Accepted: The Review

To recap the ways that we are accepted by God:

• I am God's child
• I am Christ's friend
• I have been justified
• I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in spirit
• I have been bought with a price - I belong to God
• I am a member of Christ's body
• I am a saint - a holy one
• I have been adopted as God's child
• I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit
• I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins
• I am complete in Christ

If I rephrase these, we may benefit from a different perspective:

• God has made me His child
• Christ has declared me His friend
• God has provided my justification
• God has made me one with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit
• God sought me out and bought me, at great price
• God has placed me into the body of Christ, in just the right place
• God has separated me out for His purposes and His glory
• God chose to adopt me, even though He knew all about my sin
• God give me constant access to Himself through the Holy Spirit
• God has provided my redemption and forgiveness through Jesus Christ
• God has made me complete in Christ with new life

This exercise was to drive into our minds that it is God who has made it His charge to care for His children. We must not take such wonderful grace for granted, or even worse taking credit for the good things in our lives.

Accepted

In the last several messages we have looked at numerous ways that the believer is accepted. The believer is wholeheartedly accepted by God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Not only is God accepting, but it is only by His plan and His grace that we are accepted.

In the dictionary being accepted means being treated as one that belongs, as one that satisfies the requirements and as one that is wanted. The same can be said about the believer.

The context of our discussion laid out in the beginning is that some of us have a problem with anger. Most people respond to an angry person by excluding them and pushing them away. Note the outstretched, accepting arms of Jesus Christ. If we strive to come with a humble, repentant heart, then He says to us, "Come to me, I will give you rest". In this context that might be rest from the anger that simmers in our heart, the angry response that we feel throughout our being and the angry response by which we sin against others. We cannot communicate God's message to others out of a heart of anger.

So we lay this piece of the foundation: Even with my sin, I am accepted by God the Father through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ and the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. We must pray that we can truly understand this and rejoice in it. The first step toward our healing is to receive the acceptance that Jesus Christ offers. Realize that what Jesus Christ has for us supersedes anything else we can imagine.

God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: Complete in Christ

Colossians 2:9,10 ESV

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

We are accepted by Christ. We are now found in Christ. We are made complete in Christ. Adam and Eve were perfect upon creation. Once they sinned by disobeying God the destructive force of sin began it's work and has continued to do so in all mankind. If we look at ourselves today, we may not even realize the ways that we are damaged goods because of sin's destruction.

Before Christ, not only were we spiritually dead, but also our physical, mental and emotional condition had deteriorated. It's all connected. Just as an unsaved person does not have a spiritual relationship with God, he also is not able to draw upon the wisdom of God in his life decisions. Rather, the unsaved person is marched around by the lusts of his flesh and the wiles of the devil.

In our salvation, at the point of regeneration, God brings life to that which has been spiritually dead. He places His Holy Spirit within us. We now have spiritual life. We are no longer dead. Our new life in Christ is furnished by the completeness that is in Jesus Christ Himself. We can now fellowship with God Almighty through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ and the indwelling power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

II Corinthians 5:17 ESV
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Although we must work to rid ourselves of the dead man's baggage, in Christ we are new creatures with a potential that is reminiscent of that first man and woman.

Let's walk with God daily and talk to Him, as He condescends to be involved in our lives.

God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: Redeemed and Forgiven

I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins!

Colossians 1:13, 14 ESV

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The most significant and dire problem of every person that has ever lived or will ever live is that they are a sinner. There is a holy and righteous God that has a perfect knowledge of every sin each person has committed or will commit. This God is a Holy God and will not look lightly on sin. On the human side, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that the person can do to earn forgiveness. There is not one religion on this planet that will allow a person to get out from under their burden of sin. We are all born with a sin nature and we are part of the kingdom of darkness. Yes, the natural man is easily swayed and used by Satan. If you understand what I have just written, then you understand the word hopeless. Hopeless in terms of a present solution, and hopeless in terms of any good to look forward to in eternity.

