Philip Doddridge wrote, Grace
tis a charming sound, harmonious to the ear, and to those who
have tasted the bitterness of their sin and the sweetness of
God's grace. Knowing our depravity and knowing
something of God's goodness, grace truly is a charming sound,
harmonious to the ear. But there are many, there are
many to whom the word grace is distasteful, disturbing, and
unpleasant. You see, grace is such a singular
and absolute thing that it will countenance no rival and tolerate
no adornment. It stands singular and alone. No words can justly describe
it. No song can justly sound its
melody. No sermon or theological work
can ever expound its depths or the heights of its glory. Yet
every redeemed sinner rejoices in it, rests in it. We are motivated
by grace. Grace is the source of our comfort
and conviction. It's the cause of our joy and
our tears. It is both our desire and the
fulfillment of our desire. It causes both meekness and boldness
before God's throne. And those who have experienced
it, to them the wonder of it is such that we are forever enamored
by it. Those who have experienced the
beauty and the power of grace find themselves utterly consumed
by it. Tonight I want us to pick up
again in Ephesians 1, where Paul is describing for us the wonder
of God's grace. In verses 3 through 6, remember,
he's telling us about the grace of God our Father bestowed upon
us in eternity. He's talking about the grace
of God our Father bestowed upon us in eternity. We are not now
considering things that happen in time. We're not even considering
things that we experience in time. We're talking about what
God Almighty did for His people in eternity, which results in
us being saved by His free grace. Ephesians 1 verse 3. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him. in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein, that is, in this grace, in this grace
wherewith he has chosen us, and predestinated us, and adopted
this grace wherein he hath blessed us in Christ from eternity, wherein
he hath made." Again, underscore in your mind, if not in your
text, in the page itself, that little word, hath. It's done. Done from eternity. He hath,
not he is making. not he shall make, but he hath
made us not acceptable, but accepted in the Beloved." Now Paul, writing
by divine inspiration, tells us plainly that God Almighty,
in His matchless free grace bestowed upon us in Christ before the
world was made, hath made us accepted in the Beloved. What a wondrous declaration.
With those words, the Holy Spirit reveals and declares one of the
most comforting, delightful truths of Holy Scripture. And that is
the fact that there is an everlasting, indissolvable, immutable union
between Christ and His people. I wish I could say that without
even using the word between. Christ and His people are one. more really and truly one than
we have ever imagined, more really and truly one than words can
begin to express. Now notice at the outset that
this Lord Jesus is here spoken of as that one in whom we were
accepted from eternity. The matter of our acceptance
was accomplished before the world began. This is not something
accomplished in time. Because it is something done
by God and done by God alone before ever time existed, before
ever the world was made, that means it cannot and does not
in any way depend upon you and me. Our acceptance before God,
our acceptance with God, our acceptance as one with Christ,
cannot in any way be improved by anything we experience or
do in time, and it cannot in any way be dimmed or damaged
or marred by anything we do or experience in time. It is an
everlasting acceptance. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever, and nothing can be put to it. nor anything
taken from him, and God doeth it that men should fear before
him." Does that mean then that the
believer's good works, as men like to talk about what we do
in this world, don't make us any more accepted with God? That's
what it means. Does that mean our in Adam in
the Garden, in the days of our lives, during the days of our
rebellion, during this day of God's grace since he found these
wandering sheep, that our sins, our untold thousands of transgressions
committed every day, will not make us less accepted. That's
what it means. I'm talking about absolute, eternal
acceptance in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Now, let men hoot and
holler all they want to about man's part in salvation, man's
righteousness, man's goodness, man's will, man's work, man's
contribution. Our text declares, He, God the
Father, hath made from all eternity before the world was, us, you,
and me. vile, base, hell-bent, hell-deserving
sinners by nature, but chosen, redeemed, and called by His grace,
accepted, highly favored, honored, laudable, pleasing, and delightful
to God Himself in the Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ, His darling
Son. Listen one more time to these
great words penned by John Kent long ago. to which Jesus and
the chosen race subsist a bond of sovereign grace, that hell
with its infernal train shall ne'er dissolve nor end in vain. Hail, sacred union, firm and
strong, how great the grace, how sweet the song, that worms
of earth should ever be one with incarnate deity. This sacred
union forbids our fears, for all He is or has is ours. With
Him, our head, we stand or fall, our life, our surety, and our
all." Now, give me your attention. Oh, the Spirit of God calls you
