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Positive Words Newsletter#73/ 10th February 2004
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From the Graveyard to the Throne
"Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:5-6).
God just keeps coming up with these powerful verses for Paul to pen. Here is another one that takes us from the graveyard to sitting next to the King of kings on His throne! We go from being "in sin" to being "in Christ Jesus". We may never been able to fully take it all in, so its best to just believe it and act on it. Let's look at these verses a little more closely.
We need to read verse 4 to know that the God of mercy loved us with a great love, "even being dead in sin..." Dead, destitute, degraded. He truly loved the unloveable so such a degree that He made provision through Christ for our salvation by grace --"nothing but grace and grace plus nothing". Translations that add the "when" in verse 5 introduce a time element and confuses the issue. We are saved at the moment we believe and not before, but the provision of salvation was made long before we believed. He "made us alive [KJV "quickened"] together with Christ..." Once we believe, "His story becomes our his-tory". So in God's eyes we have as complete a resurrection from the dead to new life as Christ did! We are not half dead and half alive, with a sin nature and a saved nature fighting it out day by day; our resurrection has been completed. As II Corinthians 5:17 says, "the old has gone; the new has come" (NIV). "And raised us up together..." He arose, and so did we. "Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). The "just as" shows the similarity.
So the resurrection was only the beginning! We were raised in order to be seated. "Made us sit together" or "seated us together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." Sitting is always used of rest from labor; honor, and security. The key word of Ephesians chapters 1 to 3 is "sit"; of chapters 4 to 6:9 "walk"; and 6:10 to the end of the book "stand" (see Watchman Nee). So close is our connection to Christ (you cannot be any closer than "in"!), that we share in His rest, His honor, His security. The measure that we believe this is the measure that we enjoy it right now! "We are indescribably happy in the possession of this salvation, and in our fellowship with Christ Jesus" (Clarke). One person wrote "this is spoken by way of anticipation", that is, its all in the future, but these verses speak to me of past events that the Father has made to occur, just for me and just for you. I'd rather share in His rest right now than just anticipate doing so in the future.
We live on the resurrection side of the cross and the tomb. In fact, we could say, we live in Acts chapter 29... the unfinished story of the acts of the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps even more biblically correct, we are the 67th book of the Bible... "You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (II Corinthians 3:2-3). So "keeping looking down", live your life from the Throne, and "see things, as it were, from his point of view" (Colossians 1:9 Phillips). -- Peter Wade.
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Insights From Every Chapter Of The Bible
G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer of over 60 books from the first half of the 20th century. In each issue of this newsletter he gives a comment from one verse in every chapter of the Bible. We continue with Paul's Roman letter.
"God is able to graft them in again" (Romans 11:23).
Paul's great subject in all this section was that of the salvation of the ancient people of God, Israel. He saw "some of the branches... broken off," whereas the root-purpose of God through them and for them was not destroyed. The breaking-off was very real, and it resulted from their unbelief. Now the Apostle declared that if they continued not in unbelief, they would be grafted in again, for "God is able to graft them in again." Beyond the immediate application to Israel, these words are full of significance, as they reveal principles of abiding importance.
The mind almost inevitably recurs to our Lord's allegory of the vine, in which also we read of fruitless branches being cast out of the vine. In presence of all that is involved of solemnity in that idea, how amazing a revelation is here of the grace and power of God! He is able to graft in again branches that have been broken off. Even though, in the interest of the Vine, and because of our fruitlessness, we have been cast forth, He is able to graft us in again. But while we recognize that, we must not forget the condition. It is that we continue not in the unbelief which was the secret of our fruitlessness. God will never graft in branches broken off, merely out of pity for them. He will do so when, by return to the true principle of life, it becomes possible for them to fulfil their function in the Vine.
On our web site right now!
We now have "secure pages" for gifts and requests. When you go to the Books/CDs section, notice the locked padlock somewhere in your browser window... usually at the bottom of the window but it can be next to the address bar. The final article in the Philippians series by T. Austin-Sparks has been online for a week now, as has another episode of "The Wealth of the Christian", this time on Ephesians 2:1-10.
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2004 Peter Wade
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