EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING (Ephesians 1)
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 would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Eph 1:3-6)
Dear saints, please take a few quiet moments in the Spirit to slowly and meditatively review the entire first book of Ephesians. It is all here isn't it? The entire plan and purpose of our Glorious Father in His Beloved Son for mankind and the entire world? Notice if you will how all of the Father's blessings move and flow and pass though His Son, and that they are indeed spiritual and eternal blessings, conceived in His vast heart from before the foundation of the world.
What blessing do you seek my friend - is it something in or of this present natural world? Is it something outside of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is its source and benefactor someone other than the Father of All Life?
Why has He blessed us so, in and through His Beloved Son? Is it not that we might be holy and blameless before Him as His own dear children? Could the law do that? Can religion as we know it achieve it? Can the church on the corner make it so? Can we do it for ourselves perhaps? Oh how foolish and blind we are to think such things.
And why has He chosen to bless us so lavishly in His Beloved? Is it because we have done something deserving of this? Or is it not rather unto the "praise of the glory of His grace"?
Dear saints - these words are without a doubt some of the most wondrous and heavenly sentiments every written, and anyone with eyes to see will behold in them spirit and life, fullness, grace and truth. That they would be penned by a "religious man"; a Pharisee of all people, attest to the power and wonder of our Lord, in that He has claimed such for His own. Sentences and punctuation can barely contain these heavenly thoughts, and it is as though His very grace and love were spilling out beyond the lines and strokes to touch us more directly, more intimately. Go ahead, read them again out loud this time; and see if what I am suggesting is not so. I pray that He might open the eyes of your heart that you would see such things here.
What in fact is comprised in "every spiritual blessing"? What remains if there be no exception? What has He perhaps left out, or excluded if it is stated that "He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ"? Yet how worldly and earthly and primal are we, to think that this life, here and now, is of such utter issue and importance. That this tent we occupy, for example, can ever aspire to where His blessings reach. Oh how small and low are our thoughts of what we have received, if this be all that fills our hope. Let us never think small or limited thoughts of He who fills the universe with His glory and praise. It must never be dear ones.
Dear saints - I know this world looks so horribly bleak and hopeless right now; that war and the threat of war hangs like a pall over so many; that the sheer depravity and brutality of men and demons is being increasingly manifested as the days advance. Yet, we have great reason to be hopeful, and even to rejoice - for soon, so very soon, all things in heaven and earth will be summed up in our Lord Jesus Christ by the Father of All Glory and Might. He will fill all things with the substance and glory of His Son surely because it has been purposed in His great heart from before time as we know it began.
Preachers today make great swelling words about how important we are; how significant we are, and how impressive we may be. Rubbish, all of it I declare. There is the Father’s Beloved Son and there is He alone; He who will subsume all things and inhabit all things for the Father’s glory alone. It is the Son who is the fulfillment of all things religious, Christian, biblical or otherwise. Ephesians declares this to be so, and who are we to question it. Rather we should fall on our faces and give praise and honor to He who has redeemed us, and claimed us, and filled us to all holiness and likeness with the Holy One! Amen.
I must confess that lately I have felt this profound ache in my soul for the world and the condition of the people I come into contact with every day. So many groping as though blind and without anyone to guide them. Yet their hearts are so coiled thick with pride, refusing to see, to be helped, to acknowledge even that they are in such a broken state. The deep leprosy of sin deeply set in their being, beneath the surface causing them to walk as though living but dead. All they have is what they are, and what they have learned from the hollow vanity of life here below - pride, lust, self-interest, greed, fear, violence and war, getting and taking, grabbing for all they can get from their puny little existence apart from God. And lest we forget, this was also you and I, for...
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He has lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made know to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which he purposes in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times {that is} the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. (Eph 1:7-12)
Billions cut off from ever knowing this mystery my friends. Most self-professing, small "c" christians barely know it to be sure. But do we? I mean has it pierced our very being deep down to the very core, such that we have abandoned everything offered in this life that we might claim "every spiritual blessing" that our Heavenly Father has held out to us in His Son? What does it mean that He has inherited us to be sons in His eternal household? Does it not mean that we are henceforth His children? That we are no longer bound to the devil as father, and his world? And if the Father is to fill all things and to sum up all things in His Son, then does that not mean that we who follow the Firstborn must be filled, and subsumed by He who is worthy to fill all creation?
And so are we being filled - is the question? Is the Lord Jesus Christ being increased in us, while we are being reduced? Have we stepped down, in other words, from the throne of our lives, and from the seat of power and influence over our thoughts and spirit? Do we persist in securing ourselves, or advancing ourselves, or positioning ourselves so that we reap the world's blessings here below?
Consider how often this chapter speaks of the "praise of His glory". It appears to be important for both the Father and us doesn't it? I believe it is my beloved, and I believe it holds the key to all that He is doing, and where our hearts must be at the end of this age. For too long now we have been seeking the praise of men, and the glory of created things. Repentance and confession of sin must begin in the household of God.
