Faith Journey

Ephesians 1:7-8

The Story: In these two verses we are reminded of God's purity, glory, power, forgiveness, grace, wealth, wisdom and insight.  As I'm meditating on these 2 verses, I'm confronted by the awe of God in his greatness and humbled that all that he is has been focused in detail on the soul of a single person, me and you.  God is deeply interested in you.  Even though his wealth is infinite in nature, his cost for our forgiveness came with a sacrificial price tag.

During the years I have met wealthy individuals that gave large sums of money for the Lord's work, sometimes more than what I could accumulate in a lifetime but in reality it was not a sacrifice on their part.  Their gift did not cost them anything in terms of their current luxurious life style.  If you have $100 in your bank account and you give $1 million, you still have $99 million at your disposal.  It is a gracious gift but not a sacrificial gift.  Now put that in context with God's infinite wealth yet your forgiveness required of God a sacrificial sacrifice.  Yet, because of his richness in grace, he willingly lavished his wealth on us so that we could be free from the slavery of sin.  It required the death and blood sacrifice of his only son.

What should our response be?  Is the cost worthy of our gratitude?   That's hardly sufficient. Rather, we should respond in worship  and lordship of every aspect of our lives.  To be complacent about our devotion to Christ is like slapping him in the face.  "Thanks God, now if you don't mind, I'll live my life the way I want to, don't call me, I'll call you if I ever need you."  How arrogant of us if that's our response.

Today's Key Truth: The depth of Christ's cost for our salvation demands our full devotion in response.  To fall hopelessly in love with our redeemer is the least we can do.

Today's Application: How have you shown Christ today how much you love him?  Have you told him? Have you given him any time? Have you primed your life today so that you will hear him when he speaks to you?  Or is your life so filled with self that there is no room for God today.  Evaluate your schedule today.  Christ sacrificed his life for you, what sacrifice of your own life will you make so that you can devote time with him?

"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10)  Apply this to your life today.

Ephesians 1:6

The Story: What was God's purpose in our Salvation? What was God's intention in adopting us as His children?  The common answer that I hear is so that we go to heaven.  While God loves us and created heaven for us, we must be careful not to say that this was God's ultimate purpose.  If that were true then once we became a Christian and secured a place in heaven, then all we need to do is wait till that happens.  If heaven is God's purpose in our salvation then our life on this earth can be lived for self without much effort in learning what the Bible says and prayer - after all, we've already done what's necessary to reach God's goal.

Ephesians 1:6 clarifies the point of God's goal in our salvation and our adoption into the family of God..."to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son."  God wants our life as a child of God to return praise to Him and worship him as Lord.  As believers our goal ought to be use our new family status to give glory to God in all aspects of our life in such a way that others will see Christ and turn to him to be their Lord.  Your life belongs to God.  We ought to seek to give glory in all the things we do and the thoughts we think.

In Romans 8:5 we are introduced to the thought of how our outlook, worldview, is shaped.  It depends whom or what we have a passion for.  If your passion is beauty, then that will shape your life.  If your passion is for fame or recognition, that passion will shape your world view.  As children of God, redeemed by Christ's sacrifice through faith, we need to have a passion for the things of God, his word, his people.  We need to minimize the gap between our relationship with God and the physical aspect of our lives. Christ before us, behind us, beside us and in us.  In so doing, we are becoming what God has always intended, a life that exists to bring glory to Him.

The Key Truth: God's ultimate purpose in our salvation is that His name will be glorified through our life, words and actions and bring others to God.  Heaven is the home of the redeemed - a massive bonus for those that are in the family of God.

Today's Application: Reflect upon your life today and acknowledge that your life is not your own.  You were designed to bring glory to God.  What areas of your life cannot be to his glory.  You must adjust these things so that you align your life so that it gives glory to him.  This requires a repentance on your part, change the direction of your life, take yourself and your pleasures off the throne of your life and acknowledge Christ as Lord.  God has not brought you salvation, adopted you into his family just so that you wouldn't have to go to hell.  Pray, "Lord, forgive me for living my life as though I was the captain of my own domain.  I was to give you my life, direct my life for your honor and glory, and I will rejoice in all the things you bring my way."

Ephesians 1:5  "He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will —"

The Story: There is an amazing truth found in this verse.  I remember when we were expecting a new grandson through adoption.  It had already been decided before hand that when the baby was born that it would become the new baby child of our children.  We knew it before the baby was born.  Every preparation was made to welcome this new son into their home.  He was going to receive every legal and emotional right as if our daughter had given birth to him.  There was one obstacle.  The birth mother had a brief time period to decide whether or not to keep the child or present him over for adoption.

Paul uses the analogy of adoption to describe how we became a member of the family of God.  Before the beginning of time, God decided that he would have a family of his own.  The only ones that could become his children was a redeemed, forgiven people through faith in Jesus Christ.  The Father had already selected us and the Son has paid the price of our adoption.  When through faith we embraced Christ as our Lord, the Holy Spirit breathed a new life in us and then acted as the adoption agent by placing us into God's family with full rights and heirs with Jesus Christ.  We still had a brief time whether or not to chose to go through the adoption by deciding whether or not we would embrace Christ as Lord and Saviour.

The Key Truth: God decided in eternity past to embrace us through adoption and Christ paid all the adoption costs. When we embrace Christ, the Holy Spirit completes the transaction by giving us a new life and places us into the family of God.

The Application: We need to accept God's offer of adoption that comes with all the legal rights as heir with Christ.  By faith we must acknowledge Christ as Lord by asking God for forgiveness for living life without Him and embrace Christ as our Lord.  As newborns in the family of God we must now live under the principles of our new home in accordance to the pleasure of His will.

Ephesians 1:4 - "For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love."

The Story: It's easy to get all tripped up by the idea of Election and being God's choice.  However, whatever choice you make on the interpretation, don't minimize God's Sovereignty nor His Grace.  The fantastic truth about this verse is that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world. This does not affirm that God chose some individuals and rejected others, but that before the world was, before there was Jew or Gentile, God chose to have a people for himself, the whole church of Christ, a covenant people confined to no one earthly race.

Why did He choose to have a people for himself?  So that he could occupy heaven with his subjects?  The answer lies in a couple verses, Ephesians 1:6 where it says, "to the praise of the glory".  Our lives have been designed to give glory to God and to enjoy him forever (Presbyterian Catechism).  Particular to this verse, we read that God's choice was in Christ Jesus our redeemer.  Only when man is in Christ is God able to look at man and see him holy and unblemished through the forgiveness of sin through faith in Christ.  Why is this important?  At the pinnacle of this truth is the fact that our lives will bring glory to God.

The Key Truth: The primary reason that God chose a people to himself was that they would bring glory to Him.

The Key Application: We must, as believers, bring our lives into alignment with what God has always intended; that our lives would bring glory to his name.  Perhaps a good exercise would be that we should plan to go through one day by ending each thought, action or decision with the phrase "to the glory of God".  I'm guessing that there would be things in our lives that would not in fact bring glory to God. Too often we think that our salvation was for the purpose of getting us to heaven when in fact that is just a by-product of salvation. As absolutely fantastic that truth is, our salvation is not about us but about God.  Choose to reevaluate whether or not God's glory is the chief end of all our lives.