to hear what He reveals to us in this book. I want to show
you four things in this statement by the Apostle Paul. First, Everything
in this chapter is about, points to, and speaks of a beloved person. Jesus Christ our Lord and our
Savior, the Son of God. He is here spoken of as the Beloved. The Beloved. The Beloved. I cannot imagine a name or a
title more suitable for our Savior. This sweet, golden name is that
which describes our Savior most perfectly in all his relationships
with God, with the heavenly angels, and with his people. The Lord
Jesus certainly is the beloved of the Father. Turn back to Proverbs
chapter 8. Hold your hands here in Ephesians
and turn to Proverbs 8. You remember how our God spoke
from heaven twice, once when our Lord Jesus was baptized by
John the Baptist in the River Jordan, and then again at the
Mount of Transfiguration, and said, This is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Now, it goes without saying that
is true of him in regard to his eternal deity as the everlasting
Son of the everlasting Father. But this is speaking about our
Redeemer in his mediatorial character. And he says, in whom I am well
pleased. Not with whom, in whom. God Almighty
is well pleased with us in his Son. I've tried to illustrate
that for you in every way I can imagine. If I say to one of you,
I'm well pleased in you. You would immediately think,
well, Brother Don has misspoken, and you would be correct. I am
well-pleased with you, well-pleased with what you do, well-pleased
with who you are, well-pleased with the things you say, all
of those things. But I would never use the term
well-pleased in you, never. When God Almighty says, this
is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased, He's speaking of
Him in His mediatorial character and declaring that He is well
pleased with all His people in His Son because we are one with
His Son. None of us can begin to imagine
how delightful the Father is with the Son as the God-man,
our mediator from eternity. Here in Proverbs chapter 8, we
have a description of it. Verse 22. The Lord Jesus is speaking. He is the wisdom of God, and
He has made of God unto us wisdom. And when the wise man speaks
of wisdom in the book of Proverbs, he is not just giving us words
about carnal wisdom. Now, there's no question what
he says can be applied to morality, living in this world, and all
those things, and it is right to apply it to those things.
But the wisdom of which Paul speaks is spiritual wisdom. It is Christ who is our wisdom. Now listen to the Savior speak,
who is the wisdom of God. Proverbs 8, 22. The Lord possessed
me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. The
beginning of His way was before He ever did anything. I was set
up from everlasting. Those words cannot be applied
to him in his eternal deity. He was not set up ever. He is
the eternal, unchanging God. But as our mediator in covenant
grace, he was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the
earth was. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, Before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth, while as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass
his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth,
then was I by him. as one brought up with him, and
I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing
in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with
the sons of men." In the covenant of grace, all the blessings of
grace were bestowed upon chosen sinners in the beloved. And when
our Lord God stooped to create this earth, when He stooped to
make something out of nothing, The Father called to the Son
and said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness. For without him was not anything
made that was made. Everything that God the Father
has done, decreed to be done, He has done in order to glorify
His Son, that in all things He might have the preeminence. And
God the while he lived on this earth, as a man, died as our
substitute, and lives again at the Father's right hand as our
exalted priest and King in heaven, altogether did so that he might
glorify the Father. And so he is the beloved of the
Father. Let me show you three ways in
which he is. He is the beloved of the Father
in the worth of his person, because he is God. Man, gloriously perfect,
infinitely holy, so that all that he does as a man, he does
as God, giving infinite worth to everything. His blood would
be meaningless if he is not God in human flesh. His righteousness
and obedience would be meaningless if he is not God in human flesh. The Godhead of our Savior, joined
with His humanity, makes everything worth something before God. It
would all be altogether impossible, His blood, His righteousness,
and His obedience, were He not man, one of us. And He is infinitely
beloved of the Father in the work of His hands, because this
One who is our Redeemer, the Beloved, in all things fulfilled
his Father's will, and in all things accomplished his Father's
glory, and he is infinitely beloved of the Father in the words of
his mouth. He who sits yonder on the right
hand of God, making intercession for us according to the will
of God, is infinitely beloved of God. That means all that come
to God by him, for all that come to God by him, salvation he demands,
points to their names upon his breast and spreads his wounded
hands. Certainly, the Lord Jesus is
beloved of God the Holy Spirit as well. When he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, our Savior said, he will guide you into
