UNITED WE STAND

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation….  (Ephesians 2:14)

In this chapter, Paul is giving a graphic portrayal of fallen man’s condition apart from Christ, and the transformation occurring from entering a personal relationship with Him.  These verses describe sinners as orphans and outcasts.  All that changes when we meet Jesus.  Sinners become saints—and the result is we become part of the family of God and the estrangement we had from God and His people comes to an end—united with Christ and one another.

The church is a BROTHERHOOD (Eph.2:11-14).  The world loves to think of itself as a great community where all are one.  The reality contradicts such utopian nonsense. Man’s brutality is graphically displayed on the news each day.  The only way true peace comes is when the Prince of Peace brings it!  Our peace with others is predicated on our peace with God available through Christ.  It is through this connection that God becomes our Father.  We may have black skin or white skin; we may be Methodists or Baptists; we may be Jews or Gentiles—we have the same Father and belong to the same family.  Sinful humans like to build walls, but God is in the business of demolishing barriers!

The church is a BODY (Eph.2:15-18).  As a body has many different parts, connected and working together at the direction of the head, so is the church.  God fashioned Adam’s body from the dust and breathed into man His life in the original creation.  In the new creation, He took such unlikely material as we are and molded us together, breathing His life-giving Spirit into us—and the church came to life!

The church us a BUILDING (Eph.2:19-22).  I’ve often heard—and said—that the church is not a building.  That depends—if we mean that the church is not an edifice constructed of bricks and mortar, we are correct, but the church is a spiritual temple constructed by God of redeemed men and women.  The picture is of an architect fitting many different components into a structure—and thus God is the Architect of His church and we are the pieces He puts in place.  The foundation of this temple is Christ the cornerstone and connected with Him, the apostles and prophets, who shared His Gospel in establishing the church.  On that foundation, God is raising the frame.  We are the material He is using.  How exciting that what God is doing in our local church is part of the great eternal temple He is building!

You can be my brother or sister—if God is your Father.  No longer need you be excluded—an outcast without hope—you can be reconciled to God and enter His forever family!  If you have not received Christ—do it NOW!

Those who belong to Him need to employ the unique giftedness He has placed in us for doing the work in this world He wants done.  No more fighting with each other, we are family!  No more laziness, we are the Body of Christ to be His hands to help and feet to go and mouth to speak!  No more complacency in thinking the church is “OK” when He wants the building ever expanding!  Why would we want to build a chicken coop on the massive foundation of Christ’s work which He designed for a heaven-reaching and global-encompassing structure?

THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort....  (2 Corinthians 1:3)

The name of God is sacred for it reveals the nature of God.  Since His name is a disclosure of His infinite being, then many names are given in Scripture to help us relate to Him.  One name is not adequate, though all others flow from the name, I AM, for that is a limitless term, as we may see in that glorious name, many facets of God's nature.  I AM Alpha and Omega; I AM the Bread of Life; I AM the Good Shepherd--and so many more.  Whatever we need, we may know there is a name for that need.  Thus, Paul, writing to the Corinthians here, identifies Him as the "God of all comfort."  It was a precious name that Paul could bear witness to for he had been the recipient of God's remarkable comfort.  The degree of the solace he had received was in direct proportion to the depth of the suffering the Apostle had known.  As one reads this letter, Paul opens the door into the heart of a Gospel preacher and allows us to peer into the chambers filled with pain and problems that come with ministry.  Yet, in his disappointments and difficulties, during loneliness and labors, there is the note of faith in the sovereign purpose of God and declaration of the supernatural peace He bestows.  The best preaching arises from more than a doctrinal proposition formulated in the pastor's study, but from the personal manifestation of that truth's reality in daily living.  Paul wasn't discussing a theory but giving a testimony to the "God of all comfort."

The man of God knew something more--that God is no respecter of persons--so the comfort He gives for one man's trials is a promise of comfort to another facing his or her own problems.  Whatever you are going through today--the relentless pressures and pain of life that roll in continually like ocean waves--there is a supply of comfort available to us to enable us to withstand the storm surge.  God builds a sea wall with timbers of truth, grounded on the solid Rock, cemented together by grace to guard our hearts from despair.

In providing for Paul, God gave him a life message to other struggling pilgrims, and when we experience His comfort it is not meant to be hoarded, but shared.  Here is the context:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

God had comfort for Paul in his suffering and now he encourages the Corinthians that similar comfort is available to them, and thankfully to us as well!  May you know the "God of all comfort" today!

CHOSEN

 

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, 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, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.  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, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:3-12)

To be chosen—someone selects us to be on their team, an employer calls to say we have been hired, we hear our name called to win a prize—being chosen is a wonderful feeling.  To be chosen by God—now that is an indescribable blessing!  Yet, it is true for all God’s children.

We are not His because we were randomly born into His family.  We are not an accident, but we have been adopted—chosen.  God has reached out to the abandoned and accepted us.  He has sought the loveless and bestowed His love.  It isn’t that we deserved such honor, for what He has done is to His honor.  While we were only fit for Hell, God has made us fit for Heaven!  That is the grace of God—amazing seems too feeble a word, but is perhaps the best we can do.  It is an astonishing adoption!

Our adoption, from our viewpoint, has happened when the Holy Spirit called us to Christ at a moment in time, but actually happened because we were already chosen in eternity.  The all-knowing God had His heart set on us long before we were born.  Before the first man was fashioned from clay and named Adam, God already knew my name, and had predestined me to be His son!  Two thousand years before I sinned against Him, the price was already paid by the Lamb of God for those sins.  Indeed, He is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.

God has a plan for your life—a purpose He will fulfill, and not all the power of Hell can thwart it for it is wrought be an all-powerful Being.  God is up to something—and it will be glorious!  That is the hope we have—steadfast and sure.  It is not a fantasy, but a reality, for that hope of glory rests in the finished work of Christ.  My life will bring Him glory—here and hereafter.  Someday all His chosen ones will stand before Him complete—trophies of His grace, objects of His love, subjects of His glory!

So, all this being true—and we have only scratched the surface—how should we live?  Being blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, we ought to think and behave as those who are children of the King!  His name that I bear ought to be honored by my life.  His image that has been imprinted on me, should be manifested by me.  Since He has a purpose for me, I should move with purpose.  My hope should be evident and lead others to inquire of the reason for it—and have a ready response to explain it!  I have been chosen in glory, for His glory and ought to lead others to give Him glory for His work in and through me.  What a destiny!  Let us live out that truth today. This is the Word of God—and may that Word be made flesh as I manifest His glory.