Ephesians; 1:4 – Election of church age believer, part 26.

3g. The elect are royal priests in the kingdom of God.

We are currently studying the cleanliness of life of the elected royal priest. We are elected unto holiness and the blessings of our priesthood will only be experienced as we live in holiness as our Father is holy.

1Pe 1:13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,

1Pe 1:15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;

1Pe 1:16 because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

I read that an average adult makes about 35,000 decisions per day. Every one of them has to be holy. We conclude that we are sinners and failures and that we need the grace of God.

Confessing or acknowledging our sins openly to God, the One who has forgiven us fully, is a means to the end of overcoming them through seeking His help.

Confession alone is not seeking His help as if it were a ritual or a procedure. It’s not a procedure. There is no more sacrifice for sin. We are not given ritualistic procedures in our age outside of the Lord’s Supper.

John wrote, “If we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” We read of laying aside the sin that so easily entangles us, laying aside the old man, not setting our minds on the things of the earth, and consider the members of your body as dead to immorality and impurity.

Col 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Col 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

Col 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Col 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

Col 3:6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come,

Col 3:7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

Col 3:8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Col 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,

Col 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

Col 3: laid aside old self and have put on new self (aorist) = position.

Eph 4: lay/laid aside old self and put on/have put on new self (infinitive) = position or experience.

In this passage, the old self has been laid aside (aorist middle), which would speak of our position, meaning that Christ crucified it the moment you believed on Him. Eph 4:22, Paul writes, “lay aside the old self,” using the aorist middle infinitive, which simply states an undefined action without reference to time. In Eph 4:22, Paul could be referring to position (you laid aside the old self) or experience in time (lay aside the old self), or perhaps he is referring to both. In Col 3:9, the aorist tells us that he is referring to our position, however, since we have such a position, which is life and not the perversion of life, we put aside (aorist middle imperative) from ourselves, once and for all in our intent, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Colossians 3 gives evidence that Paul does in fact mean both position and experience in Ephesians 4. You have laid aside the old man at salvation, so put aside those sins in your life.

Being open and seeking with God to overcome the sins that easily entangle us is a part of our relationship with God and a means to the end of overcoming them.

Whatever sins may be ruling your life, do you openly confess them to God who has already forgiven you of all things, and seek His wisdom and power to overcome, or do you keep on in them and use confession as a consolation?

Are we not to live in victory and freedom? Are we to live in bondage to the flesh and the world? Would God have us tell Him the sins we commit and not have us overcome them? He clearly tells us are forgiven forever through the blood of Christ and that He will not remember our sins any more because He had placed us in His New Covenant.

God says, “Come to Me with your burdens, and I will give you rest.” Confession of our burdens with sin, problems, people, etc. is a means to an end, which end is always the same, victory, freedom, and life lived in what we have been elected to.

Gal 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Gal 5:14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, " You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Gal 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another.

If sin is ruling your life, the function of your priesthood will be fairly non-existent. You must overcome it through study, perseverance, diligence, prayer, application, and conviction.

We are not hiding sins, ignoring them, or blaming others, and there is no way we could possible confess them all, just think of the sins of omission. God has made it so that we can fight this fight without guilt or condemnation over our failures. There will be sorrow, but never despair as we are under grace all the way. We are forgiven of all things.

We are under the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant, Heb 8.

Heb 8:1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

Heb 8:2 a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

Heb 8:3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

Heb 8:4 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law;

Jesus is not an earthly priest. He is from Judah. His priesthood and Tabernacle must be in heaven.

Jesus could not be an earthly priest since according to the Law, He cannot be a priest at all being from the tribe of Judah. Hence, His priesthood and His Tabernacle must be in heaven.

Heb 8:4 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law;

Heb 8:5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, "See," He says, "that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain."

Heb 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, He says [Jer 31:31-34],

"Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,

When I will effect a new covenant

With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

Heb 8:9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers

On the day when I took them by the hand

To lead them out of the land of Egypt;

For they did not continue in My covenant,

And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

Heb 8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

After those days, says the Lord:

I will put My laws into their minds,

And I will write them upon their hearts.

And I will be their God,

And they shall be My people.

Heb 8:11 "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,

And everyone his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'

For all shall know Me,

From the least to the greatest of them.

Heb 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their iniquities,

And I will remember their sins no more."

Heb 8:13 When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Context of Heb 4:14-15:

Heb 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Heb 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.