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Where we Are in Christ

Words of Faith Final

Where we Are in Christ

Words of Faith 1-29-2021

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2021

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

www.faithfellowshipweb.com

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Ephesians 2

 [4] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.   [6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

 

     Paul reminded the believers at Ephesus and us of exactly where we were without Christ.  Next, he declared where we are because of God's great mercy!  The contrast could not be greater.  There is an emphatic conjunction in the Greek text followed by "God"-- as if to shout in the face of death, "But God!" 

     This is the turning declaration of the Good News.  We were dead... but God!  We were lost... but God!  We were disobedient... but God!  We were objects of wrath... but instead, God! 

      God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive!  The Hebrew word that corresponds here is chesed or "loyal love."  In the New Testament, this is the undeserved kindness of God. It is out of this undeserved kindness that God acted on behalf of sinners because of His great love for us.

      This is the agape love that means "to seek the highest good in the one loved."  As sinners who were spiritually dead toward God, we had nothing to commend us to God, and God did everything toward us. He did what we could not possibly do for ourselves.

      What has the love of God done?  Paul declares that the love of God has done three things-- made us alive with Christ, raised us up with Christ, and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. As an unbeliever, we were spiritually dead but when we were made alive by God and could then communicate with God.  Only God can do this. He is the living God, who gives life to the dead (Rom. 4:17).

       This act of God in making the dead person alive is an act of grace. It is absolutely and only by grace you have been saved or can be saved. Paul will elaborate on this truth in a few verses ahead. The verb that is translated "have been saved" is in the perfect tense, which expresses a present permanent state due to a past action. Because believers have been "made alive" spiritually with Christ, they have been and are saved.

      Does that mean you are perfect?  Well, we know better than that.  Does that mean God is finished with us?  By no means.  But this is where we are.  No more and no less.  We are not where we started, but we are not where we will be.  As John Newton, the writer of "Amazing Grace" put it-- "I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."

 

        Father God, I thank You for Your amazing grace.  I thank You for your loyal love and undeserved kindness.  I thank You for Your grace that has saved me from death and brought me to life.  In Jesus' Name.

 

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2010, 2021

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.