In verse 18, Paul prays that the "eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe". No defeatism here my friends, for we are His alone. He has claimed us as His dear children, and He has empowered us and enlivened us and provisioned us in His Son. Never forget that dear saints, for we do have a boast for which we can boast, and our boast is always and forever to the praises of His glory! Amen.
All things - (and all means all fellow saints) - have been placed in subjection under His feet. And the very power that raised Him from the dead and the grave is also available in us to bring us to holiness and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ; that we might stand and live and rest in the Father's Holy Presence for time eternal. He will fill all things my friends, this is without question; but will we allow Him to fill us now fully, and to have the pre-eminence in our own hearts and lives?
I share all of this by way of encouragement and exhortation, for the days are drawing near, and indeed are soon upon us. I know this in my spirit as surely as I know He lives in me. What we need is not what the world says we need, or what even the church on the corner says we need, but rather every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus that our Heavenly Father has ordained for us. Let us go to him now and ask Him humbly as His dear children; and let us repent of wanting anything else.
Oh Gracious Father – what glory you have lavished on Your Son, and what grace you have provisioned for us out of the depth of Your vast kindness and love. As surely as we need air to breathe in this life, we need every spiritual blessing that You have intended for us, and for which our precious Savior gave His life. Help us O Lord, for we are poor and needy in spiritual things, and we know barely how to walk in Him whom You have chosen to assimilate all creation. Please stand O Lord Jesus. Stand so that this blind and crooked world may see You in all of Your fullness and light. Stand up by Your people; in Your little ones, of whom the world thinks naught. And thank You Gracious and Holy Father – for all things in Christ Jesus our Lord and Hope, Thank you. Amen.
BUT GOD... (Ephesians 2)
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly {places} in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:1-7)
Continuing where we left off last time, we see in Ephesians 2 that our deliverance into a new life, lived on a new and higher plain of existence, has only to do with our origin and never our condition or sustained good behavior. Just as God has ordained it in the natural creation, where we derive our life defines what we are. As we look out on this forsaken world, and all the fruits of man and the evil one's cursed defiance of God, we acknowledge that we too are born into and of this world; that we walked only according to its course as sons of disobedience; and that we served the prince of the power of the air that breathes rebellion and bitterness into every creature entering Adam's darkened domain. Although we like to think that we can attain the tree of life, and restore the garden to its former glory and blessing, the plain and simple reality is that we cannot. Humanism and every vile and empty sort of religious or self-ordained enlightenment and improvement is a lie and a lifeless promise. History testifies to this beyond dispute for all those who are willing to accept the truth.
As verses 1-7 acknowledge, and as we see in the book of Genesis, we are dead and detached; cut off from the very life and presence of the Creator who placed us in the garden to begin with. Only His "great love with which He loved us" and the "surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" can restore that which was lost, and mend the eternal breach between us and He who formed us for His pleasure and glory.
The ultimate hope and good news of the gospel after the fall of man can only ever be -
"But God..."
And never -
"But I..."
Apart from Him we can do nothing. Oh I know we have heard this before, but do we live like we truly believe it? Do we run to Him and reach for Him with every breath in us, fully aware that failing this will result in our ruin and resorting back to what we naturally are? Oh how I wish this modern church would remember this; oh that we would cease living the apocalyptic lie that there is still some innate, underlying, unclaimed good in man; something of which compels God to take notice.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," {which is} performed in the flesh by human hands--{remember} that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Eph 2:8-13)
His grace indeed, my brethren, and His workmanship - but has the truth of this penetrated His people quite yet? Does it inspire us to live before Him with such utter dependency and longing, knowing that His grace is the vital cord binding us to Him through His Beloved Son? Recall how Paul, in the first chapter, could never seem to praise the glory of His grace enough - how he seemed to be seeing and tasting something profoundly wondrous by way of revelation that we too must taste and see.
I must admit that I had a completely horrendous day yesterday, causing me to be so very ashamed to be called His own; and to live before Him. I truly and genuinely wanted to die right then and there, for I had misrepresented He in whom I live and move and supposedly have my being. Apparently not. That is not what I want to be. That is sincerely not what I want to represent in this dark world. "O wretched man that I am" and "I am undone" as Paul and Isaiah confessed! And oh what iniquity broods in this wicked heart of mine, waiting only to surface and reveal me for what I am. Indeed, we may be going along quite happily and confidently, thinking we are moving deeper in Him, that He is in fact being formed in us and is having His way in us. Yet how foolish we are to think such things, for God beholds our ruinous heart, and what moves on the surface - our works in other words - means nothing to Him. We are what we are, and if we are to be anything other, then it can only be in Him. I thank God immensely for His limitless patience and mercy; that His grace is deeper and truer than my falseness can ever be. Let again our boast be in His grace, and not in our works. Our hope is not in ourselves, our improvement or our potential at all, but our hope is in a new life fostered by His grace alone, and rendered real before the world in the Lamb of God.