all truth, for he shall not speak of himself. He won't speak about
himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and
he will show you things to come. Now this is what I mean by that.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show
it unto you. Brother Todd Nyberg once said
when he was preaching here, where the Holy Spirit is emphasized,
the Holy Spirit is absent. And Brother Todd was exactly
right. These days everybody talks about the Spirit, and the work
of the Spirit, and baptism in the Spirit, and gifts of the
Spirit, and slain in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit, and that's
the emphasis of everything. The Spirit. Wherever God, the
Holy Spirit, moves upon men, and opens the Word of God to
men, and speaks through the mouth of a man, God, the Holy Spirit,
always speaks of Christ. Always. He always exalts and
honors the Son. The Lord Jesus certainly is the
beloved of those holy, heavenly spirits called the angels of
God, who wait quickly before His throne, wait to do His will,
and to do it swiftly and quickly. And without question, He is the
beloved of every saved sinner. Listen to this. My beloved is
unto me as a cluster of camphor, in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold,
thou art all fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant also our bed is
green. As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the suns. I sat down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste, the voice of my beloved. Behold, he cometh leaping upon
the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like
a roe or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our
wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through
the lattice. My beloved spake and said unto
me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, come away. My beloved is
mine, and I am his. He feedeth among the lilies.
Until the day break and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved. and be thou like a roe or a young
heart upon the mountains of Betha? I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying to me, open to me, my sister, my spouse,
my love, my dove, my undefiled, that he speaks thus of us and
speaks thus to us, O Larry, If that doesn't make him beloved
to us, we know nothing of him and know nothing of ourselves.
My beloved put his hand in at the hole of the door, and my
bowels were moved for him. People ask, where, what is thy
beloved? More than another beloved, O
thou fairest among women. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved that thou dost so charge us? Listen, and I'll
tell you. My beloved is white and ruddy,
the cheapest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine
gold. His locks are bushy and black
as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by rivers of water washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks
are as beds of spices. as sweet flowers, his lips like
lilies dropping with sweet-smelling myrrh. His hand is as gold rings
set with beryl. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of gold. His countenance is as levitant,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, yea,
he is altogether lovely. is my beloved, and this is my
friend. My beloved is gone down into
his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, to gather
lilies. I am my beloved's, and my beloved
is mine. He feedeth among the lilies. Again, I am my beloved's, and
his desire is toward me. Now will I sing to my well-beloved,
the song of my beloved. Touching his vineyard, my well-beloved
hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill." That's the language wherewith
God's people speak of Him by inspiration. Never was the term
beloved so full of meaning, so well-deserved, and yet so incapable
of expressing all that's meant by it as when it is applied to
our Redeemer. He is our beloved. And John says,
love Him because He first loved us. As you know, I just cannot bring myself to
sing things like, oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I want to love Him. But
my love for Him is not worthy of thought. Much less mention. I just can't bring myself to
sing it. But we love Him. If we know Him,
we do. If any man loved not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be damned, the Lord's coming. That's the
language of Scripture. We love Him because He first loved us. Here it is love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. But we do love Him. Unto you therefore which believe,
He is precious. Now, back to our text in Ephesians
1. Not only does Paul here describe
a beloved person. He describes an everlasting union. In recent years, I've spent a
lot of time studying and meditating on this matter of the believer's
union with Christ. I can't think of anything more
delightful. I can't think of anything more
consoling, more encouraging, more comforting. And yet, it's
one of those things that The more I study it, the more I meditate
on it, the more I think about it, the bigger it gets and the
less it seems that I know of it. I'm sure, as you read this
first chapter of Ephesians, you can't help noticing that the
Holy Spirit repeatedly tells us, and tells us specifically,
that everything God has for sinners is in Christ. Indeed, everything
is in Christ. Everything comes to us with Christ. Apart from Christ, we have nothing. And that's true of our acceptance.
