Having All Yet Living like Paupers

Having All Yet Living like Paupers
I wonder why?
By Not Knowing What We Have Received IN Christ
Eph. 1:3

“May blessing (praise, laudation, and eulogy) be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm!”

I wonder how many Christians today actually grasp what Paul is saying here in Ephesians 1:3? But not only here in this verse but in almost all of Paul’s writing we find things that would literally set us free IF we could just get a Holy Ghost grip on them. Note also in Paul’s writing when he speaks of the things that the Father has accomplished for us IN Christ it is always in the PAST TENSE. These aren’t promises somewhere off in the future they are for us now IF we believe them.

Consider this IF I/we were IN Christ in His death, buried with Him, and then raised up with Him on the 3rd day in His glorious resurrection, as the Bible says we are, then why do we as believers run here and there, to this conference and that outpouring trying to get more when God has already given us His Best IN Christ? If what Paul said in Rom. 6:1-11 is actually true and the Bible states it as historical fact, then what I have to do is by faith receive what God’s word says about me to be true. I don’t have to get another word spoken over me, me I don’t have to go get some super-apostolic blessing on my life. I’m not saying these things are bad in and of them selves what I am saying is I need to learn to rejoice in what He has already accomplished for me IN His blessed Son, and not run here and there seeking what is already mine. In other words I need to have a revelation of who I am IN Him and who HE is and what He has accomplished IN me. Remember in all of Paul’s epistles his desire was that his readers grow in their revelation of Christ.

Rom. 6:1-11
1. WHAT SHALL we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God’s grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow? [God’s grace gives us power over sin, not to live with it, but to overcome it (Rom. 5:20-21). Sin has power but grace has the greater power].
2. Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? [If what Paul says is true and we died to sin, then we no longer owe sin a red cent when he comes knocking on the door. We owe that old man nothing he has no hold on us, unless we yield to him].
3. Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? [Many Christians today do not understand what actually transpired at the resurrection. They don’t understand that those called and ordained of God before the foundations of the earth where IN Him partakers of all that He endured on the cross. We may not know it, feel it, or understand it but according to God’s word it is historical fact. If we can grasp that then it will help us to understand Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 2:9-13: 3:1-3. Paul called this a fact, it is a historical truth done and accomplished for us through Christ].
4. We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life! [Paul by the Holy Spirit explains for us our part in what happened in the cross event. Although physically we may not have been there yet through God’s election we were partakers with Christ, we who were dead in trespasses and sin were made alive to God IN Christ].
5. For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God]. [In His death and burial we were IN Christ, but now as we emerge from the waters of baptism His resurrection life now comes to abide IN us. This is the moment of new creation the old has passed away, behold all things become new. It is no longer just us IN Christ, it is now Christ IN us the hope of glory]!
6. We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
[God accomplished for us IN Christ and the cross even what we could never accomplish for ourselves. Because of sin we could never come into the presence of a Holy and righteous God, we were in slave to sin and that old sin nature stood between us and a Holy God. We couldn’t crucify ourselves to die to sin God did it for us in the Body of His Son. Through God’s Sovereignty and grace He accomplished it for us. By His stripes we were healed]!
7. For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men]. [Paul is saying that once dead sin no longer has power over your life. If I die the one I’m indebted to can no longer collect from me, I’m dead you can’t collect from a dead man].
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, [Dying with Christ is not like physical death where they put you in a box and cover you up, NO! If we partake of His cross and His burial we believe according to Paul’s word, that we shall also live together with Him. Our death together with is the beginning of eternity for us; death no longer has a hold on us. We have become part of God’s New Creation, the New Thing that God is doing upon the earth].
9. Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. [If we know that death no longer has power over Christ then can we believe that in Him death no longer has any power over us? Paul knew these earth suits we now live in would someday pass away, but to be absent from this short-lived is to be present with the Lord. Paul, Peter, and many others throughout the ages have been willing to lay down their earth life for the Gospel’s sake].
10. For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. [Christ broke once and for all time His relationship to sin by His obedience to the Father, and IF we are IN Him then our relationship with habitual sin should also be broken. Christ now lives in unbroken fellowship with the Father and with that in mind we also know that God has also raised us up with Him, the Father, seating us together with Him in unbroken fellowship IN Christ (Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1-3)].
11. Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus. [We say again that Christ brought us into unbroken relationship with the Father. We are NOW/PRESENTLY seated with the Father in the heavenly realm IN the Son, Christ Jesus. God is holy He has no part with sin; or relationship with God lost in the 1st Man Adam’s fall is restored to us as New Covenant believers through the obedience of the Last Man Adam. How do we receive this historic fact, by simply receiving by faith what Christ has accomplished for us? John 1:12 said; “those who receive the Son are given the right to become children of God.” We simply by faith through His grace receive the heavenly gift and daily live out our lives IN Christ the same way we entered in, by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8; Col. 2:6). This is our walk. Here is one Scripture you should memorize because it capsulates all of history. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were sinners, so by the obedience of ONE many shall be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). God’s first king, Adam, failed at the point of obedience. God’s last and ultimate King succeeded where the first king failed!].

