Tag Archives: Bible Study

Ephesians 1:23

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And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Christ is the head of the church, which is His body. The church is an organism and not an organization. The life of the church is the Spirit of God at work through the various members functioning according to the gifts God has given them. Jesus is the head, the director, the mind behind all that takes place.

The next phrase is astounding to me. The church, the body of Christ, is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. That means that, in some sense, the church is the fullness of God! That means that if you are a Christian, you are a member of the body of Christ, and, as such, you are part of the fullness of God, because God, through His Spirit, indwells everyone of us. Amazing, isn’t it?

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 4:33 PM October 18, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing?- Part 6

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Continued from Part 5

Now let’s go back to a question we left hanging earlier. The law is a guardian and a tutor until faith comes. When is that? What is the timeline? Once faith comes, the guardianship and tutor relationship ends. When is that? Does that mean when we trust Christ and are saved? Let’s continue reading.

In Galatians 4:1-3 we learn that the law is like the parent or guardian to an under-aged child. A child, Paul says, is not much different than a slave even though he is the heir of everything. Many children probably feel like that! He is under the rule of his parent until he comes of age. Even though he is an heir, he still has to go to bed when told, has to go with mom to the store, has to eat his vegetables, and so on. In the same way, when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world. My question is still the same – when were we children and when did adulthood come?

Paul answers that question in Galatians 4:4. He says, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

So there’s the timing answer. God sent forth His Son more than 2000 years ago when Christ came into the world. That’s when childhood ended. That’s when adulthood started. That’s when the law’s guardianship and tutelage ended. It doesn’t have anything to do with our growth from childhood to adulthood or with our conversion to Christ, or even our growth in grace.

During the time of childhood, which is now past, Paul describes it as a time of bondage under the elements of the world. What are those elements? We’ll look at that next time.

Ephesians 1:22

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And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.

Besides having described the place of dominion and authority to which Christ has ascended, Paul writes that God has put everything under Jesus’ feet. That means Jesus Christ is the supreme ruler of the universe. Everything means everything.

1 Corinthians 15:27 tells us that when he says all things were put under His feet, the one who did this is excepted. That means that God the Father, who placed everything under Jesus’ feet, did not put Himself under His feet. He is the exception.

Paul goes on further to say that God made Jesus the head over everything to the church which is His body. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. The pastor is not, and the people are not. Jesus is the head. That means He is the one who tells us what the church ought to be like, how it should function, what should be included or excluded, etc.

I hear many people say, “Here’s what I would like to see in the church.” Or “I need to find a church that is more to my liking.” We are not the ones in charge. If a church isn’t functioning the way God has said it should function, then we might have to leave and go to a different assembly. But, then the statement wouldn’t be, “I don’t like what they are doing,” but rather, “this church isn’t functioning the way God has ordained, and therefore, I am going to seek a different place to worship.”

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:40 PM October 14, 2020.

God’s Blessing or Curse? – Part 5

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Continued from Part 4.

To get the context for this discussion you should probably go back and read the previous posts on this topic.

But why was the law given then? In other words, if the law does not apply to me in my relationship to God, why give it? If I am completely forgiven and declared righteous completely apart from my obedience to God’s commandments, why does He give commandments? He answers that question in verses 22-24 of Galatians 3. First he says that it confines all under sin. In other words, the law lays down the standard, and no one lives up to it. Therefore all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Don’t just skip over this. That is an interesting reason to give the law: “to confine all under sin.” Paul writes essentially the same thing to the Romans in Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” Abound means to increase. The law was given to increase the sin. There are more attitudes and deeds that are sinful than you can imagine. When we confess to a few sins each day, we are way underestimating our sinfulness!

Second, before faith came we were kept under guard by the law and kept for the faith that should be revealed later on (Galatians 3:23). Before faith came the law had a guardianship role to keep people under control. A question you should ask yourself is what is the timeline involved? In other words, the law guarded before the faith came. When did the faith come? When did that guardianship end?

Third, the law was a tutor to bring us to Christ. Again, he says that when faith came, the tutor relationship ended. When did that faith come? We’ll look at the timing of this more later. What I want us to see now is that the purpose of the law had nothing to do with giving salvation because it can’t do that. It doesn’t even have anything to do with spiritual growth. As you will recall, Paul asked that question in verse 3. His conclusion was that the law neither perfects nor matures us. The law’s responsibility was to confine all under sin, make us all guilty, and to guard and serve as tutor until the time that faith comes, at which time, it would point to Jesus Christ as our only hope.

In the Old Testament God said that those who keep the law will be blessed and those who don’t keep it in its entirety will be cursed. (If you didn’t read the beginning of this series, you need to go back and start with Part 1.) There are many Christians who are still trying to live under those terms, trying desperately to keep the law so that God’s blessing will be on their lives. They do this because they read this in Deuteronomy and Joshua. They believe this applies to them. But it does not! What we’ve learned in this study is that as Christians, we are children of Abraham and therefore recipients of the unconditional promise made to him and to his seed. Christ took God’s curse on himself so that the blessing of Abraham could be ours (Galatians 3:14). There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Those who are in Christ Jesus are completely forgiven and declared righteous apart from the works of the law (Gal 2:16; Rom 3:28).