Yes fellow saints, we have - by His great love whereby He lavished His grace upon us - been brought near in Christ Jesus our Lord; yet His grace is new every morning and with every moment, for we are not like Him as we hope to be; and yearn to be, in all holiness and grace and truth. We have so much to learn and so much to be in this new life that He has given us; and His grace - poured out of the depth of His vast heart, and rendered in His Son - is vital and precious. It represents the sum of our hope, and the practical outpouring of His love made real and reachable to us.
For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner {stone,} in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Eph 2:14-22)
Here we see not only what we are but also what we shall be - the very dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Here we also see that no longer will signposts and tablets of stone help us, for they have been usurped once and for all by He who has become the destination and fulfillment. He has become peace for us with the Holy and Immutable Father of All Life. Yes, in spite of all that we are we have found peace with Him, and access to Him, and life in Him - no longer estranged and empty, no longer strangers and aliens from the household of God, no longer outside of the promises made to Abraham and fulfilled in the Israel of God (the true Israel in other words).
Yet it is rather easy to feel at times that we are innately unworthy to be reconciled to Him; that indeed our sin, when openly manifested before us as it often is, renders us disqualified and still-born. Believe me I know my friends what this is like. So easy it is to give up on ourselves and to think that He too has given up on us. At such times it is important to remember that His grace was never lavished on us, or even promised to us on the basis of anything we did or continued to do. Indeed, it is when we feel the least worthy and the most despicable that His grace is even nearer than we think. Praise our Lord! For when we are most repulsive, He remains eternally beautiful; and there will come a day my friends, when we will stand before our Father wholly claimed and reconciled, pure from the surface to the core of what we are. And it will have been His grace that got us there; as it indeed preserves us now. Oh the depth and wonder of it all dear ones - oh if we could only truly see what we have received; and give Him all the glory that is rightfully His. Father, please help us, by your Beloved Son, Amen.
THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST (Ephesians 3)
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; {to be specific,} that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. (Eph 3:1-7)
In this modern "cut and paste" information age, with thousands of self-ordained theologians and scholars, online bibles, proof texts and answers for every question at the ready, it is easy to forget that every essential and life-imparting truth of the Christian way comes by spiritual revelation alone. Not by reasoned study or scholarship, nor intellectual or analytical pursuit, nor seminary preparation, nor anything originating in the natural mind or intellectual capacity of man. Heavenly truth comes from God above, and it comes from Him alone down to us by way of His holy prophets and messengers. His Living Word imparts life, and this imparted life represents a spiritual and heavenly reality. It is good to remember this as we troll the web or local Christian bookstore looking for answers to what are essentially spiritual questions. There is spiritual truth and there is carnal knowledge - the one feeds the spirit, the other the fleshly mind of man.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual {thoughts} with spiritual {words.} But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:12-16)
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able {to do so,} and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Rom 8:5-9)
In Ephesians 3 we are presented with the most glorious of truths - a divine mystery in fact - as revealed afresh to the Apostle Paul - that the "Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus". Yes, our Lord did affirm that salvation was "of" the Jews, but He never limited that salvation to any blood-born peoples. The wondrous news of the universal gospel hope in Christ lies mysteriously in this word "whosoever"...
"That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:15)
and...
"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev 22:17)
Our Lord hinted as much when He said...
And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd. (John 10:16)
One fold and one shepherd. How glorious to ponder! These are those blessed ones referred to in Genesis 12:3, where it is told of Abram, that in him "all the families of the earth will be blessed."
It is these "other sheep" from "all the families of the earth" that Paul is concerned with here, and this "Jew of Jews" has been entrusted with a previously undisclosed and divine mystery regarding God's universal purpose in Christ Jesus that stretches beyond blood and genealogy, and as far as His Spirit will reach. The deeper theme of course is still the "riches of His grace which He lavished on us" (Eph 1:7-8), but here Paul is drawing out with divine clarity how this grace is manifested and its universal reach. The Church, comprised of both believing Jews and Gentiles, is His body, "the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Eph 1:23)
Now I want all of you to consider this my brethren, not theologically or even metaphysically, for the sheer scope and depth of this truth renders that impossible. Rather I want you to meditate on this in the same spirit from which this mystery was originally conveyed to the Apostle Paul. As a Pharisee, a scholar and student of the law and ordinances and works-based religion, Saul of Tarsus knew plenty about the Lord's righteousness and justice. He knew Him as Lawgiver and Judge - and so He is. Yet when our Glorified Lord met him on that fateful day on the road to Damascus, there began Saul's education by revelation of an aspect of the Lord that he knew so little about - His unfathomable grace. This is what, from that day forward, consumed this Jew of Jews, and penetrated everything He wrote and did in the service of these first generation believers. He defended this grace - and the freedom it conveyed, vigorously against all and any attempt to water it down through law-keeping and ritualized, outward obedience.
