Sunday January 29, 2017
“Blessed in Christ”
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption
as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made
us accepted in the Beloved – Ephesians
1:3-6
The Plan of Grace
The Plan of God – Ephesians 1:3-14
We praise God along with our text for today for the spiritual blessings we
have in Christ!
We continue with our second verse to further guide us in our
understanding of God’s plan of salvation. In Romans, Paul opens his
letter from the starting place of man’s deep seated need under the wrath
and condemnation of God. He lays out man’s condition and need, then he answers
it with grace and the resources found in Christ which traces all the way back
to God’s eternal purpose.
In Ephesians, he approaches the subject from the viewpoint of Christ
as center: all spiritual blessings are ours in Christ. In Romans 8,
the great doctrines are links in a
chain (the golden chain). In
Ephesians 1, they are spokes in
a wheel which centers on Christ (the silver spokes). In Christ, we are blessed, chosen, predestined to be sons, engraced,
enlightened,
included,
sealed. Paul is building out the fullness of the grace which becomes
ours in Christ.
In Ephesians 1:13 – 14, Paul indicates that believing follows upon
calling, and it also seems to indicate that receiving the Holy Spirit
is the experience of those who have come to believe in Jesus. He has now
expanded our original map of God’s purpose. If we take this new
information and added to Romans 8:30, we might get a reading like this: “those God chose and predestined he
also called; those he called through
his Word came to believe, were justified and were sealed with the Spirit. These same also glorified”
Challenge: How cool is
that? If you are in Christ, can you say that you chose Christ? Or is it the
other way around? Does this affect your witness to others? How so? How will you
change your mindset when praying for others and sharing the gospel?
This Day in Christian History:
Jan 29, 1535 – torch-lit procession of the royal
family of France and leaders of the Catholic Church to oppose the new
protestant reformers who were shaking up the establishment with their “so-called”
heresies. Many were jailed, persecuted and killed.
Memory Verse:
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things
according to the counsel of His will
- Ephesians 1:11
‘io, ‘i He‘ene ‘Afio ‘a ia ne fai ‘iate ia foki homau fili
mōno tofi‘a, ‘o toka tu‘utu‘uni
kimautolu ki ai, ‘o fakatatau ki
he finangalo ‘o ‘Ene ‘Afio, ‘a ia
‘oku ne ngāue‘i ‘a e ngaahi me‘a kotoa pē ‘i he ‘alunga ‘o e fakakaukau ‘o hono
finangalo – ‘Efeso 1:11
Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)
Week 5 – Exo 1-3; Gal 5
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