If we are not walking in the rank and privilege we have as believers then we have no one to blame but ourselves, God has given us His word. If our teachers aren’t teaching us then we must with the Holy Spirit’s help seek out these truths for ourselves. In the Old Covenant God gave His people power to obtain material wealth that His covenant with them might be revealed for the nations to see. In the New Covenant God has given us power/authority/ the right to become children of God that He might reveal His Son through us. The real wealth is IN the Son not in the size of our bank accounts or the kind of car we drive. “But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name” (Jn. 1:12).

In Ephesians 1:1-8; we can find just how lavish a giver God is, do we know, do we understand that when God gave us Christ we received the greatest gift of ALL and really there is no earthly reason to keep nickeling and diming the Father for this or for that, He gave us ALL we will ever have need of IN the Son.

1. PAUL, AN apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus (the Messiah), by the divine will (the purpose and the choice of God) to the saints (the consecrated, set-apart ones) at Ephesus who are also faithful and loyal and steadfast in Christ Jesus: [Paul was chosen by God with no apparent qualifications to be His apostle to the Gentiles but God not only called him but also qualified him. Paul was God’s sent one with a message for Gentiles who up to now had not really had much opportunity to hear the word of God. But Paul said, “That God who had chosen him from his mother’s womb was pleased to reveal His son in me that he might preach Him among the Gentiles” (Gal. 1:15-16). So here in Ephesians 1 we have Paul revealing to a mostly Gentile Church all the wonderful things God had so lavishly given them IN Christ].
2. May grace (God’s unmerited favor) and spiritual peace [which means peace with God and harmony, unity, and undisturbedness] be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. [Paul’s normal apostolic greeting to those he called ‘saints’ at the Church in Ephesus. Grace is more than just God’s unmerited favor it is God’s ability working in us to live this Christian life].
3. May blessing (praise, laudation, and eulogy) be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm! [In a very real sense this is what the Christian life is “praise and adoration” to a Holy God who has given us so much. Jesus told the woman at the well God is seeking worshippers, this doesn’t mean our Sunday morning worship, but all of our lives devoted to worshipping Him. Paul called it “our spiritual service of worship” in Rom. 12:1 and described our worship as the way we stayed constantly filled with His Spirit in Ephesus 5:18-21. Why then do we give this “spiritual service of worship” to our God? Because; “He is worthy because; He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly IN Christ!” So let me ask what spiritual blessing are you/we falling short off? Then possibly as Brother Lawrence wrote in his little book so many years ago; we need to practice more and more the presence of God; acknowledging His Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives at all times. He never leaves us nor forsakes us].
4. Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love. [Wow! Remember when we were discussing Romans 3 I said God had chosen us, set us apart unto Himself, before the foundations of the earth, well here Paul verifies it for us. Paul describes not only how God has set us apart, but also how we should live before Him; “holy and blameless in love.” How is this possible you might ask? By the wonderful riches of His grace which He lavished upon us IN Christ. Our lives are lived daily by our faith in His grace to enable us to live out this Christ life. Sin has power but the life lived by grace is empowered to overcome and defeat sin in any situation].
5. For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]— [From the beginning God had a plan, and we who are IN Christ were a part of that plan. His plan was to bring us into His family as His very own children through Christ Jesus. This is what God wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure in accomplishing His plan].
6. [So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. [(What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son. This was God’s plan from before the creation to adopt us into His family through His Beloved Son].
7. In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor, 8. Which He lavished upon us in every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence), [God through Christ’s sacrifice for us has set us free. We’ve been redeemed through the shed blood of Christ, our sins are forgiven, blotted out never to be remembered, and this was all accomplished through the riches of His grace. This was God’s work IN Christ; we could do nothing to save ourselves it was done for us. We have every reason to praise our God. It was all His doing, He thought of everything and provided us with everything we need to not only live this Christian life, but also to accomplish His detailed plan and purpose (good works) that He had already prepared beforehand, that we should accomplish them. We could never brag or take credit it is all our through our faith in His grace, His abundant power to accomplish all of this for us. (Eph. 2:5-9)]

Everything has been done and provided for us not only that He provided us the empowerment to accomplish all this, He gave us the Holy Spirit. It is through the Life of the Spirit in us that God’s plan, His work for our lives will be accomplished. Far too many seek the riches that fail but God IN Christ has given us the true riches and they are ours IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST (Col. 2:1-3). In fact it is by growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus that Peter tells us we’ll find that “God’s divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).