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly {places.} {This was} in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. (Eph 3:8-12)
By the unfathomable riches of God's grace, all Gentiles who believe on Christ Jesus are joined into one heavenly body with believing Israel – the true Israel of God. Once joined to the Head, this New Man demonstrates something wondrous to even the angels. This is a profound mystery concealed before now in the eternal heart of our Eternal God. Satan mocks it certainly, and shrugs it off in his arrogance as impossible. To think that mere man, formed out of the lowly dust of the ground, and wallowing in the muck of his sinfulness, shall rise to such divine heights? It is laughable to the demons certainly; but God's faithful angels are watching intently to see how it all plays out. Clearly their money is on the Lord. They are waiting for that day when Jesus Christ, the Beloved, in all his corporate glory shall rise up and stand, and begin filling all created things that will be filled.
Oh how small and earthbound are our thoughts dear saints. How we limit Him so; He who holds all the universe between His fingers, and whose purposes reach beyond anything we could possibly imagine in our puny and finite minds. This is us He is talking about here; if only we will glimpse such an awesome reality. He dwells in us such that we might be one with Him as a new creation. This is far greater than so many useless - church versus Israel arguments about dispensations and replacement theology, etc. Oh if this is all we see, then I am afraid we are short-sighted and blind indeed. The mystery is not merely that God's grace is deeper than the blood of a single race of people; but that he will fill the universe with a new spiritual man, and that this New Man will be comprised in spirit and character by all those who believe and derive their lives from Him. We are represented in His fullness and in the Father's filling of all things by His beloved Son.
Go to Him now if this seems more than your fleshly mind and understanding can bear. In truth, you will never grasp this by reason alone. This is spiritual reality and it stretches far outside of our earthly minds and brick and mortar, church bulletin-based religion. In truth, this expansive mystery consumed this Jew of Jews from Tarsus, and set the course for the rest of His earthly life and ministry. Read it my friends for it is so. All through the epistles to the saints, he is frustrated to no end by those who would limit this calling to parochial religious enterprise, or even old covenant definitions. All throughout the Old Testament in fact, sprinkled here and there as little seeds of eternal splendor, are hints of this profound mystery - that all life is being subsumed into the One who is the Father's Blessed and Beautiful Son. And that this New Man will fill all creation unto all fullness, beginning with His Beloved Church. Oh let it be so dear Father. Amen.
Dear Brethren, I don't pretend to have all the answers related to our God's ultimate purposes in both the Church and the earthly nation of Israel. Yet I do know that His promises are sure and certain, and that there must be in fact a destiny for natural Israel in the land for which He promised. Many prophecies indicate this, and who are we to limit Him in what He is doing by His loving grace and wisdom. What I do know is only what has been told by divine revelation regarding the present calling, that...
... the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," {which is} performed in the flesh by human hands--{remember} that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner {stone,} in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Eph 2:11-22)
Both groups - Jew and Gentile - reconciled in one body, and formed into one by one Spirit in Christ Jesus, such that one "New Man" might be created, and in whom the Eternal God might dwell and fill all things that will be filled in His Creation. Hallelujah! Is not the depth and magnitude of our God's grace truly immeasurable and beyond our capacity to fully comprehend?
Who will limit Him by foolish and useless arguments about this versus that, or this group replaces that group? Has He not subsumed them both in His Son? Oh that we would truly grasp in the Spirit the full depth and breadth and height of what Paul is conveying here, my brethren.
Here is our Lord's ultimate and glorious answer to Adam and the garden; to the fallen ones who left their first abode, and to the cursed power of sin and death that currently fills and corrupts all things on this earth. Here is the new life that swallows up all death. Here is the depth of His love by which He loved us in His Beloved! Here is where all the law and the prophets and psalms culminate! Here is where the hope of the incarnation, sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord leads! Here is why He is called the Alpha and the Omega, and the Beginning and the End! Oh little ones, fall on your face now before Him and offer praise to He who holds all things together in His Son, and whose Grace is beyond anything our puny little religious sentiments can convey. Repent if you must of limiting Him so, and all of our parochial and petty divisions in the Lord. There will be One and there will be no other! This is the true Mystery of Christ, and sadly it has been hidden by the very ones who should be living it and trumpeting it from every rooftop and roadside! Amen.
I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; {and} that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him {be} the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:8-21)
Oh what an amazing context we have for being one together in the Lord, and for loving one another as He loved us. Can we be filled up to all fullness in the Lord and yet divided against Him and each other? Are we men and women of grace and love as He has demonstrated His grace and love toward us? And is this love an earthly, self-gratifying love as men recognize and pursue it? Heavens no, for we cannot reach within ourselves for such love and grace - it must spring forth from His abundant heart, and it must be according to His power that works within us.
