A. Made Accepted In The One He Loves.
1. Eph 1:6 "to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
a. Jesus is the one He loves.
2. Matt 3:17 "And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
a. We do not make ourselves acceptable to God either in the past, present, or by what we do. We are made acceptable by Jesus. Apart from our position in Jesus, we have no acceptable standing before God.
3. 1 Peter 2:5 "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
a. Our acceptance by God is not based upon our practice, either before or after we become a Christian, but it is based upon our position in Jesus.
4. Phil 3:9 "and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."
a. Paul the Apostle who wrote this last verse wanted to be found in Jesus not because of what he did but for what Jesus did for him.
B. A Citizen of the Spiritual Kingdom of Jesus.
1.Col. 1:13 'For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves."
a. We have been delivered from the power of satan's kingdom, but we have also been placed into the everlasting Kingdom of Jesus. Salvation is both from and to. This change has already taken place.
2. 2 Peter 1:11 "and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
3. 1 Thess 2:12 "encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory."
a. We are called into His Kingdom. There is no mention of the possibility we could be placed back into the dominion of satan.
b. We have been called into the glorious kingdom of Jesus.
4. 1 Thess 5:24 "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."
a. The certainty of this call rests upon the faithfulness of Jesus and his word.
C. Built Upon the Foundation of Jesus.
1. Matt 7:24-27 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
a. The rock represents Jesus and His righteousness. The sand represents the scribes and Pharisees their type of righteousness.
2. 1 Cor 3:9-11 "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ."
a. A life that is founded upon Jesus cannot be destroyed by the storms of circumstances. A life that is built upon the pride and effort of man will fall. The foundation determines the security of the home. Our foundation is Jesus!
D. A Love Gift From God, the Father to Jesus, God the Son.
1. John 17:2 "For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him."
2. John 17:6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word."
3. John 17:9-12 "I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled."
4. John 17:24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world."
a. In His prayer of intercession, Jesus used this title for us seven times. Every Born-Again Christian belongs to the Father and to the Son. The Born-Again Christian was given out of the world to the Son by the Father. Such a Born-Again Christian keeps Gods word. These gifted ones are the objects of Jesus prayers both for preservation and for eternal habitation.
5. John 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."
a. Jesus sees us as belonging to Him not because we have believed on Him, but because the Father has given us to Him.
E. Circumcised Into Jesus.
1. Col. 2:11 "In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ."
a. Physical circumcision was instituted by God as an outward sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Eight days after a male Jewish baby was born, the parents had him circumcised in obedience and as a sign of their faith in the fulfillment of the covenant promises.
2. Gen. 17:9-14 "Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."
a. Circumcision became the mark of distinction between a Jew and a gentile. A true Israelite is one who has a double circumcision. The outward sign relates him to Abraham as his physical father. The inward heart circumcision relates him to Abraham as his spiritual father.
3. Phil 3:3 "For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh."
a. The body of the sins of flesh has been removed positionally, once and for all. The rite of physical circumcision cannot be reversed or repeated, it is a natural impossibility.
F. A Member of the Body of Christ.
1. Romans 12:5 "so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."
2. 1 Cor. 12:12 "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ."
3. Eph 4:4 "There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called."
4. Eph 1:22-23 "And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."
a. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He became "head over everything for the church which is His body"!
5. Eph 5:22-30 "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body."
a. This headship is equivalent to and illustrated by the headship of the husband in the home.
G. Baptized Into Jesus. (Spiritual baptism).
1. Col. 2:12 "having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."
2. Romans 6:3-4 "Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
a. Just as the unsaved person sinned in Adam, so the saved person died in Christ, was buried in Christ, and was raised in Christ.
3. Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
a. This teaches us the co-crucifixion and co-resurrection of the Born-Again Christian with Jesus. God considers Jesus death to be our death, and His resurrection our resurrection. Just as sin and death no longer have dominion over Jesus, neither do they have dominion over us.
H. Complete In Jesus.
1.1 Col. 2:9-10 "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority."
a. Our relationship can be summed up in the words we are complete in Jesus. The words fullness and complete are based on the same Greek word stem.
b. The perfection of divine essence or nature has always been in Jesus. He could never be less divine, nor more divine. So it is with us. We have reached a state of completion or perfection in our position to Jesus that can neither be improved nor weakened. Positionally we can never be more acceptable than right now, not by good works, but by the completion of Jesus.
