Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, Filled by God due to grace,(Rom 5:12-21).

Sunday August 9,2020

 

 

When we comprehend the love of God we comprehend, to some measure, the gift of Christ and all that came to us through Him. These gifts fill our lives and leave us in need of nothing.

 

Therefore, being filled up to the measure of all the fullness of God requires comprehension.

 

God tells us that in Christ we have been made complete or full. He has designed us to be full of love, joy, and knowledge. He has fulfilled the Law for us. He has made us the type of humanity that He has desired, minus the resurrection body, which is to follow.

 

ROM 8:15-25

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

 

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

 

Christ is the first-fruits of the resurrection: the first that represents the whole crop. We are the first-fruits of the Spirit: the first of humanity designed to walk by the Spirit.

 

We wait eagerly for our eternal bodies, at home with our Lord in heaven. It is our hope. The world is without hope, destined for judgment and destruction, though Satan lies to it, portraying himself as an angel of light, promising the earth and the earthy people a destiny.

 

Perseverance, waiting eagerly for it, means that we have peace with God’s timing. We long for it, but we’re not so in a rush for it that we treat our present life with contempt. It’s important that we have Christ’s joy in us now, while we wait for that which we long for.

 

This truth is paramount to Christianity. We have been made complete. There is only one life for us, one way, and one truth. Though we don’t always obey that pattern, when we are convinced it is our only way, we will never quit on total obedience to every aspect of it, and in time it will overcome every part of us.

 

It deserves at this time a reading of one of the most important passages in the Bible. The love of God has made the believer full.

 

There are two men in view, neither of which are “you.”

 

We were made sinners by being born in Adam, and not when we personally sinned. In Adam all die, and we personally sin as a result. So, our personal sins are not in view in this passage. “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners” (vs. 19)

 

It is extremely important to know that we were all born in Adam’s sin, and as such, born enemies of God and children of disobedience. We could never dig ourselves out of this hole. We were all worthy of judgment. But God loved the world and gave His Son so that we could have fulfillment of life.

 

Through one man’s sin: death, condemnation, judgment, and sinners came into the world.

 

Through one Man’s sacrifice: grace, free-gift, justification, righteousness, victory, and eternal life.

 

ROM 5:12-21

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned [when Adam sinned]—  13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.