We are accepted in the beloved. Now, what do the Scriptures teach
about this union? Let me give you three or four
things. Turn to 2 Timothy 1, if you will,
first. Now, I'm not talking about our manifest union with Christ.
There comes a time when the believer is manifestly united to Christ,
manifestly one with Christ, because God the Holy Spirit gives us
faith in Christ and binds our hearts to Him in not only binding
our hearts to Him, binds our lives to Him, knits the two together
so that we experientially become one with Him. And when I say
manifest union, I'm not even talking about a manifest union
that other folks see. Nobody else can. I'm talking
about there comes a time in the work of God's grace when He calls
the believer, gives us life and faith in Christ. He manifests
to you who believe that you're one with Christ. Here's 2 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 9. Paul is describing the gospel
for which he suffered bonds and imprisonment. And he urges Timothy
and us never to be ashamed of this gospel. This gospel of God,
look at verse 9. who hath saved us, and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began." Well, Brother Don, that sounds
like Paul is saying we were saved before the world began. That's
what it sounds like to me. We didn't know anything about
it. We hadn't experienced it, but that's exactly what he says.
Well, what happens when a person experiences this salvation? Look
at it, verse 10. But is now made, you see the
word? Manifest. What happens when God
drops his grace in a man's soul? He manifests what he has done
from eternity. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, by Him appearing to you
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. Not just to me,
in me. Read on. By the appearing of
our Savior Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and brought life
and immortality to light by the gospel, through the gospel. with
the word of his salvation, the word of your salvation, and brings
life and immortality to light by the gospel. The subject here
in Ephesians 1 is our everlasting union with Christ, not this manifest
union. This everlasting union with Christ
is first a union of election, an election union. We were chosen
in Christ and with Christ. Our names are inscribed in the
Lamb's book of life, but the first name inscribed in that
book is the name of Jesus Christ, the God-man, our Mediator, the
Lamb himself. Well, how do you know that? Because
God says in Isaiah 42, Behold, my servant, mine elect, in whom
I delight. I think it was Isaac Watts who
wrote a hymn, one line of it goes like this, Christ be my
first elect, he said, then chose our souls in Christ our head.
We were chosen in Jesus Christ. Now salvation has got to begin
with someone's choice. I know the whole religious world
says begin with your choice. Sometimes folks like to quote
what Billy Graham said. He said election is like this. He said God voted for you, and
the devil voted against you, and you cast the deciding vote.
There are just a few things wrong with that. You weren't around,
and the devil wasn't registered. No, the election is God's work. God's work alone. He chose us. Our Savior says, you have not
chosen me. But doesn't there come a time
when we choose Christ? Well, sort of. But it's not me. It's Christ who lives in me.
Remember what Paul said in Galatians 2.20? The life which I now live
by the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. And yet, it's not me, but it's
Christ who lives in me. When God the Holy Spirit comes
in grace, put in Christ, In you, he makes you willing in the day
of his power. But the natural man, the fallen
man, the depraved man, did not, will not, could not, and never
shall choose Christ. Old man Adam in us still rebels
against Christ. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. Our election, then, is the beginning
of this union with Christ. Second, we have with Christ a
legal union. an eternal suretyship union. How can I begin to describe that?
Paul describes Christ as the surety of a better covenant.