What I’m trying to encourage you with is to realize and believe that God will not add conditions to the blessing He is giving you through His promise to Abraham. The law that came 430 years after the promise cannot annul the promise. If you’re a Christian, the discussion of God’s curse does not apply to you. Christ became the curse so that you won’t be the recipient of it. The way to avoid the curse is to trust in God’s promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. Having done so, you are justified and declared righteous by faith. Any righteousness you bring to God is flawed and tainted and is replaced by the perfect righteousness of Christ.

Ephesians 1:19-21

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And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

Paul’s prayer continues in verse 19 and continues into verses 20 and 21. I think it would be best if we consider the entire section in this piece, so it might be longer than some of the others.

Paul is praying that since our eyes have been opened, we may know several things. Verse 19 identifies one of those things as the exceeding greatness of His power toward those who believe. It is not just the greatness of His power, but the exceeding or surpassing greatness. These are superlative descriptions.

He then goes on to explain what he means by this by using the word “according.” How surpassing is this power, Paul? It is the same kind of power that God worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. Is that the kind of power, Paul? No. Paul says, “and” seated Jesus at His right hand in the heavenly places. How far up is that, Paul? The answer? Far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named. But that is not all. Not just every name now, but above every name that ever has existed or ever will existed.

That is the kind of power that is working in every believer in Christ. This is not just for those who are “super saints.” This power is directed toward all of us who believe!

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:45 AM October 12, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing – Part 4

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Continued from Part 3

Galatians 3:17 tells us that the law which came 430 years after the promise to Abraham cannot annul or cancel the promise which God had made to him and his seed. You see, the law that the Israelites were given that conditioned either blessing or curses was given long after God promised a blessing to Abraham. That law cannot add conditions to the promise God gave him. God won’t hold Abraham and his seed accountable to the law in order to receive his blessing. That would be adding terms to a contract already ratified by himself.

The question arises though as to what this has to do with us. God had made these promises to Abraham and his seed, so where do we fit in, and why should it matter?

To answer this I’d like to jump down to Galatians 3:26 and 29 and put them together. Basically God is saying that we are sons of God by faith in Christ. If we are Christ’s then we are heirs according to the promise. He had summarized this earlier in verse 14. “…that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” The blessing of Abraham… That blessing is ours! That means when God made the promise to Abraham and his seed, the seed he is referring to is us– those who have believed in Christ. Galatians 3:29 says it explicitly: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

The Christian answer then is that God blessed Abraham and his seed unconditionally. The law that came later could not cancel or add conditions to that blessing otherwise God would have been a liar in making such promises to Abraham. If I’m a Christian, I am an heir of that blessing because I am part of Abraham’s seed. That means that the promise that I am a recipient of, supersedes and precedes the giving of the law. There’s nothing in the keeping or the not-keeping of the law that can affect my status of blessing given by the promise of God. If I am required to keep the law in order to be blessed, God would be breaking His promise to Abraham, and by extension, to me. There is no curse hanging over the Christian. Let your mind and spirit think on this!

I need to add an additional thought here that I see I have failed to mention. The blessing we are referring to is a spiritual blessing. And that means, don’t miss this, it grants us all of the blessings of the New Covenant. I can’t go into all of that here, but a key component of that covenant is the complete and permanent forgiveness of trespasses and sins. Those who receive by faith the salvation God offers through Christ, are forgiven of every sinful thing they have ever done or ever will do! God removes all of our sins, casts them into the depths of the sea, never to be remembered against us again. And this blessing, including complete forgiveness, comes through faith, and does not depend in any way, shape, or form on how well we keep God’s commandments.

Ephesians 1:18

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having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

Paul’s prayer continues in verse 18. This verse begins with the participle phrase “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.” Being enlightened is a passive verb. Our hearts are enlightened from the outside. Somebody enlightened them. Someone opened our eyes and turned the lights on for us. It is obviously God that has done this.

This enlightening has occurred so that we might know the hope to which God has called us. When our physical eyes are opened to something, we can see objects, examine them and, not just know that they are there, but become acquainted and understand their characteristics. It is the same way here. Paul is not saying that we just know that we have hope. We can see it, feel it, and appreciate it.

Hope in this sense is not “hope so” hope. It is a future promise that we are looking forward to with anticipation. So, God has opened the eyes of our hearts so that we would know that future which God has promised to us. He has called us to have that hope.

The second thing in this verse that He wants us to know is the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints. The inheritance is described as His inheritance. What I think that means is that we are Jesus’ inheritance. Hebrews 7:13 quotes Jesus as saying “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.” And in John 17:6, Jesus speaks of the men God has given Him. So, we Christians have been given to Christ by God, and I think that is the glorious inheritance which Jesus is receiving.

What does that do to our appreciation for the work of God when we consider the fact that Jesus wants us to know that He considers the inheritance He is receiving glorious?

