God has a plan for all who trust in Jesus. God’s plan is summarized in Ephesians 1 and explained in the rest of Ephesians. After his greeting and blessing, Paul urges us to bless God, for God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven. Then, Paul blesses God, declaring the reason God is … [Read more…]
Paul addresses Ephesians to God’s holy ones/saints and blesses with grace and peace. As saints, they believed in Christ Jesus as the Redeemer that had atoned for all their sins, and by this faith they were consecrated and sanctified to God. Grace and peace are blessings which come from God our Father and our Lord … [Read more…]
Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 23-24 (Christ the King, 2011) “Jesus is our Shepherd-King” What makes a good king good? You may remember that the Lord warned Israel against having a king. He knew that earthly kings would tax their pocket books. He warned that earthly kings would take their sons to empirical wars. A scepter in … [Read more…]
New Beings in Christ In order to make us new beings fit for the kingdom of God, God has created in Christ Jesus and cleansed by His blood. Being created in Christ Jesus is an instantaneous salvation process. Paul summed it up in his letter to the Ephesians. And you were dead in your trespasses … [Read more…]
The kingdom of God is Shalom Excerpts from: Kingdom, Church, and World: Biblical Themes for Today The Bible is full of teaching on the kingdom of God, and the church has largely missed it. But in the providence of God we may now have reached a time when the good news of the kingdom can be heard … [Read more…]
In all the research which has gone into Jesus and the Kingdom in recent years too little attention has been given to the relation between the Spirit and the Kingdom—an understandable oversight in view of the paucity of references to the Spirit in Jesus’ preaching, but regrettable nonetheless since this relationship is the key to … [Read more…]
The kingdom of God is … in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 How Jesus established His kingdom in the Spirit Since, the kingdom of God is in the Spirit; Jesus asked His Father to pour out the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:26, Lk 24:49) so we, and those who came before us, could enter the kingdom … [Read more…]
Let the righteous do what is right Let the righteous person continue to do what is right. And let the holy person continue to be holy. Rev 22:11 ISV Our doing right is God working in and through us God our Father sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit to give us the want and the … [Read more…]
Our righteousness is God’s covenant justice Our righteousness is God’s covenant justice in action. Through the act of God’s covenant justice, God declares us to be in the right (Ro 3:25). He also gave us faith to believe it (Eph 2:8-9). Our righteousness is God’s covenant justice The typical translations of Romans 3:19-26 make it … [Read more…]