This suretyship business is a legal business, and we must have a
legal union with Christ before the law. This legal union is
that which we have when the Lord Jesus drew near to the Father
as our covenant surety, assuming all responsibility for us from
eternity. A surety before the law is one
with the debtor he represents, so that the surety is equally
debtor with the debtor. And the law looks to the surety
as well as to the debtor for satisfaction. And that's where
the thing breaks down. You see, no type of picture or
representation of Christ, either in scripture or outside scripture,
fully represents Him. In this case, when the Lord Jesus
drew near to the Father as our covenant servant, struck hands
with the Father, and agreed to redeem and save us, the Lord
God Almighty ceased to look to us for anything. Christ became
totally responsible to God Almighty for everything. What did we owe
God? We owe Him perfect obedience. Perfect consciousness. And if
we could even take care of doing that from this day forward, there's
something else we can't take care of. We owe Him complete
satisfaction for all our transgressions. And that can never be rendered.
The reason hell is eternal is because sin is against an infinite
God, and finite man can never satisfy infinite justice. But
Jesus Christ, our surety. stood before the Father before
the world was, and said, I will redeem them. I will save them. Give them to me. And I'll deliver
them, every one to you, perfectly righteous, with no sin, and no
obligation, and no debt. And the Father trusted the Son
and declared us justified and glorified in the Son. This grace
and salvation given us in Christ before the world was. When our
Lord Jesus Christ was made surety for us, totally assuming all
responsibility for us, the Lord God Almighty, looking on Him
as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, looks on us and
declares us saved in Him. Our covenant surety is our legal
head and representative. just as Adam was the legal head
and representative of all the race in the garden. We won't
read it again, but read often the fifth chapter of Romans.
The Apostle Paul in that fifth chapter is explaining to us how
we are justified through Jesus Christ alone, by free grace alone,
through the blood of Christ alone, exactly as he had been declaring
it in chapters 3 and 4. He's declaring to us how Abraham
was justified without works. How David was justified without
works. How we have been justified because Christ was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. How can
that be? Because God only deals with two
men in point of justice. He deals with the first Adam
and the last Adam. Just as Adam was the representative
of the whole human race and everything Adam did, we did in him. I can't
explain that. Who needs it explained? God declared
it. That's the way it is. As in Adam,
all die. In Christ, shall all be made
alive. We became sinners by what Adam did because we sinned in
Adam and we died in Adam. And thank God it's so. Thank
God it's so. The angels that sinned rebelled
against God. following the lead of Lucifer,
and one-third of the heavenly host followed Satan in rebellion,
and they are reserved in chains of darkness under the judgment
of the last day, with no mercy, with no hope, cast out forever,
because they all sinned one at a time. But blessed be God! Man sinned by one man. And man became disobedient by
one man. And man died by one man. And man was ruined by one man.
And judgment came upon all men by one man. That means maybe,
maybe another man shall rise in our stead. And indeed he has. The last Adam, the second man,
the Lord from heaven, made a quickening spirit so that when he lived
on the earth, we lived in him. When he obeyed God's law, Watch
this. Watch this. I'm fixing to take
a drink. You see that? Anybody have any
problem understanding that? I'm fixing to take a drink. I'm
going to pour it right here. You know what? My whole body
just took a drink of water. Well, that can't be preached.
You poured it in your lips. When you can divide my lips from my
body and get the water out, then you can say my body didn't do
it. We are one with Christ. When he loved God with all his
heart, for the full age of a man, this man walked on this earth, the full
age of a man, loving God with all his heart. When he walked
on this earth, the full age of a man, loving his neighbor as
himself perfectly, this man one with Him, walked on this earth
with Him, loving His neighbor as one with Himself perfectly. And when He went up to Calvary
Street and took my sin on Him and was made sin for me, and
God Almighty drew out the sword of justice and slaughtered His
darling Son, I was crucified with Christ! And when He died,
I died with Him. When He was buried, I was buried
with Him. And when He arose, and the Father
said, Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool,
what does the book say? You have He quickened together
with Christ and made us to sit down in heavenly places with
Christ. When he was raised, we were raised. When he was glorified, we were
glorified. When he sat down, we sat down. And then believers have something
else with Christ, something called a mystical union. I don't much
like the word mystical, and I've tried to find a better one, but
I can't find a better one, so we'll stick with it. We are one
with Christ in the sense That we are members of his body. Not physically. Not physically. When the scripture speaks of
us being born of his bone and flesh of his flesh. When the
scripture says, For this call shall a man leave his father
and his mother and shall be joined to his wife and they too shall
be one flesh. But I speak now concerning man. I'm talking about Christ in the
church. It's not talking about a physical union of any kind.
