Jubilee

Paul is so careful to be humbled about his call and apostleship because he never forgot who he had been, but he did not wallow in it, but humbly accepted his task and moved on to God's will for his life. He had "persecuted of the Church of God" (1Corinthians 15:9), "a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man" (1Timothy 1:13) He told Timothy, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst" (1Timothy 1:15). His example can help us remain as humble servants knowing that God call us to be custodians/stewards of His Good News not because of what we have done but because of who we are.

The "mystery" that Paul is talking about is "this mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 3:6) Gentiles are equally the people of God with God's chosen people, the Jews. It was important to the Gentile Christians in Paul's day because they were sometimes made to feel like second-class citizens around Jewish Christians.

God's revelation to "his holy apostles and prophets" our authority for faith and practice because it is God-breathed, inspired, and given by inspiration. This is what makes Scripture authoritative for us in matters of faith and practice. The danger of minimizing or straying from that revelation is that we become stale and ignorant about Scripture and we will die spiritually. The danger of superceding that revelation is like being lost in the wilderness without a road map to follow. The danger of denying that God reveals himself to us and to his Church today is calling God a liar and making his Word obsolete.

Ephesians 3:12 teaches us about the manner of approaching God in freedom and wonder of our relationship with the Almighty God through faith. We "commoners" have access to come before the King of the Universe with our petitions and our hearts of praise. (Ephesians 2:18) We are not to be timid before God. We can be confident of his favor and love. He delights in us. If we try to pray without these qualities we will not be able to have a solid foundations in God and our prayer life will be built on a sand.

Ephesians 3:12 teaches us about the manner of approaching God in freedom and wonder of our relationship with the Almighty God through faith. We "commoners" have access to come before the King of the Universe with our petitions and our hearts of praise. (Ephesians 2:18) We are not to be timid before God. We can be confident of his favor and love. He delights in us. If we try to pray without these qualities we will not be able to have a solid foundations in God and our prayer life will be built on a sand.

Paul is so careful to be humble about his call and apostleship because he never forgot who he had been, but he did not wallow in it, but humbly accepted his task and moved on to God's will for his life. He had "persecuted of the Church of God" (1 Corinthians 15:9), "a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man" (1Timothy 1:13). He told Timothy, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst" (1Timothy 1:15). His example can help us remain as humble servants knowing that God call us to be custodians/stewards of his Good News not because of what we have done but because of who we are.

The "mystery" that Paul is talking about is "this mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 3:6) It was important to the Gentile Christians in Paul's day because they were sometimes made to feel like second-class citizens around Jewish Christians.

God's revelation to "his holy apostles and prophets" our authority for faith and practice because it is God-breathed, inspired, and given by inspiration. This is what makes Scripture authoritative for us in all matters of faith and practice. The danger of minimizing or straying from that revelation is that we become stale and ignorant about Scripture and we will die spiritually. The danger of superceding that revelation is like being lost in the wilderness without a road map to follow. The danger of denying that God reveals himself to us and to his Church today is calling God a liar and making his Word obsolete.

The significance that your congregation was made to be "a dwelling place for God in the Spirit" is that we as Christians are meant to live in unity with other believers and fellowship with them. What hinders that from being fully experienced is that when some people act as if they were "Lone Rangers" and isolate themselves from the other believers, do not attend church or support the ministry, and parrot the unscriptural excuse they learned from the world, You don't have to go to church to be a Christian." What we can do to help that become more fully experienced and appreciated is to fellowship with the other believers in their locality.

To have "access" to the Father means that we we Christians have a special access to God by the Spirit through Christ not granted to others. Our prayers are offered "through faith in him" and spring from "freedom and confidence" (Ephesians 3:12). The Holy Spirit facilitate this access, which results in answered prayer and spiritual power (John 14:12-14;15:7). Jesus enable this access through his suffering, death, and resurrection to be able to come to God through faith.

By his death and resurrection Jesus as the Messiah "fulfill" the Mosaic Law. The coming of Jesus as the spotless lamb, the perfect sinless man has made obsolete or abrogated the old law. This means that the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws find their fulfillment in Jesus. No more animal sacrifices. Jesus has become the perfect sacrifice for the remission of sins. The significance of that for Jewish people is that since the advent of the Messiah there is no need for temple sacrifices for the remission of sins. They can freely enter the "throne room" of God without priests or high priest on their behalf. The significance of that for us Gentiles is that we have been "brought near through the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13). Christ the Messiah has become the sacrifice for our sins, and because of his death on our behalf, we can approach God with our sins forgiven.