Fortunately for many that is not the end of the story. The only way to get out from under the burden of sin is to cry out to God and ask for His mercy. God has a plan of redemption in place. His plan is perfect and required a perfect sacrifice. God could not be God and ignore the sin. The penalty for the sins of the redeemed had to be paid. So look at the cross. See Jesus Christ on the cross. See Him die and be buried. Then see him on Resurrection morning - He is alive, He is not dead! The sacrifice that Christ paid fully satisfied (propitiated) God's wrath reserved for the sins of the elect. The elect are those people God has chosen from eternity to be saved and brought into His kingdom.

Who are the elect? I cannot tell you. Are you part of the elect? I cannot tell you. All I can tell you is that salvation and redemption are only available through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and if you want that redemption, cry out to God, seeking His mercy. You do not go to God touting your own goodness, rather acknowledge your sinfulness and hopeless, and ask to be covered by the blood of Christ. Call unto God with a sincere heart and you can expect him to save you. This is more than just reciting a 'sinners prayer'. This must be a sincere seeking of God's mercy from the depths of your heart. When you see what a sinner you truly are, this will not be difficult. If you are not so convinced of you sinfulness, then ask God to help you see the truth about yourself.


God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: Direct Access to God

Direct access to God through the Holy Spirit.

Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

First we should consider the context of this verse. In this passage, Paul is talking about the fact that God was working to bring two different groups to himself. The Gentiles (those who were far off) and the Jews (those who were near). Because of God's promises to Abraham the Jews did enjoy covenant promises and blessings that the Gentiles had not yet been part of. However, in terms of righteousness, both groups were equally in need of a Savior, and both groups were to be reconciled to God the Father in the same way. That is through the blood of Jesus Christ. As God reconciled both parties to Himself, He also merged the two groups into one body - the body of Christ.

Comments from Matthew Henry on Ephesians 2:18
For through him, in his name and by virtue of his mediation, we both have access or admission into the presence of God, who has become the common reconciled Father of both: the throne of grace is erected for us to come to, and liberty of approach to that throne is allowed us. Our access is by the Holy Spirit. Christ purchased for us leave to come to God, and the Spirit gives us a heart to come and strength to come, even grace to serve God acceptably. Observe, We draw nigh to God, through Jesus Christ, by the help of the Spirit. The Ephesians, upon their conversion, having such an access to God, as well as the Jews, and by the same Spirit, the apostle tells them, Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners,

This passage describes the wonderful reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles and also contains truths for each believer. Through the work of Jesus Christ, our Mediator, we have access to God. More specifically we have access to God's throne of Grace. We come to God's throne to be reminded that He is sovereign, and to the throne of Grace, because that is what we desperately need. It was that very Grace that brought about our salvation, and it is the same Grace that we need every day all the time to live for His Glory. Grace is that undeserved favor, that multitude of blessings that God pours out on His children. Finally, no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit gives us the heart and the strength to approach the Father. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts to convince us of the Father's great love.

Believer, what will you do with this 'direct access'? Will you ignore it? forget about it? convince yourself that you do not have time for it? The 'direct access' is a gift from God to His people for a purpose. Shall we squander it today? If we get to the end of the day and have not at least once stretched our hand out to that throne of Grace, how can we believe the day has been what God intended?

God Bless You
Dennis

Accepted: Adopted - more scripture

The theme of adoption is throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament God often speaks of taking people that are not His own, and making them His children. The theme is also consistent in the New Testament:

Romans 8:14-17 ESV
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Galatians 4:5 ESV
5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

II Corinthians 6:17-18 ESV
17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."

I John 3:1-3 ESV
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We have been adopted, we have the Holy Spirit of adoption, and we are most certainly Children of God. God wants to be a Father to us, and He wants us to be children to Him. Shall you reject such a perfect offer? Rejoice in these truths today, as you praise, thank and trust God with your day to day issues.