Do we actually believe that His Church can be all this, and that this New Man can stand up in this cursed world and authentically live the life of our Lord in all His Holiness and Grace? Can it be truly one as is the Father, Son and Spirit? I must confess that in my fallen heart I just can't see it; at least not in myself or my own capacity to bring it about. But oh dear ones, let us pray and it will be so. For if we go to the end of the Book, we see just such a Man rising up at the end of this age, and this man is portrayed as a radiant Bride with pure and holy garments - and this Bride has only one love that penetrates all she is.
Sound incredible? And who are these people anyway; those so dispossessed and emptied of themselves and joined as one in the Lord?
Well... it is none other than you and I dear brethren. And so it shall be if only we will grasp it by His grace. Everything begins and ends by His grace – this is the overarching theme of Ephesians, and it should captivate and enthrall us as much as it did Saul of Tarsus?
Oh Father in Heaven, let this be so, for all of your little ones. In Jesus' Blessed name we pray. Amen.
This Mysterious New Man (Ephesians 4)
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. {There is} one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph 4:1-6)
In Ephesians 1-3 the Apostle Paul lays down what amounts to an earth shattering mystery – that from one man, the Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth – will fill His created universe and restore peace and blessing from out of the abundance of His unfathomable grace. We discover that this one man is none other than the Incarnate and Resplendent Christ Jesus, the Beloved Son of His Heavenly and Eternal Father.
Oh what a mystery indeed my brethren; and how it reduces to infinitesimal specks this puny little concept we have of what Jesus Christ, Christianity and Church truly embody. We need to fully and genuinely see this little ones, before we can go any further, as I am not really sure this is what is being taught in the church on the corner or the mega-media ministries who are supposedly speaking for our Lord (and us) at the end of this age.
Chapter 4 presents a departure or jumping off point in this letter to the Greek city of Ephesus. “Therefore…” typically indicates that Paul will now endeavor to convey what it means in practical terms to these new gentile believers. Deep stuff indeed, but what does it mean for us as His first fruits? What does this filling of all things in and by His Son look like as it is embodied and expressed in the lives of His people?
Paul, inspired as he is by the Holy Spirit, begins to answer these questions as he considers the effect of God’s gracious provision and plan as it moves from the macro to the micro; from the universal to the individual, from the doctrinal or conceptual, to the practical. In this light, I might offer here that Paul’s letter to the Colossians greatly augments the one to the Ephesians in terms of conveying this divine mystery of Christ.
To enter into and apprehend all that the Father is doing in His Son - His filling of all things and reconciling of all things - we must look carefully at what was revealed to Paul as a wondrous and universe-shaking mystery -
"IF then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." (Col 3:1-4)
We can often gloss over these words - "Christ who is our life" and "your life is hidden with Christ in God" as some ethereal religious notion. Yet herein the reality of the new man is made real and powerful, and it is here where the rubber meets the road of our newfound existence in the heavenlies (yet still very much in this world).
Earlier in Colossians, Paul tell us -
"FOR I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (Col 2:1-8)
To search for "treasure of wisdom and knowledge" anywhere or in anything or anyone other than the Father and His Son is to invite delusion, deception and distraction. It is not merely a question of whether things are right or wrong, scriptural or not, helpful or not; or whether it appears righteous and other supposed-Christians nod their heads in agreement.
The only question or consideration is whether it is "ACCORDING TO CHRIST"! Amen brethren? It either is or it isn't - and if it isn't then it will be burned like chaff at the fiery coming of the Lord. I cannot convey this strongly enough, and this is the only basis for true spiritual discernment for His saints. To be rooted and built up in anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ is to lead to being cheated out of all that is being offered those who overcome, and to rely on little more than the basic principles of the world, human tradition and I believe we all know a little about what these represent - misery-inducing humanism, man-size religion, quasi-sanctification (the dressing up the old man in a new suit of clothes), the simulated, pseudo-spiritual life that has no real power or vitality (only mere activity with man-honoring results).
All, my friends, and I repeat - ALL - whether it is ministry, or the renewing of the mind, or the edifying of the saints - has its beginning and end in the living and loving relationship between the Father and Son that is filling all things as the scriptures plainly teach. It is not about us at all - our puny strength or bright ideas, our intellect or best intentions. Oh that the children of God would see this more clearly and believe it once and for all! That is my prayer for all of us! Oh that He would be magnified in His people, and truly be "our life" from this day forward, as we walk forward faithfully in Him! Everything will fall into place once we do little ones; and only then can religion as we know it hope to give substance to its transcendent words and promise.
Our faith in the Father and Son must represent more than some initial affirmation or agreement of a set of gospel-defining doctrines or theological facts. It is more like entering into the relationship the Father has with His Son on a moment-to-moment basis, stretching way back into the farthest reaches of eternity. I believe this is what Paul is suggesting when he refers to our "fellowship in this mystery". The Father in His infinite and all-encompassing love and wisdom has chosen to solve the problem of a cursed earth and the adamic man by drawing us up into the heavenlies, where both He and His Son have been one for all eternity. Jesus Christ will fill all things, starting first with His Body.
