… having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Our engrafting into the family of God is by adoption. The LORD Jesus is the firstborn of those who belong to the family of God.
God thinks highly of each and every person that have come to accept Jesus as their LORD. It is a pleasurable thing for us to be called unto God. His will for us is to have an expected end to which His glory is demonstrated in our lives.
May The LORD strengthen us to walk worthy of this high elevation upon our lives.
Ephesians 1v3 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,
The preachers of today have done a great deal of work establishing the truths about the blessedness of any Believer that comes to Jesus. This is commendable as this knowledge has become an anchor of confidence to the average Believer.
Indeed! We are blessed. Infact, elsewhere in the epistles of the apostle Peter, he gets more specific and calls us a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, separated and sanctified by our God through Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! These are amazing truths and promises worth investigating for the rest of our lives.
However, the simplicity of this truth of our blessedness is best understood when we accept our union and identity in Christ. We have become one with Him by reason of our rebirth. This is the simple faith that unleashes blessings stored in heavenly places for us. By faith and in prayers of faith, we route them like traffic directors into our very lives.
Ephesians 1v4 …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,…
As Believers, our identities are Christ and the nature of Christ should be the very source of the flow of our character. If it is not so with you as at yet, then we need to recognize this great want and by the power of the Holy Ghost resident in us beseech Grace that we rise to walk worthy of our identity. Is it possible to live a holy life? Yes! Absolutely! Not by our might not by our power, but by the Spirit.
This verse speaks of matters that have been genuinely debated in our Body and I do not aim to add to the debate but merely state that, our God and Father of The LORD Jesus Christ has called us unto salvation by the Spirit through Jesus. If He did not call us, we could never come. Therefore, it is by Grace we are called unto salvation. And as called out ones therefore, in the filth of our deeds, we must always want to walk worthy of the calling that remains for us – unto holiness.
Our lives are sustained by the power of God through His mercies. We ought not to ever think of ourselves as deserved except by the Grace of election. Then, the mandate remains that we ever strive to make our elections sure and certain in The LORD Jesus.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is the ability of God that operates in us who believe. It is by Grace, apostle Paul confidently chanted the favourite statement, “I can do all things …!” There is a dimension of Grace that works in our spirit men in a way I would want to liken to the operation of an energy drink. I comes to enhance our what we can do. Then, another level of Grace comes to enable to us become what we were not. Hallelujah!
Peace works like an anchor that stabilises the ship of our life. It’s job is to keep us afloat and stable amidst every turbulence that life may present. The LORD said He has given us His Peace (see John 14v17) and the apostle re-echoes it that this peace acts like garrison roundabout our hearts. Like soldiers that guard fortresses, the peace of God resident in our spirit at salvation through Jesus Christ, we must allow this peace to guard our hearts indeed.
May The LORD grant us that enabling ability to see the beauty of life with a garrisoned heart that is full of His Grace and His power.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
The apostle Paul speaks of a very profound thing in this opening statement. He acknowledges two important things every Believer needs to see if we must rightly live in this realm.
First, he speaks of his identity which he has founded in Christ Jesus. As believers, we must take our very identity from the person of the Christ, our lover and deliverer. It is by Him that we have the ability to approach the Throne of Grace that we might live.
Secondly, the apostle speaks of the will of God. There is nothing that we can become unless the will of God vetoes it our lives. We know the will of God towards all men by the Holy Scriptures. It says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (see Jeremiah 29v11). Hence, we can be sure of what God intends for us. However, His intents can find power in our lives if truly we will allow God’s will to find expression in our lives through our will.
The LORD will always give us abilities equivalent to our identities because our lives and what we can do will always flow through our identity. In the end, His will brings us to expected ends.