God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: Adopted as God's Child

Eph 1:5 ESV

5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

If you are a Christian you have been adopted. Think about adoption and you will see that acceptance is at its core. Consider a married couple that is not able to have children of their own. They have made the decision to adopt a child. They go through various approval procedures with the adoption agency. They scramble to find the large amount of money needed. Then they wait for the right child to become available. Finally they get a call from the adoption agency that everything is set. The new parents go to pick up the child and bring the child home. These parents have committed in their heart that they want this child to love and care for. They only have partial or limited understanding of who this child is, but still they say, "He is ours!" The child could not do anything to make this happen, but yet the child will receive major blessings through this adoption.

Maybe you have adopted a child, or know someone who has. Is not the adopted child accepted and loved. They certainly are. Now there is no basis to expect that this child will be the most wonderful, well-behaved child in the world. But that does not matter. The love of the parents is a committed love that assures the child's acceptance.

Now we look at our heavenly Father. Our adoption is born out of predestination. That assures us that God's will was the only factor in the decision and that we had absolutely nothing to do with it. God did not look forward in time and see that we are so cute that He just had to adopt us. God adopts His children for His purposes alone, and those purposes are born out of love.

Consider also that when our God adopts us, He knows everything about us. Every sin that we will ever commit is known by Him. He knows we will fail and that we have no righteousness of our own. He knows about His holiness and about His wrath that is due us. Along with our adoption comes the redemptive work of His Son, Jesus Christ. That is how the sinful, adopted children can sit at the dinner table with a thrice holy God Almighty.

Today, if you are a Christian, I encourage you to rejoice in being so accepted by God that He claimed you as His own child. Rest in the love of a perfect Heavenly Father.

God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: I am a saint, a holy one

Ephesians 1:1 NKJV
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:

Paul uses the term saint a number of times and it basically means Christian. The expression 'holy one' may also be used. It is not talking about a great person who died, but rather a Christian who is or has been through this earthly journey.

Being called a holy one references the fact that a true believer is sanctified. When a believer is holy, they are sanctified and set-apart. Believers are set apart to God for His glory and purposes, and away from the world and the kingdom of darkness. If you are thinking of holy ones being righteous, that is incorporated in justification and is absolutely true - being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

There is another aspect of being a saint. As we rejoice in our 'set-apart' standing and relationship, we must remember that we are called with a purpose. Paul here references the saints who are not only in Ephesus, but are also faithful in Jesus Christ.

In Romans 16:2, Paul tells the Romans to receive Phoebe unto themselves "in a manner worthy of the saints". This carries two meanings: first, because Phoebe is a saint, she deserves to be received with Christian love, secondly, because the believers in the church at Rome are saints, their behavior toward her must be that of Christian love. Saints take care of each other for the pleasure of Christ.

As we have talked about saints, you may have had the Roman Catholic list of saints banging around in your head. That is a totally different thing. Those saints have supposedly earned (merited) enough righteousness that they have made it to heaven. This is an extreme deviation from Scripture. No one will make it to heaven other than by the righteousness (merit) of Jesus Christ.

Wishing you God's richest blessing, fellow saint.
Dennis

Accepted: A Member of Christ's Body

1Corinthians 12:27 ESV
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Some other key verses, working up through the chapter. (I realize bottom to top is not generally recommended.)

12:26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

12:18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

We have been considering many ways that a believer is accepted by God. Many of these have focused on the believer as an individual. With this indicator of acceptance, we see that God has accepted the believer as a part of something much larger: the body of Christ. Now this is not the physical body of Christ, even though the current passage of scripture is based on the analogy of the physical body. The body of Christ is the Church, and of course I mean the true Church, those believers who are truly redeemed. Christ is obviously the head of this body. By God's design, the combining of believers into a body provides much strength and ability that would not be available for an individual body part.

As God knows intimately each believer, He knows how to fit each one into the body. God has an exact place for each believer in the body. The positioning is not only what is best for the individual, but also what is best for the body. All the members of the body take orders from the head of the body (Jesus Christ), and as they trust and obey, the body is strengthened. When believers do not trust and obey, then the body is weakened.

So what is your experience in the body of Christ? Your 'in the body' experience is first in the Church, and secondly in fellowship with the broader circle of Christians. The norm presented in the New Testament is that the believer functions in a church body. Have you found the place that God wants you to be? Are you enjoying strength and support from the fellowship? In the midst of your body life, are you able to see your sins and faults, and forgive others for theirs? How about the Pastor?

