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