As we fail to see and apprehend this truly with spiritual eyes, we are tempted to heap up "protectors" and other earth-bound helpers to aid us in apprehending the blessings we read about in the Bible. But as many of you know, it doesn't work this way. We must fully enter into this mystery of a Father’s love for His Son and the binding of all who believe to the Son if we are to ever bring honor and glory to our Lord who claims us as His own out of the world.
And please let me go one step further if I may at the risk of over-stepping a wee bit (although I don’t believe one can in this matter as it stretches forth to consume the universe) - it is only this mystery that fills the angels with awe and the devil with dread. Very little if anything of what we do down here as the organized and man-led church threatens Satan in any practical sense. I believe his one objective is to blind us to this mystery and to keep us from entering into it. Although the gospel and the mystery given to Paul are one in agreement, merely various points along the way in God's ultimate plan, I believe the devil is very much content to allow us the gospel (as has been preached in Christendom for the last 1900 years anyway), but deny us the mystery of entering into the life and love of the Father and Son. Something to ponder in the spirit perhaps?
If it is at all unclear to any of you, please go to the Father now and ask that He would grant His grace such that we can all truly see His plans and purposes in all their infinite and eternal wonder. Spend much time if necessary in Ephesians and Colossians, and in the gospel of John. And read slow (if I may suggest), taking in every word as the Spirit allows you to chew on it and be changed by it. May He bless you with all blessing in the heavenlies dear saints. May His love fill us that we would truly love one another as His children! In Christ - Amen.
Let us now return to the 4th chapter of Ephesians...
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, "WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN."(Now this {expression,} "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some {as} apostles, and some {as} prophets, and some {as} evangelists, and some {as} pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all {aspects} into Him who is the head, {even} Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Eph 4:7-16)
Here we find that our Father’s grace gets personal. It is meted out by His Eternal Wisdom and Purpose, in the form of divine spiritual gifts unto each one of us, even those who came before and have since died in the body. And such gifts were given… "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." [Note: There is much to say here touching on the triune essence of God (Father, Son and Spirit) and man (body, soul and spirit); and the essential unity being worked out between the component parts, bringing this new man to fullness and maturity in and by Christ Jesus. Yet, the Spirit permitting, we will leave this for another time.]
In true carnal and “religious” fashion it seems, the church for close to 2000 years has focused more on the individual roles and offices than on why they were granted – to build this new man up into Christ for the fulfillment of our Father’s ultimate design and purpose. Indeed, these very gifts are the source of so much dissension and division, that any truly spirit-born person is compelled to wonder – Where is the “unity of the faith”? What about the “fullness of Christ”? What about the “whole body” being more important than the individual members? What about the “equipping of the saints for the work of service” and the attainment of the “mature man”?
Oh Father in Heaven, please help us, for we are desperately wicked, and oh how we have strayed from the true path, for which this eternal mystery in Christ Jesus binds us to Him and one another.
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in {the likeness of} God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Eph 4:17-24)
Dearest brethren and disciples of the Living Christ – at the risk of sounding like an echo – how we can we live apart from the “life of God” and the ‘Way and Truth and Life’ imparted to us in His Beloved Son, slain from the foundation of the world, and still hope to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to live in “righteousness and holiness of the truth”? This Mystery of the New Man that will fill all the created universe by the fullness of the Father’s Beloved Son is not merely some superfluous theological idea – perhaps interesting but of little practical value to Christians seeking to advance the will of God in all holiness and truth. Heaven forbid dear saints – for this is indeed the Spiritual Life that we all seek! This is the answer to ageless questions such as – How does it all work? How do we fulfill the will of God, and How will He ultimately reverse that foul and fateful mistake in the garden?
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE {of you} WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. BE ANGRY, AND {yet} DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have {something} to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such {a word} as is good for edification according to the need {of the moment,} so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Eph 4:25-32)
Here we see the real value of the unveiling of this divine mystery, as the Apostle Paul reaches some immensely practical conclusions flowing out the divine fact that we, as a new man in Christ Jesus, are “members of one another”. Indeed, how can we seek to harm or in any manner injure our own body? It makes no sense, for do we not go to great pains to serve and even advance our own physical body? Do we not in this modern self-oriented and hedonistic age rather cherish and nurture it at all cost apparently? Here we discover that the basis for Christian love and service and unity even, is rooted in the truth that we are indeed one in the same; that this profound mystery pertaining to the fullness in Christ has substantial practical effect. We (the church and the body) are not one in some ethereal religious and organizational sense as so many clubs and groups and affiliations in the world – but we are organically one, and even more accurately - spiritually one, bound together in He who is worthy to gather all things in Himself and to subsume all things in Himself.