I certainly hope you are living in victory and joy with this issue. God has designed the body of Christ for our good. We must believe that, even if it is only by faith. In this day and age, many Christians have struggled with rejection (real or perceived) from the body, as if they were a transplant that did not belong. These people are hurting and need the love of others in the body. The sanctification of all believers is still underway. The fruit of remaining sin is that sometimes the church will dump their wounded along the road (maybe because they are not perfect Christians) instead of restoring them.

God Bless You with what you need regarding 'body life',
Dennis

Accepted: Bought With a Price

I Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Here are a few additional scriptures that express this idea of God's people being owned and purchased.

Psa 100:3 Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Rom 14:7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
Rom 14:8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

Tit 2:14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

From Barnes:
We are purchased; we belong to God; we are his by redemption; by a precious price paid; and we are bound, therefore, to devote ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, as he directs, to the glory of his name, not to the gratification of the flesh;

Dennis: A Christian knows he is accepted because he has been bought with a price and he is owned. If your reaction to being owned is to start kicking and screaming, then you need to give new consideration to the one who purchased you. If the Almighty and Sovereign God of Heaven above has a desire to buy this filthy and helpless sinner how can I object. It would be a foolish resisting. Compare His offer to what I have: judgment and death to look forward to. There is a peace in knowing that I have been purchased.

Secondly there is a peace in knowing that I have been purchased at great price. As part of the true church, the family of truly saved believers, I have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. That is worth far more than the largest pile of silver and gold. If God the Father is willing to go to that extreme to buy me, then there can be nothing better than Him owning me. As messed up as your life or mine might be right now, how can you say it is worthless. My heavenly Father knew about every sin I would ever commit when He made the decision to purchase me. His love and His plan of redemption caused Him to purchase a vile filthy sinner with a black sin nature. Why? For His purposes and glory. God intends to do a great work in our lives. Are we cooperating with His plan?

From Gill:
Not with gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as the whole church, and all the elect of God are. This proves them to be the Lord's, not only his redeemed ones, being ransomed by a price from the bondage of the law, sin, Satan, and the world; but his espoused ones, and which is chiefly designed here; for one way of obtaining and espousing a wife among the Jews was by a price.

Dennis: Finally I highlight the point brought out by Gill. In Jewish culture, the groom's family had to pay a bride price to the bride's family. When God the Father purchased us at great cost, He was paying the bride price for the wife of His only begotten Son Jesus - the church, the bride of Christ. And there is no doubt that the bride is accepted by the groom.

I hope and pray that these Scriptures and thoughts will be a blessing to you.

God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: United with the Lord

I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in Spirit.

I Corinthians 6:17 ESV
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

I Corinthians 6:19 ESV
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

In addition to being a child of God, a friend of Christ and being justified there are other changes that come to the Christian. The Christian has a living, vital, spiritual relationship and oneness with God the Father and God the Son because God the Holy Spirit resides within the heart of the believer. The actual Holy Spirit of God living within the core of the believer. (This would obviously be impossible without justifiction.) The presence of the Holy Spirit is essential for transforming the believer, for strengthening the believer and for enabling the believer to live for the glory of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit in an individual shows that God's love and compassion is personal. Also, the Holy Spirit works differently in different people's lives.

The Christian's relationship with God does not consist only of what God has done and declared outside of the believer, but it also includes what God is doing everyday inside the very being of the believer. We should ask this question about everything in our lives, "Is this hindering the work that God wants to do?"

So today, you should:

• Thank God for the gift and presence of His Holy Spirit
• Pray that you will be made more sensitive to the working of the Holy Spirit
• Pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit you can be more obedient to Christ.

God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: I am Justified

Romans 5:1 - ESV
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Justification is an act of God whereby He pardons sinners and accepts them as righteous. This is done for Christ's sake, and by doing it God establishes an eternally right relationship with a person that replaces the previous enmity and estrangement.