Our Lord Jesus is an individual human being, a man, just like
we are. But spiritually, spiritually,
in the world of real life, we are one with Christ, one with
Him. Oh, Brother Dodd, you're getting
into things no man can understand. I want to tell you what. I'm
beginning to discover everything I read in this book no man can
understand. We just kind of scratch it along the surface and get
our feet wet once in a while and rejoice in it. No, I can't
begin to explain it. I can't begin to understand it.
But that doesn't mean I can't believe it and rejoice in it.
One with Him. One in Him. Turn to Hebrews chapter
2. Let me show you. Verse 11. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one. They are all one, of
one body, of one being, for which cause he is not ashamed to call
them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren
in the midst of the church while I sing praise unto thee. And
again I will put my trust in him. And again behold I and the
children which God hath given me. For as much then, as children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power of death, that is, the devil. Now I'm being worded
way over my head here, but as the head is one with the body,
as the father is one with the son, as He is in His glory as
the God-man, our Mediator, the object of His Father's love and
delight, and one with the Father, so we are one with Him. And then there comes a time when
He gives us a willing, delightful marriage union. He espoused us to Himself in
covenant grace from eternity. and married us before the world
was. That's what espousals were as
they were represented in the Old Testament. When Joseph was
espoused to his wife Mary, they were married before the law.
They had not yet come together, but they were married. And that's
the reason why marriage was looked upon as it was in Old Testament
law. Because the Lord Jesus, who espoused
us to himself before the world was, married us. And we didn't know anything at
all about it. We were totally ignorant of it. Until in the
fullness of time, He came. And by the power of His grace,
reveals Himself to us, conquers our hearts, and caused us gladly
to be wed to Him. United to Him in love with willing
hearts. People say, you folks, may God
save sinners against their will. No. He saves sinners against
their will with all their full consent. He makes them willing
in the day of his power. And this union is a vital union. Vital. And sometimes we speak
in hyperbole. I'm not speaking in hyperbole.
When I say this is a vital union, I mean it is vital. Vital to
Jesus Christ, the God-man, our mediator. and vital to us, so
that if ever we should be separated from Him, we will perish. But so must He. For the Scripture
says, down here in the last verse of this chapter, that we who
are in Him are the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. He cannot, He cannot He cannot
live before God Almighty in heaven's glory if one member should perish. The head perishes with it. That's
how blessed this union is. Now look at this glorious position.
Accepted. Highly favored. Laudable. Praiseworthy. God did this for
us. that for the world began. He
made us, in Christ, to be complete, totally, absolutely accepted
in Christ, justified from all things, freed from all sin, the
objects of His complacency and delight, altogether worthy of
God's own Now, he's not talking about things
in time. He talks about redemption in the next verse. He talks about
the effectual call of the Spirit in the verses following. Here
he's talking about what was done in eternity. He accepted us in
Jesus Christ because of Christ the Lamb, slain from the foundation
of the world. We are united and one with Him.
Just as from eternity the Father accepted the surety, so He accepted
us. Was the surety righteous? Was He holy? Was he justified
in the Spirit before God? Was he altogether worthy of Heaven's
glory? Was he altogether accepted? Well,
of course he was, brother Don. So was I. So were you. Accepted. Accepted into the Lord. If right now you believe on the
Son of God, your faith in Him is the manifest revelation that
you are accepted in the beloved, and can never be unaccepted. Amen.