|
Last week we were talking about God’s plan to adopt us (bring us into Sonship) and that was his foreordained plan. What a great God we serve and like (Eph. 1: 6) says we are to praise Him for his grace, favor and mercy that he has so freely bestowed upon us. V7)
Reminds us that we have access to this great redemption (our
deliverance and salvation) through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ –that we get this forgiveness that allows us to access the
generosity of His favor which through the gift of the atonement allows
him to lavish upon us every kind of wisdom and understanding.
In accessing this gift of salvation, he will make known to us
the mysteries of his will concerning this great plan that he has
previously set forth. V
10) tells us that plan is that at the maturity of the times and climax
of the ages, He will unify all things and head them up and consummate
them in Christ – both things in heaven and things on the earth.
Now, you say, “How is he going to do that and what do we gain
from him doing this?” Well
again, he reminds us in (V. 11) that we have an inheritance in what he
is doing in bringing all things to consummate in Christ.
He is in process of working out everything in agreement with
His counsel and design of His own will.
He then again reminds us that we were foreordained- chosen and
appointed before hand for this inheritance that he has for us.
Now I am not talking about “going to heaven to live forever
in that wonderful place”. I
believe in heaven, I believe it is a wonderful place, but our
inheritance, which shall have been laid up for us in the heavenlies,
is not “to get to heaven”. Our inheritance has to do with God’s plan for us in the
earthly realm that will come to us when God finishes the bringing
together of all thing at the consummation of the ages. NOW
WHAT IS REALLY EXCITING is-
for us who have heard of the glad tidings of this wonderful plan of
salvation and the consummation of the ages, when we believed in and
have adhered to it, we were stamped with a seal of the first fruits of
the Holy Spirit which scripture calls an earnest of the inheritance
until the acquiring of the whole package. (That is- the deposit of the
Holy Spirit in your hearts that cries out “Abba” to the Father)
Eph 1:13-14 Now
lets talk about what the word “earnest” means.
A good example of this is when you buy a home, they make you
put down “earnest money”. Now
when you do this that earnest money is your way of saying that this is
my guarantee that I will pay the rest of the money required for the
house. So when God gives
us an “earnest” of our inheritance (that is the first fruit
deposit of the Holy Spirit) then God is saying to us
that that is only the down payment of your inheritance – and
that I am guaranteeing
through giving you the earnest that the full redemption and
your acquiring complete possession of it will take place. To
understand this further, we need to remember what the word
“redemption” means. It
is to buy back – to buy back what either has been stolen or lost.
You recall that in the first lesson we talked about how Adam
lost two things. He lost
his privilege of living in the Garden of Eden and he lost the right to
live forever in his physical body. Death has entered the Garden via
their disobedience and because of that fact, they were no longer
allowed to eat from the Tree of Life. Now
when Jesus paid the price for our redemption, it was the buying back
of these two things. His
blood was shed- even though he was innocent and had never sinned-it
was a price paid to take back what had been taken.
He paid that price not only for us, but that the whole world
should be saved. He
became the DOOR to access again not only the presence of the Father
but also the door to the Kingdom.
However, we must access that door to enter in.
That door according to John 10:9 Jesus said “I am the door.
If anyone enter in he shall be saved..” Remember
we said that the package bought was redemption in three areas. So
redemption means that we might experience a deliverance and a
restoration in the following three areas. The
first two areas are spiritually accessed in this age, while we are in
our earthly bodies. They
are salvation in our: OUR
SPIRIT- This phase of the redemption package is called
“justification” and is the instantaneous experience of grace
called “getting saved”. That
is when we asked Jesus to come into our heart to be our Savior. Before this experience, our spirit man was dead to any
relationship with God or Jesus. Why?
Because before we ask him to come into our hearts, we had no deposit
of the Holy Spirit and therefore no access to any relationship to the
Father (or either eating from the Tree of Eternal Life).
I like to think of our Spirit Man as being a throne.
When we invited Jesus in we invited him to sit on that throne
and there was an expectation by the Father that you would allow him to
rule from there and you would obey him.
Right?? As we walk in the spirit, the spirit flows through us
to give us victory over the sins of the flesh, the sins of the world
and our self will that is the spirit filled walk-eternal life flowing
through our spirits OUR
SOUL- This area is made up of our mind, emotions and will.
This part of salvation is called “sanctification”.
Though it must take place in this age while we are in our
earthly bodies, it is not instantaneous as is justification,
but rather is an on going daily experience of deliverance that
must take place in the soul (mind, emotions, and will).
Another way of putting it is that it is an ongoing “exchange
process” with our Lord Jesus of His changing us to be conformed to
His image. Scripture
says “He is able to change our disobedient minds to godly wisdom”!
The more we are conformed, the more we have access to eat of
the Tree of Eternal Life in our soulish realm. (Remember Jesus is the
Tree of Life) and the more we take on his likeness. This is eternal
life flowing in our soul to change us. The
next phase of our redemption takes place in the “Age to come” but
still takes place in the earthly realm. It is in the realm of: OUR
BODY – This
part of our salvation is called “glorification”- It is, I believe,
an instantaneous experience as is justification. (1 Cor. 15:52 In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump sound, the dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed).
Glorification is when we receive our glorified bodies and are
raised from the dead. We
are again given access to the Garden of God and eternal
life will flow in our bodies. (that which Adam lost). Jesus, when he was seen by his disciples, after his
resurrection, His body was made up of flesh and bone but no blood. In the place of blood was eternal life flowing in his new
body. We are promised a
body like Jesus in the resurrection- one that will be made up
of bone and flesh and flowing with Eternal Life.
Now
to round off this teaching, I believe that scripture teaches that this
body of ours is dead meaning without any eternal life in our flesh
because of sin. (Though scripture says our bodies are quicken
(touched) by the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead –
quickened to receive healing in our bodies when we are sick).
So in the glorification, the restoration of eternal life to our
bodies in the resurrection is the rest of the package that was
promised by God when he made that deposit (first fruit guarantee
of the full inheritance, that is the fullness of eternal life, not
only in our spirit, and soul) but the guarantee of the fullness of
eternal life in our new bodies that shall be raised from the dead
quickened by the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. To
be continued… _____________________________________________________________
For any
one reading this that has never accessed the first part of salvation,
never entered the Door, please pray this prayer with me.
Dear Jesus, I believe you are the Door to eternal salvation.
I now take advantage of the opportunity to walk though that
Door. I believe that you
lived and died for my sins. I
confess that I am a sinner, never accessed the Door. Will you please
forgive me of my sins and come to live in my heart and sit on the
throne of my heart. I
also promise to obey you all the days of my life. Amen. If
you prayed that prayer will you please email me and share it God bless your week and see you again next week. Love you guys. Jeanene Please
address all question or inquiries to jsteinartist@sbcglobal.net http://jeanene-stein.fineartamerica.com
|
.