I can easily relate to being out of touch with what it means to be "lost." When I visit a new place and meet with new people who I do not know I feel out of touch till I start to make new friends. This is in the natural and you can imagine what it will be like in the spiritual. People who do not know Christ are out of touch , lost, and alienated. They live in the dark and life is meaningless to them. But once they come to know Christ as their Savior and Lord everything in their life changes. The spiritual condition of a friend or co-worker who does not know Christ is in a danger of death. Even though he is still alive and going about his duties he is like a dead man walking. He has nothing to hang on to and his life is full of meaninglessness and potholes.

The significance that your congregation was made to be "a dwelling place for God in the Spirit" is that we as Christians are meant to live in unity with other believers and fellowship with them. What hinders that from being fully experienced is that when some people act as if they were "Lone Rangers" and isolate themselves from other believers, do not attend church or support the ministry, and parrot the unscriptural excuse they learned from the world, "You don't have to go to church to be a Christian." What we can do to help that become more fully experienced is appreciated is to fellowship with the other believers in their locality.

To have "access" to the Father means that we Christians have a special access to God by the Spirit through Christ not granted to others. Our prayers are offered "through faith in him" and spring from "freedom and confidence" (Ephesians 3:12). The Holy Spirit facilitate this access, which results in answered prayer and spiritual power (John 14:12-14; 15:7). Jesus enable this access through his suffering, death, and resurrection to be able to come to God through faith.

By his death and resurrection Jesus as the Messiah "fulfill" the Mosaic Law. The coming of Jesus as the spotless lamb, the perfect sinless man has made obsolete or abrogated the old law. This means that the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws find their fulfillment in Jesus. No more animal sacrifice. Jesus has become the perfect sacrifice for the remission of sins. The significance of that for Jewish people is that since the advent of the Messiah there is no need for temple sacrifices for the remission of sins. They can freely enter the "throne room" of God without priests or high priest on their behalf. The significance of that for us Gentiles is that we have been "brought near through the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13). Christ the Messiah has become the sacrifice for our sins, and because of his death on our behalf, we can approach God with our sins forgiven.

I can easily relate to being out of touch with what it means to be "lost." When I visit a new place and meet with new people who I do not know I feel out of touch till I start to make new friends. This is in the natural and you can imagine what it will be like in the spiritual. People who do not know Christ are out of touch, lost, and alienated. They live in the dark and life is meaningless to them. But once they came to know Christ as their Savior and Lord everything in their life changes. The spiritual condition of a friend or co-worker who does not know Christ is in a danger of death. Even though he is still alive and going about his duties he is like a dead man walking. He has nothing to hang on to and his life is full of meaninglessness and potholes.

Faith is believing in the Word of God and trusting that he will do what he says he will do without wavering (Hebrews 11:1) Yes, we can take credit for having faith. Yes, we can be condemned for lacking faith because we all are given the measure of faith. This is how I will define "faith" in terms a 10-year-old could understand. You and your family lives on the twelfth floor of a high-rise and the building catches fire. Your family managed to escape from the fire and went outside. They realized their 10-year-old is still in the building and your father started yelling out your name instructing you to jump through the window regardless of the blazing fire. Even though you do not know how you can make it or not you trusted in your father's words and jump through the twelfth floor window and landed safely in your father's open arms outside the building. That is faith in action. God may have a calling on your life in order to fulfill his plans and purposes in your life. In the natural it is impossible to fulfill God's calling on your life but in the spiritual God knows how to bring to pass his plans and purposes in your life. If Abraham could walk in faith so can we. He is the father of faith.

According to Ephesians 2:10, we were created to do special "good works." Why? Because we have been prepared in advance by having been given particular aptitudes, special spiritual sensitivities, unique abilities -- special gifts -- which equip or prepare us to fulfill our destiny here on earth. The difference between these works (Matthew 5:16) and the works Paul discredits in Ephesians 2:9 is that Paul laid much emphasis that our good works should follow faith and not the other way around. Our actions should reflect who we are in Christ and not follow the letter of the law blindly. Matthew 5:16 backed up Paul's teachings in verse 9. We should allow the light of God to penetrate every fiber of our christian life and by this people will know we are truly workmanship of God.

