Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Ephesians 1:14 - We are His, and He is ours

"...Who is a down-payment of our inheritance, unto redemption of the possession, unto praise of His glory."

-There are two ways you can receive a kleros, a lot or portion.  One is by the luck of the draw, randomly, and the other is lawfully, by inheriting it.  In this case, Paul says, we are in line for a real, legal, royal inheritance from the King of the Universe!  But check it out, fascinating juxtaposition, this.  We are God’s possession - He is buying us back, and yet we are inheriting Him - He is our portion, our inheritance.  We are His and He is ours.  

-And all this to the praise of His glory.  Yes, here for a third time Paul gives us the grand end of all that God has done and is doing in Christ to gather a people to Himself.  In the end, all these people who He has purchased with the blood of His Son and who are now His heirs will join the great host of heaven in forever declaring and celebrating the excellencies of this One Who out of nothing made all things better-than-good (Genesis 1.31), and then though they were subsequently broken will make them all even better (well, technically not all - sadly some will face destruction).  But more specifically, He made man in His image to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him and even though that relationship was severed and the image marred almost beyond recognition, He has been restoring all that, all things through Christ, through Whom He also made all things to begin with (cf Colossians 1.15-20).


-And those who do trust in this Message, in God’s redemption through Christ, they have already received an advance on this inheritance - to everyone who believes God gives His Spirit, the living God Himself living right inside us.  You see, I told you He is the inheritance.  Now in our spirit, then and forever face to face.  But He is with us and IN us now always at all times, just as Christ promised (John 14.16, cf Matthew 28.20), never more to depart (Hebrews 13.5), unlike how it was for God’s people in earlier times (cf Psalm 55.11, 1Samuel 16.14).

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