we all put

on these small name tags that say, “ Hello, my name is ________ ” ? he said everybody was

have oning one. His said, “ Hello, my name is Gordon. ” Underneath that it said, “ fornicator. ” He

looked at person and their name ticket said, “ Hello, my name is John ‘liar. ‘ ” Person else ‘s ticket said, “ Hello, my name is Mary ‘drunkard. ‘ ” He noticed everybody in the room had a sin underneath their name. Everybody there was a evildoer. Then, he said in this dream, Jesus Christ walked into the party. One by one he started taking those name tags away and started seting them upon himself, because that ‘s what Jesus did on the cross. The Bible says, “ He became wickedness. ” He carried our wickednesss in his organic structure and he forgave us of our wickednesss. If that does n’t acquire you excited, you are likely unexcitable, because the Bible says, “ Jesus has taken your wickednesss. He has separated them every bit far as the East is from the West he has put them behind his dorsum he remembers them no more he has buried them in the deepnesss of the sea and he put a mark up that says, “ No Fishing Here. ” He has wholly, perfectly forgiven you. If that ‘s non a religious approval, I do n’t cognize what is.

Mark

Paul says he wants to observe God because of the approvals that God has poured out

on us. In CHOOSING us, God has predetermined us to be adopted as His kids, and in

REDEEMING us, He has set us free from the slave market of wickedness.

Third, he wants to speak about our SALVATION and all that is involved in that.

In all God ‘s wisdom and apprehension He ‘s made known to us ‘the enigma of His will. ‘

Derek

Now, a enigma in the Bible is non something that ‘s sort of eerie. A enigma is something that was antecedently unknown, and God has made it cognize to us. Paul is traveling to speak in-depth about what this enigma is subsequently in the book. But for now he merely gives us a intimation of it. He is stating that this enigma God is doing known has really been a portion of His program that He ‘s been transporting out all down through the ages.

So Christ is seated on His throne, and we ‘re adoptive kids of God ( inheritors to the household luck ) . When God ‘s timing is right, He ‘s traveling to take this earthly dimension and this celestial dimension, and draw them all together and sum them all up in Christ. At that minute, everything will go clear. Jesus will be on His throne, and we will be seated with Him. We will understand the full extent of our wealths, and everything will travel to that climaxing minute as God accomplishes His program.

He ‘s stating that in the yesteryear we were God ‘s chosen people. God chose ( predetermined ) us as His people. He worked through us, and poured out His approvals on the Judaic people. That is what has been. But so in poetry 13 the pronoun alterations: ‘And you besides [ the Gentiles ] , after listening to the message of truth, the Gospel of your redemption holding besides been included. ‘

How can it both be true that we have a will to take Christ, but He chose us before the foundation of the universe? ‘ The reply is: I do n’t cognize. And honestly, neither does anybody else. But the Bible Teachs that both are true.

It ‘s really of import that we do n’t stress one over the other. When Jesus said, ‘Whosoever will, may come, ‘ that was a legitimate offer. Anybody who chooses to believe in Him can have redemption. You say, ‘Well, how does that square with the fact that first He take? ‘ And my reply once more is: I do n’t cognize. But I do believe they ‘re both true. You have to go forth them in this paradox, or you violate one or the other, because they ‘re both clearly taught in the Bible. And they ‘re both clearly taught in this transition.

Paul is stating that these Gentiles, one time they heard the message of God ‘s redemption,

responded to it. They believed it. ‘Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. ”

To be sealed agencies to hold the grade on you that indicates ownership or ownership. If I owned a ownership in the first century, I would set my seal on it, and that would bespeak it was mine and I possessed it.

The Holy Spirit is a down payment for our heritage — in other words, signed, sealed,

delivered. It ca n’t acquire any surer than that!

Paul is stating, ‘The Spirit of God is the down payment. My grade is on you. You ‘re My ownership. I ‘ve put down the money and you are Mine. And I am traveling to deliver you as My ownership to the glorification of God. ‘

Those are enormous words, because God is making everything He can to state us, ‘You ‘re Mine. I bought you. I ‘ve adopted you. I chose you. I redeemed you. You belong to Me. I chose Old Testament Israel and I worked out My will in them. And now I ‘ve chosen the Gentiles, and you ‘re My ownership. You ‘re coming together with them, and in the comprehensiveness of clip, all of this is traveling to be summed up in Christ. ‘ These religious worlds will go to the full known in a manner we ca n’t even conceive of.

Why would God make this? Why would God pour out His premium upon us?

Mark

The reply is found in verse 6: ‘To the congratulations of His glorious grace. ‘

And verse 12, ‘For the congratulations of His glorification. ‘

And verse 14: ‘To the congratulations of His glorification. ‘

Derek

It ‘s really of import that we understand this is non about us. We have a inclination to do these things about us, but it ‘s non. It ‘s about God ‘s grace and who He is. Our lone portion is that we are the receivers. We do n’t merit it. We have n’t earned it. All He wants from us is to have it — and so to observe it, that the universe might cognize His grace and His glorification: ‘to the congratulations of His glorification. ‘

How it must let down God when we go through life discouraged. Sometimes we complain that God has n’t been really good to us. God must look down from the celestial spheres and believe: What in the universe is incorrect with you people? Do n’t you realize that I took this premium of My goodness, and I have poured it out upon you in ways you ca n’t even conceive of.

We ‘re so spiritually affluent it ‘s beyond our ability to grok. He says, ‘I chose

you. I ‘ve adopted you. You ‘re heir to the household luck. I ‘ve redeemed you. I ‘ve set you

free. I ‘ve put My grade on you. I ‘ve put down the down payment. I ‘m conveying everything

together. ‘

This is every bit good as it gets! We are so spiritually affluent! God wants us, so, to

celebrate every twenty-four hours in visible radiation of what ‘s true – to observe each twenty-four hours as the receivers of God ‘s

unbelievable premium.

Mark

Dr Derek Stringer has been taking us through Ephesians 1 today here on Word Alive. There ‘s a free transcript available to your electronic mail reference. Just ask for it and we ‘ll be happy to direct it to you.

Before we finish I ‘d wish to advert that there ‘s a particular Bible Conference coming up shortly with Derek Stringer and other talkers associated with Good News Broadcasting Association. It would be so good to hold you go toing – Just inquire us for inside informations about that excessively.

Derek

My thanks to you for fall ining us for today ‘s Bible survey – and I hope that you ‘ll acquire in touch with us or fall in us once more following clip for Word Alive.

I ‘m Derek Stringer. My thanks to Mark Williams who is both Presenter and Producer of Word Alive.

Mark

And this is a Good News Broadcasting Association production.

Derek

Good-bye for now and God bless you.