heavenlymann

Works that come by way of faith build up the body of Christ the church, which we were created to do. Works Paul spoke of in v.9 means works toward earning God's favor unto salvation. Quite a major difference of meaning. Wish I had time to go further into it.

see my entry for Q1 on grace.

Grace is so hard to understand because the sin nature does its best to try and justify itself...knowing full well it really deserves extinction. It goes against the life principle of work/reward. How can I explain to a 10 year old something thats going to take all eternity for me to understand? How about a thief that breaks into my house to steal then gets trapped in the fire he set to cover his tracks. And I rush into the blaze to save him from being burned alive. and then request all charges against him be dropped. And the criminal charges he must pay, I take his place so he may go free.

Being seated in the heavenlies with Christ means that His actions are our actions. God's grace toward us is exceedingly great in that He has placed us INTO His son. Apparently our spiritual authority IS Christ's authority. What are we praying for? Is it Christ's agenda or our agenda? When we say "in Jesus name", is it in Jesus name? If it is then we can pray in all boldness and authority and confidence of our Savior.

God's great unfathomable LOVE coupled with His great unfathomable MERCY toward us. This is what saved us. This took place even when we still HATED God! Almighty, all meciful God MADE us ALIVE in spite of ourselves!

People sin against God in just trying to live for themselves and their own selfish desire. In doing such they follow Satan in rebellion. God can justly blame man in his sin because man, in rejecting Christ, willfully suppresses the truth of God against all evidence.(Romans 1:18)

Those who are in violation of God's standard are spiritually dead and cannot comprehend anything about sin and transgression and absolute truth because these concepts are spiritually discerned( ICor. 2:14). The best thing to do for such is to bombard the throne of God on their behalf for the mercy of God for their spiritual quickening.

Spiritual warfare seems to be "out there someplace" for so many christians. probably because we are material beings in a, seemingly, material world. But that's not the case. It's seems fairly clear throughout scripture that the spiritual realm is so far more real than this material that this physical is merely a shadow in comparison. The victory comes first in the spiritual realm and follows in the physical realm. Prayer is our life-line of communication.

'"with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin" Romans 7:25. So I think it is...I believe the Lord with my mind but my emotions lie to me. therefore I go by what I know and not what I "feel".

I think we should be sharing our inheritance with all the saints right now through fellowship with one another. isn't vast wealth more enjoyable when it's shared? I believe so.

Our greatest hope is that the Lord will return for us--collectively or personally. We should more and more keep tis knowledge thru good tmes and bad...that is our sure future and it should effect our lives in very real ways. Our hope is different from the non-beleiver in that our hope is based on truth...something both tangible and intangible. The worlds hope is based on nothing more than what they want to happen not on what will happen.

The end of the term occurs at our resurrection:Romans 8:23. The fact that we are SEALED means He (Holy Spirit )keeps us in Christ to the final day. As down payment Holy Spirit is our GUARENTEE that we are children of God here and now and forever more! Praise His Holy Name!

God created us to glorify Him. to fulfill His purpose we need to remain in Him. We are His light in the world. If we don't remain in Him(follow His leading, not taking our eyes off Him) we will lose that light. We either remain in Him or become like the world which is in darkness.

when all things are brought under Christ there will finally be complete harmony and unity under the headship of Him who made all things (John 1:3). The unity is in that the Father has put all things under the Son till even death, the last enemy, is destroyed. ICo. 15:24-28 states that God the Father put all things under Christ till He put all His enemies under His subjection...then the Son will also be under God the Father, "that God may be all in all".

If the Savior had not redeemed me I would still be enslaved to sin never knowing the freedom Redemption brings. My future without redemption could only mean one thing - eternal separation from God in hell with no hope ever. Thank You Lord Jesus for this most precious of all gifts - Your Life that I may live eternally with You.

to be "holy" is to be set apart from the world to the Lord according to His purpose. We can stand blameless before God through the blood of Christ. Now when He looks at us He sees His Son, the Lord Jesus.

I've found in conversation that what some find scary about predestination are things like: "what if He hasn't chosen Me?" or "what if He hasn't chosen my wife...sister...brother...father or mother or some dearly loved one?" What I find comforting is: since I am predestined of the Lord He isn't going to change His mind and what can anyone else do to take me out of His hand? Nothing! Paul is praising God in the hearing of the Ephesians because they are some of the direct recipients of the Lord's predestinated favor and that is to be joyful about.

I of course I think right away of Christ's prayer for us in John 17:21 "That they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me and I in You; that they may also be one in Us..." It certainly has to do with my surrendering my life to the will of Christ, but it says so much of the relationship He desires with us. It is really mind boggling, the truth of this statement...it makes my mind race...and I don't think we will get the full meaning of this stupendous truth untill we get home.

Hi I'm from Michigan. I'm a Christian worker at an inner city mission for drug/alcohol addiction. And I'm an elder in my church. Pastor Wilson's studies are always excellant...very enlightening. I look forward to this study of Ephesians very much. I just pray I will be able to participate to it's end.

When I meditate on seeing His face it's too wonderful to fully comprehend. But all the beauty the Scriptures ascribe to the Lord will be beheld by all of us on that day of days. If these thoughts really permeated the congregation when we partake at the Lord's Table I think the hush that occurs would truly be the awe of His magnificent prescence.

It points to the past in that the Almighty God came to earth in the form of man to do what we could not do for ourselves...make us whole, holy, and free from the sin that entangles and separates us from our Lord and God. Present reminds us of our now and future identity in Christ as children of God not of this world. The future is when it is all completed and our close relationship with the Lord is consumated in His eternal Presence forever and ever. Amen!

the Great Banquet at the end of the age fulfills all we as Christians look forward to now...it will be our consumation of our relationship with the Lord. if this consciousness is in us at the Lords Table how much more meaningful it will be to partake.

His teachings oriented toward the future because His kingdom is not of this world and therefore neither is ours... but at the perfect time of His own choosing He will take back what is rightfully His...ALL of creation. When I think of the Great Banquet or the Wedding Feast of the Lamb I associate with it very extreme close intimate fellowship with the Almighty God. Our close relationship with Him in Christ right now, though beautiful, is but a shadow of what it will be then. It causes me to shudder when I think how unworthy, completely unqualified I am in my own merit...and how completely beautiful is His grace through Christ Jesus our Lord, our Savior.

I think eating the Bread of Life metaphor has to do with us abiding in Him(JN. 15)as we abide in Him He nourishes our spirit and we have fellowship with Him. He is the Bread of Life if we don't remember Him how do we have fellowship? Our spirit must be fed by Him. Our public remberance of Him(recognition of Him) is a public acknowledgement of our commitment to Him. Our spirit is fed by Him by means of reading, and ingesting,scripture;prayer(spiritual fellowship); and meditating on all sorts of things concerning the Almighty God through Christ Jesus(things such as this bible study cause us to meditate on). Taken altogether we abide in Him, we are "eating"(spiritually feeding on and from) the Bread of Life.

I think He emphasized it so strongly to separate those who gave a kind of mental assent from those who deeply believe in the Person of Christ. As such we see the difference in the twelve. I think if we jump ahead for a moment and look at John 10;26,27 we can see that those who do not belong to Him know not His voice. As peter said in Jn 6;69 the twelve did not understand right away His teaching on the subject but they knew Who said it and believed Him as Who He was; the Christ...the Son of the living God. So it wasn't what He said but Who He was they believed.