We do indeed share the same purpose but it is not this common purpose that makes us one. We may even share the same beliefs and values but again, this is not what constitutes our shared existence in the Holy One - all such things merely flow out of such unity and singularity of Spirit and Person. Here again we are confronted with the axiom that all living can only spring forth from life; that the Christian can only ever be expressed in and through and from Christ Jesus in all His fullness. No dear saints, don't think for one minute that this mystery is something you can either accept or not, with little practical consequence; that it is secondary to the gospel perhaps. No indeed, dear ones, for the mystery of Christ in all His creation-filling fullness, as conveyed in Ephesians and elsewhere, is the good news and the hope of the world.
Here alone is the culmination of the Scriptures and the ultimate and eternal work of the Father, His Son and Holy Spirit. Here is the mystery uncovered and laid bare before all who will see and taste and enter in. Here is the unity and life of the Church in its expression and embodiment of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh Father of All Life! – How small are our thoughts and how we have limited You so. Forgive us O Lord, and grant us faith large enough to enter into this most Wondrous Mystery. Let us stand and walk and live as this New Man before all the world, and let the angels above and below gaze with wonder at Your indescribable grace and wisdom, in bringing to maturity someone worthy to fill all of Your creation. In Jesus’ Holy Name we pray – Amen.
The New Man Walks (Ephesians 5 and 6)
Previously in our living-walk through Ephesians, we have examined the extent to which God's grace is being extended in the form of a great mystery, in the origination and increase of a new man in Christ Jesus - one whose reach will be universal, and whose body will incorporate all spirit-born believers. Although it may serve select interests or dispositions to limit the magnanimity of the Father's gracious deference to one blood-born people or to physical location, this can never be, for all the created universe is the Lord's and it is His to fill with all His fullness by any means He deems worthy.
[Note: I do indeed believe there is a national significance to Israel and even the Promised Land in God’s “earthly” plan among the nations – this is not what I am referring to here however.]
Strange it is how we are still attempting - in the vain arrogance of our religious pride - to build a "house" for the Lord God to dwell, when what He surely desires is something more; something worthy of Himself.
Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? "For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD. "But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. (Isa 66:1-2)
Clearly even Isaiah foresees the provision of the indwelling and Holy Spirit in the temple of a man's spirit - joining him forever to the Lord in kind and nature. This hints at the mystery conveyed by the Apostle Paul, and serves to broaden our understanding of our Lord's ultimate purposes in His creation.
Yet what does this new man look like? What does he do and what is his purpose here below? Such issues find a response in Ephesians 5 and 6, where we further see God's grace enlivening and imparting His very nature and life into him.
Notice, for example, the emphasis on "walking" in chapter 5. Here we behold this new man walking as an instrument of light and love in a dark world; "trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord", and making the most of their time, “because the days are evil". He is "careful how he walks" in this cursed and perverse world, exercising the wisdom of God so that he doesn't partake of the "unfruitful deed of darkness".
Sound familiar my brethren? Does this not perfectly describe the Lord Jesus Christ in His earthly ministry in the body? And so it should, as this new man is none other than He Himself as fully manifested and incorporated with His beloved.
Often religious men will use Ephesians 5 and 6 as the basis for convincing us to set about improving our behavior, as if this was even possible. Others may even hit closer to the truth by suggesting that only in the “Spirit” can we live in a manner pleasing to God. Now, although this sounds true on the surface, look closer with spiritual eyes my brethren, for that is not precisely what is being conveyed here by Paul. It is in the joining together in Christ as One that this new spiritual man is evidently able to walk this way. The entire context of Ephesians, which first establishes the birth of this new man, and then goes on to his first steps and his walk in the world is key.
Clearly this ideal man, this "alpha man" that so perfectly reflects and represents all that a Holy and Righteous God is, is so much more than an improved or enhanced Adam. For starters, this man is (in essence and birth) Spirit and not flesh and blood. He is in fact "filled with the spirit" and his spiritual body is joined to the Spirit of Christ Jesus such that in every existential and metaphysical sense they are one (Eph 5:30-32). Oh how carnal we are when we limit God’s purposes and wisdom to the constraints of time and space, and the physical world, that we know is passing away. That which is mere type and shadow and preliminary can never equate to Divine Reality, regardless of how substantial or significant it may seem to carnal man (or even the carnal church).
Then there is the fact that this new man is to "walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us". He is to love others in the body as himself, as if they were one and the same, which indeed they are.
He is to be "strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might". Yet his strength and provision is not his own, but he derives all life and spiritual equipping from He who is the Head and the One who gave Himself for the Body. This man's very livelihood and vitality as a spiritual entity is drawn from the grace and truth of the Father of All Life, down through the Son, and apprehended by constant and vigilant prayer and contrition of spirit. It is a life leaned into God, and walked out in faith, for all essential things are unseen to the soul and the body. It is only faith’s reality that draws them down from heaven and makes them apprehensible to us.