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:19 AM October 12, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing? – Part 3

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Continued from Part 2

“‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ” “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:” (Deuteronomy 27:26–28:2, NKJV)

That leaves us in a precarious situation, doesn’t it? Not fulfilling every command leaves us under a curse. The blessing is for those who “observe carefully all His commands.” But carefully obeying every single command in both deed and attitude is not possible! That’s why God promises blessing to those who believe, just as He had blessed Abraham for believing.

So, Paul teaches us in Galatians 3 that there are two ways to live life, and these ways are mutually exclusive. He explains this in verses 11 and 12. In verse 11 he tells us that one way is to live by faith, “The just shall live by faith.” The other way, given in verse 12, is to live by the law. He says very clearly that the law is not of faith because those who do them shall live by them. The “them” I take to mean all of the commandments in the law. So you can live “by faith” or “by them, the commandments.” These are two mutually exclusive ways of living. Each one of us can live either by faith or by the law, but not both.

These are so mutually exclusive that Paul writes in Galatians 5:4, “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

Back in Galatians 3, Paul now makes the statement that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law because Christ became cursed for us. Why? What is the purpose? He goes on in verse 14, “that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Emphasis mine). Jesus Christ fully kept the law in every way including all deeds and attitudes. And yet, he bore the judgment of the curse. This happened so that blessing could be given to us, the blessing given to Abraham unconditionally. In other words there were no constraints of law-keeping on Abraham in order to receive the blessing. We receive the truth of this blessing by faith — by believing what God has said concerning Christ’s work on the cross for us. When we believe this we move from being under the law and its curse, to living by faith — a totally different approach to life.

In Galatians 3:15 we read that even men’s contracts are binding. We know that is true in our culture. When you sign a contract, it is a binding agreement. Therefore it is even more so if God makes the contract. God’s contracts are binding. God is faithful and true and His contracts cannot be broken. God made a contract with Abraham and his seed, and he made it as a one-sided promise. Nothing can void the contract which God gave to Abraham and his seed.

This is where the real crux of the argument begins to come into play. This is such an important truth that I hope that you will take the time to really think about what is happening here. Galatians 3:17 tells us that the law which came 430 years after the promise to Abraham cannot annul or cancel the promise which God had made to him and his seed. You see, the law that the Israelites were given that conditioned either blessing or curses was given long after God promised a blessing to Abraham. That law cannot add conditions to the promise God gave him. God won’t hold Abraham and his seed accountable to the law in order to receive His blessing. That would be adding terms to a contract already ratified by Himself. And who is Abraham’s seed. As you’ll see in a future article, the seed is all those who believe God and trust Him. Therefore, the curse for disobedience, cannot apply to any of those who truly come to God through Christ.

If you know a little bit about Old Testament history, you know that Abraham lived before Moses. God’s rescue of the Israelite people and the subsequent giving of the law came 430 years after Abraham’s time. God had made a binding contract with Abraham and nothing that would happen later could annul that agreement. Why? Because God’s Word and promises are certain and binding. If man’s contracts cannot be abrogated, how much less can God’s? What Paul is saying is that if God were to give the blessing of the inheritance based on the law, then it wouldn’t be the result of a promise any more, but would be based on our keeping the law. But God gave it as a promise without any conditions.

Ephesians 1:16

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I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

Because of what he has heard, Paul tells them that he does not cease giving thanks for them. The faith and love he has heard about ignites a spirit of thankfulness for what God is doing in and through these people. When we hear of faith and love among the people of another church, do these qualities generate a genuine spirit of thankfulness in us?

This thankfulness results in the remembering and mentioning of them in prayer. I don’t know about you, but prayer is hard for me. I don’t like it really, because it demonstrates our total inability and inadequacy to accomplish things in our own strength. But God calls us to pray for ourselves, our family, and our church ministries. In this case, Paul prayed for a church where he had been ministering, and, having heard of their faith and love, he prays for them that God will accomplish many spiritual things in their lives.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:56 AM October 5, 2020.

Ephesians 1:15

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For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,

In the next few verses, Paul is going to tell the Ephesian Christians what he is praying for them. He begins, though, by giving them the reason and motivation for his praying. This explanation takes us through both verses 15 and 16.

The first reason he gives is that he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus. My immediate thought is, “Has anyone heard of my faith in the Lord Jesus?” The Ephesian Christian’s faith must have been strong enough and evident enough that someone told Paul about them. Their faith must have stood out to this person in such a strong way that it had an impact on whoever it was that told Paul about it.

The second thing he mentions is that he has also heard of their love toward all the saints. How would that love have manifested itself? Love produces action and so there must have been an abundant demonstration, within the church and toward saints in other places, of love. It would have consisted of sacrificial sharing of resources, kindness, a forgiving spirit, gentleness, humility, and any number of other things that demonstrated that love. The point is that it was evident. Love is evident not through the absence of arguing and bickering, but through the positive demonstration of love.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:36 AM October 5, 2020.