12 Mar The Glory is His, His Grace is for us, it changes everything

I have just read through Ephesians 1 and have made a list of all things that are ours in Christ;

• His grace (favour, completely unmerited)
• peace
• every spiritual blessing
• holiness
• His love
• sonship by adoption
• accepted
• beloved
• redemption
• forgiveness
• knowledge of the mystery of His will
• wisdom
• prudence
• an inheritance of all things in heaven and on the earth
• a seal of the Holy Spirit
• revelation
• knowledge of Him
• understanding
• hope

What does God have from this heavenly exchange;

• us
• good pleasure
• glory
• praise

What do we have to do to get all this?, it must be worth all that we have. No, there is no price tag for us, we can’t buy it, it has already been paid for and it cost Him His all in His Son Jesus. But there must surely be something we have to give or do? No, all our spiritual blessing are freely given (see 1 Corinthians 2:12). The only thing on our part is to receive by;

• believing
• trusting

With this established in our hearts the bible becomes very good news. Take a look at these parables in Matthew 13;

44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

These scriptures are often preached to us that we are the ones doing the buying, that we have to be sold out, place ourselves on the altar. Sure we now belong to God, but that just means we belong to a very rich family. These parables are saying we are the treasure the pearl of great price, It was Jesus that paid with His all, we could never afford any thing on the list above. Jesus paid it and gave it all to us. He is the wonderful gift to us from the Father. This is to the praise of the Glory of His Grace and it is His great pleasure.