The basis of this pardoning is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Christ, as the second Adam, is our representative head, acting on our behalf. He obeyed the law that bound us and endured the awful punishment for lawlessness that we deserved. By doing this he merited our justification. In our justification, Christ's righteousness is reckoned (placed) to our account.

Romans 5:18-19 ESV

18 Therefore, as one trespass [first Adam] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience [second Adam] the many will be made righteous.

This justification of the believer by the righteousness of Christ settles the judgment of the Last Day. It is a judgment on our eternal destiny, and God will never go back on it.

The necessary means of justification is personal faith in Jesus Christ as crucified Savior and risen Lord. Faith is necessary because the meritorious ground of our justification is entirely in Christ. We have no merit in ourselves. The beauty and guaranteed effectiveness of this justification is that it only depends on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not even our faith can be considered a deserving act on our part, for it is a gift from God. If in any way, our justification depends on something we do, then we will not be able to rest in our salvation.

One of the key drivers in a Christian's life is gratitude for this justification. He chose me, and chose to justify me with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the guilt and punishment of my millions of sins and my horrible sin nature are pardoned.

As I consider this, I know there is nothing in me deserving of such grace - such marvelous grace. After all that He has given me, you think I would be more grateful and more fully committed to living every second for His glory. Obviously the power is not within me to do that. He must produce the fruit of His Holy Spirit within me. At the same time I must always strive to trust and obey.

When a person, even an angry person, has their score of sin settled with God the Eternal Judge, there is great peace and contentment available. How can anyone feel more accepted, than to know that God, knowing all of their sin, has chosen them to be His handiwork. When God looked at our angry heart and angry outbursts, He did not shun us; rather He embraced us.

Christian Rejoice! Non-Christian, you need such a Wonderful Savior as this!

God Bless You,
Dennis

Accepted: I am Christ's Friend

John 15:15 ESV

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Friend is such a powerful word and it is full of a variety of meanings. If you tell a non-believer that Jesus is your friend, they will probably create an image in their minds that is totally different than what this text is saying. Maybe something like this:

Hey Jesus, want to go to a movie? Are you going to the game Friday night?
Jesus, do you want to go golfin'? Jesus, could you pick up some milk on the way home? Jesus, you are a cool friend!

Now I know there are Christians that believe that is exactly what it means to have Jesus as your friend. But the context of our passage today is much deeper. Keeping this friend idea in context, consider these points:

John 15:9,10 ...abide in My love. If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love.

John 15:12 This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:14 You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Clearly a friend of Jesus will live a life dedicated to obedience of His every word. It is a relationship where we thrive in the love of Jesus Christ and the Father. We acknowledge that we were chosen by Him, only by Grace, and that this relationship is to be intimate and for the purpose of bearing fruit in line with the Word, and bringing glory to His name. The context of this friend idea reminds us that just because Jesus is our friend, it does not mean that we can pull Him down to our level. He is far superior to us.

At the same time, let me encourage you with this. There is plenty of scripture to support the truth that Jesus is a compassionate friend. He knows us in every detail, and He cares about everyone of those details. He works in our lives daily. His plan for our lives is not an old, once-prepared document. Rather, it is an interactive plan, where Jesus continually works amongst our weaknesses, our failures and our sin to transform us into His image so we can bear fruit unto Him. Jesus, my Friend, wants to hear about my problems, whatever they may be. He will comfort and console, but like a true freind, He will also jab the truth into my heart whenever necessary.

Jesus Christ, you are the friend that I need more than anything. Help me to obey you and to rejoice in the relationship you want us to have. Amen.

God Bless You,
Dennis

Jesus Is My Friend

In the next post we are going to talk about Jesus, our Friend. This hymn beautifully states this truth in many aspects. Enjoy!

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Refrain
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a Strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my Strength, my victory wins.

Refrain

Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!
While the billows over me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my Comfort, helps my soul.

Refrain

Jesus! what a Guide and Keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night overtakes me,
He, my Pilot, hears my cry.

Refrain

Jesus! I do now adore Him,
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness,
I am His, and He is mine.

Refrain