And survival, dear brethren, is not a question of religious enterprise or flailing at social ills or any other physical manifestation of wickedness -
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual {forces} of wickedness in the heavenly {places.} Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil {one.} And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints...(Eph 6:12-18)
To even think for one minute that our puny little religious notions and playthings can withstand the prince of the power of the air and all his dark spiritual purposes is pathetic indeed. The enemy laughs at them my friends, and truth be told, he invented most if not all of them. No, this new man must walk in Christ Jesus, who represents all of our defensive and offensive spiritual provision. The demons trembled at His mere presence, and the prince of demons is confounded by Him at every turn - by His self-deprivation and faithfulness to the Father; by a loyalty and love that the god of this world cannot even begin to comprehend.
Only by standing and walking in He who is the Light of the World, can this new man shine forth and scatter the darkness. Only by walking in faith, can this new man throw down all the empty ideas and lies of the author of lies. Only by walking in love, as he has been so loved, can this new man fulfill the eternal hope of the Father, as a "fragrant aroma" and precious bride for His Beloved Son - to be joined unto Him forever and ever.
My brethren, it may be appropriate at this point to remind you that Satan too has his corporate "man", unto which he desires and intends to fill with his rebellion and animosity towards all things God-ordained. Both the books of Daniel and Revelation have much to say of such a hell-borne counterpart to the fully realized Son of God. Here is a divine truth born of the Word to those with spiritual eyes - Wherever the world seeks to be united either by name or godless purpose, you can be fairly sure to find Satan’s man. Food for thought for all those enterprising church-folk trying to save the USA, the UK, UN or anything other such “man”.
We are so small in our thinking are we not; and so constrained in the material world of men and nations? Yet the greater truth of things is that what is being played out under heaven is a spiritual drama of boundless scope and significance. It is profoundly more than "Jesus died so that I can go to heaven" or "He suffered so that I could be free of cancer or physical pain". As Christians, we must endeavor by God's grace to see beyond our little bit part, and our circumstances, and our personal redemption even. Although this may sell books and fill the pews, it is an appeal to the flesh and not the Holy Spirit. I pray that the eyes of your heart would be opened to see this in genuine spiritual discernment -
There is God's Man - the Lord Jesus Christ in all His fullness as Head and Body, and there is the Adversary's man! There are really no others. And the climax of the ages - as revealed by all the end-time prophets - leads to what amounts to a colossal spiritual showdown between the two. This is the pure and simple truth, and I hope and pray we shall all see it.
Another point that must certainly be made regarding this new man is that He is indivisible unto Christ, and He is one. Ephesians depicts both head (Christ) and body (those gathered into Him) as inseparable, and bride and groom joined together as one in the Spirit and one in God. They live and walk as one, in perfect unity of nature and kind. They live as one, and for one another, each supplying the needs of the body, and subordinate to the will of He who has gathered them in Himself. Both their singular and collective identity is derived from the shared life that they have obtained as an outpouring of the Father's immeasurable grace and kindness. If there is separation and unlikeness, then it is of the devil – it can never be of this new man.
Now with this in mind and spirit, I want you to honestly consider the supposed Christian landscape, and the almost universally divided condition of the church at large, both within themselves and their detachment from the Head, and determine by the Spirit whether this even remotely resembles what is here described by Paul. Can this be God's eternal answer to the curse of sin and separation that causes even the angels to gaze in awe at His wonders and wisdom? Is this what makes the demons tremble one must wonder?
Oh the depths of His Fullness and Life that the Husbandsman has deemed gracious to provide His children. Oh the mysteries so concealed in His vast heart and hidden from the religious and earthly pride of men and devils. We must cast aside all of our empty words and meanings as He shows us what is real and true in the Abiding Word who is our Life now. Words such as "fellowship and unity and brethren" - oh that we would only taste and see what they truly are and how far they go deep into the very heart of our God and His plans. The New Man exists and walks, breathed unto life by the life-giving spirit no less than Adam was made a living soul. And we are One in Him who has breathed unto us His life! Hallelujah! Amen!
Ah, your fish fries and Sunday socials will never take you here my dear fellow. Put them away from you and come to He who can affix you to the True Vine. Pretend no more that you are what you are not! Abide in Him and release the life that is no longer your own. Have you come to Him? Good, now you must walk in Him unto all fruitfulness and glory unto God the Father!
Oh brethren, children of light - all of you if indeed you are joined to Him - let us all go to Him now and repent heartfully in the spirit for all of our puny little, fractious thoughts and ideas; for our pitiful condition as His children, and for all that we have done to contribute to or limit His purposes in His creation. Let us pray for Christ Jesus in all His fullness; that He might stand and walk in the midst of the earth, shining as the very Light of Life within the almost universal darkness of the hour. And let us be joined to Him, in whatever way or capacity the Father might have us joined as one in the New Man, as His Firstborn, and the One to whom He will forever look and smile. In Jesus' Precious Name. Amen.
Copyright: © 2007 Wayne E. Smith and Livingwalk.com.
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