"Saved" has become Christian jargon. We can only translate this word into modern speech so people can understand what it really means and why they need it. Supposing a ship on a high sea is sinking and they put up a distress-call and it does not take long before the coast-guards arrive to rescue the people on board the ship. Everyone on board the ship is rescued and they are happily united with their families, friends, and loved ones. This is exactly Jesus did for us. We have sinned and stand accused, fall short of the glory of God and we need to face justice. We deserve eternal damnation but Jesus came to rescue us from perishing eternal damnation in hell. He paid the price in full for our punishment. Jesus is our kinsman-redeemer. No one is exempted from this salvific work of Jesus. Glory to God.

It is so hard for us to understand grace because of the theological trimmings attached to it. We have been conditioned that if I do this then I need to be rewarded so we all struggle to put on good behavior. It is misunderstood because we do not believe in giving out things freely. We believe that you have to work and earn everything you own. When somebody bless us or favor us with something we may be thinking that I have to reciprocate. The commonly held life principle it demolishes is that the principle of earning things by yourself that is the principle of nothing is free and you have to pay for everything you own -- I can make it on my own principle. This is how I will translate "grace" into a language a 10-year-old child would understand. Grace is a free gift and you do not have to do anything to earn it. It is given to you regardless of who you are -- good or bad. It is like doing a favor to someone even if the person does not deserve it. Grace is unmerited favor God bestowed on everybody.

Faith is believing in the Word of God and trusting that he will do what he says he will do without wavering. We can take credit for having it hundred percent. We can be condemned for lacking faith because we all are given a measure of faith. This is how I will define "faith" in terms a 10-year-old could understand. You and your family lives on the twelve floor of a high-rise building. The building catches fire. Your family managed to escape from the fire and went outside. They realized their 10-year-old is still in the building and your father started yelling out your name instructing you to jump through the window regardless of the blazing fire. Even though you do not know whether you can make it or not you trusted in your father's words and jump through the twelve floor window and landed safely in your father's open arms outside the building. That is faith in action. God may be calling you to do something in order to fulfill his plans and purposes for your life even though we do not know how we still have his Word. If Abraham (Genesis 12:1) could do it so can we.

According to Ephesians 2:10, we were created to special "good work." Why? Because we have been prepared in advance by having been given particular aptitudes, special spiritual sensitivities, unique abilities -- special gifts -- which equip or prepare us to fulfill our destiny here on earth. The difference between these works (Matthew 5:16) and the works Paul discredits in verse 9 is that Paul laid much emphasis that our good works should follow and not the other way around. Our actions should reflect who we are in Christ and not follow the letter of the law blindly. Matthew 5:16 backed up Paul's teachings in verse 9. We should allow the light of God to permeate every fiber of our Christian life and by this people will know we are truly workmanship of God.

"Saved" has become Christian jargon. We can only translate this word into modern speech so people can understand what it really means and why they need it. Supposing a ship on a high sea is sinking and they put up a distress call and it does not take long before the coast guard arrive to rescue the people on board the ship. Everyone on board the ship is rescued and they are happily united with their families, friends and loved ones. This is exactly Jesus did for us. We have sinned and stand accused, fall short of the glory of God, and we need to face justice. We deserve eternal damnation but Jesus came to rescue us from perishing in eternal damnation. He paid the price in full. Jesus is our kinsman-redeemer. Noe one is exempted from this salvific work of Jesus. Glory to God.

It is so hard to under4stand grace because of the theological trimmings attached to it. We are conditioned that if I do this then I need to be rewarded so we all struggle to put on good behavior. It is also misunderstood because we do not believe in giving out things freely. We believe that you have to work and earn everything you own. When somebody bless us with something we may be thinking that I have to reciprocate. The commonly held life principle it demolishes is the principle of earning things by yourself that is the principle of nothing is free and you have to pay for everything you own. I can make it on my own principle. This is how I will translate "grace" into language a 10-year-old child would understand. Grace is a free gift from God and you do not have to do anything to earn it. It is given to you regardless of who you are - good or bad. It is like doing a favor to someone even if the person does not deserve it. Grace is unmerited favor God bestowed on everybody.

Seated with Christ in "the heavenly realms" means we are in complete union with Christ so that his action is our action, since we are in him. We are elevated above the demonic and human authorities in this spiritual sense. This says that God's grace is more than forgiveness of the past, it is the equipping to live now -- in the present time -- with new power, power to transform our lives and the lives of those around us. This tells us that we can exercise our spiritual authority when we know and learn our place of authority and pray from that place of authority and learn how to exercise it we can overcome the enemy and make him the victim of Christ's victory again and again. This knowledge should affect our prayers and our boldness because we are fully aware of our place of spiritual power and authority in Christ and learn how to to use it.