BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 5.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY MAY 17, 2025.

SUBJECT: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 5.

Memory verse: "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3 vs 24.)

READ: Romans 8 vs 1 - 2; 31 - 34:

8:1: There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

8:2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

8:31: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

8:32: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

8:33: Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

8:34: Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, also makes intercession for us.

INTIMATION:

Justification is the translation of the Greek word “Dikaiosis,” Which denotes the act of pronouncing righteous, pronouncing a person just by acquittal from guilt. When a judge in a court of law declares the defendant not guilty, all the charges are removed from his record. Legally, it is as if the person had never been accused. 

When God forgives our sins, our record is wiped clean. He could do this because Jesus, by His Death, took the penalty that we deserved. From God's perspective, it is as though we had never sinned. Christ purchased our freedom from sin, and the price was His life. All that was necessary on God’s part for our justification had been effected in the Death of Christ, as a propitiation for us. On that note of the propitiation being perfect and complete, He was raised from the dead; His resurrection was the confirmatory counterpart of the perfection and completeness of the propitiation.

God is a just, and righteous God, and demonstrated His righteousness in the act of given His Son as a propitiation for our sins. If He had just wiped away or forgiven our sins without properly serving the consequence of sin, He would have been considered unjust, and His Word wouldn’t have been true. 

Consider this: “But now the righteousness of God apart from the Law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness....that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3 vs 21 - 26).

Therefore, after God’s prove of His righteousness by justly presenting His Son as a propitiation for our sin, in the eyes of the Law and its fulfillment, and observed by the Prophets, as the wages of sin is paid by the death of Christ, we are set free from sin and acquitted. There is, therefore, no condemnation for us anymore. For the same God who condemns has set us free by His act of righteousness, and our believe or faith in Jesus Christ. 

We are human and still exist on the earth. God has not removed us from here. Sometimes we fall into the temptations of the ‘tempter,—Satan, who then accuses us before God. But Jesus is pleading for us in heaven. God has acquitted us and has removed our sin and guilt, so when Satan accuses us, Jesus, our advocate, sits at God’s right hand to present our case, that He has justifiably paid the price, and we are set free. As humanity’s representative, He intercedes for us before God. As God’s representative, He assures us of God’s forgiveness. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for setting me free from condemnation, and justifying me in Christ Jesus. In Him I live and move and have my being. I am in Christ and Christ is in You therefore, Satan has no portion in me, and so it is, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Freest Love

 “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.” (Deuteronomy 10:14–15)

God’s electing love — the love by which he chooses a people for himself — is absolutely free. It is the gracious overflow of his boundless happiness guided by his infinite wisdom. 

Deuteronomy 10:14–15 describes the delight God had in choosing Israel from all the peoples of the earth. Notice two things. 

First, notice the contrast between verses 14 and 15. Why does Moses describe the election of Israel against the backdrop of God’s ownership of the whole universe? Why does he say in verse 14, “To God belongs everything in heaven and on earth” and then say in verse 15, “Yet he chose you for his people”? 

The reason seems to be to get rid of any notion that God was somehow boxed in to choose this people — that there were some limits to his choosing and he was somehow forced to choose them. The point is to explode the pagan idea that a god may have the right and authority to have his own people but no more. 

The truth is that Yahweh is the only true God. He owns everything in the universe and has the right and authority to take any people he wants for his own special possession. 

Thus the unspeakably wonderful truth for Israel is that he chose them. He did not have to. He had rights and privileges to choose absolutely any people on the face of the earth for his redeeming purposes. Or all of them. Or none of them.

Therefore, when he calls himself “their God” he does not mean that he is on a par with the gods of Egypt or the gods of Canaan. He owns those gods and their peoples. If it had pleased him, he could have chosen a totally different people to accomplish his purposes.

The point of putting verses 14 and 15 together in this way is to stress the freedom and the universal rights and authority of God.

The second thing to notice (in verse 15) is the way God exercises his sovereign freedom to “set his heart in love on your fathers.” “He delighted in your fathers to love them.” He freely chose to take pleasure in loving the fathers. 

God’s love for the fathers of Israel was free and merciful and wasn’t constrained by anything that the fathers were in their Jewishness or in their virtue.

This is a lesson for us. For us who are believers in Christ, God has chosen us just as freely. Not because of anything in us, but because God simpl

y delighted to do it.

BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 4.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY MAY 16, 2025.

SUBJECT: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 4.

Memory verse: "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” (John 1 vs 16.)

READ: Colossians 2 vs 8 - 10:

2:8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

2:9: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

2:10: and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

INTIMATION:

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul asserts Christ’s deity. “In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily” means that all of God was in Christ’s human body. When we have Christ, we have everything we need for salvation and right living. The character, essence, attributes, and deity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were representatively manifested through Jesus. 

Those who are in Christ are spiritually complete for God’s eternal purpose of creating beings with characters that are fit for eternal dwelling. Therefore, the saints of God are the completion of the work of God in the creation of all things. All those who have responded to Jesus by receiving, believing, and obeying the gospel, have received the fullness of what He offered on the cross. In Him are all spiritual blessings that refer to our salvation. 

Therefore, those who are born again into Him, enjoy the saving grace of God that supplies the fullness of what Jesus offers through His atoning sacrifice. Those who are in Christ have responded to the grace of God by immersion into Christ in order to receive forgiveness of sins. Those who are immersed are born into a realm of grace wherein they work in response to God’s grace. 

Obviously, few Christians seem content within themselves. Most Christians feel a strange and often hard-to-identify inner vacuum occasioned by circumstances of life, which gives them an uneasy sense of incompleteness. Christ fills that vacuum! As Jesus’ Person is fully divine, so we, united by faith with Jesus, find personal fulfillment in Him. Do not look at circumstances but rather look up to Him that controls all circumstances!

We are the fullness of Him, and are in Him, having come to fullness of life in Christ. The full power and presence of God have taken up residence in the mind and heart of the believer. You are a new person, equipped for life and satisfied in God. You, also, are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and have reached the full spiritual stature in the knowledge and revelation of Him. And He is the Head of all rule and authority (of every angelic principality and power). He is not only equal to God, He is God, and is supreme over all creation, including the spirit world.

He is the same Jesus we are complete in, and also His fullness. He is not only our fullness, but we are His fullness also. The word, "fullness" comes from a Greek word that is almost untranslatable: "pleroma," which means "completeness," "perfectness," or any other synonym that suggests fullness. 

It is for this reason that Jesus said, “....Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”? (John 10 vs 34). Yes, He called us gods, to whom the word of God came, because we are agents of God’s revelation and Will, and the Scripture cannot be broken (See John 10 vs 35). We are the sons of God in a unique and unparalleled relationship of oneness with the Father in Christ.

It was for this reason that the apostle Paul thanked God in Colossians 2 vs 14, for His triumph over Satan for us; "But thanks be to God, who always lead us in triumph in Christ," and “gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (First Corinthians 15 vs 57). That is the Hallelujah chorus of the new creation, and it never becomes real until we begin to confess it, begin to tell to the world what we are in Christ.

The apostle Paul said you need this knowledge, "that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." Colossians 1 vs 10 - 12).

In Hebrews 9 vs 12, the Scripture reveals to us that this is an Eternal Redemption. Not just a redemption for the hour in which it was done, but that Satan is as much defeated now as he was when Christ arose from the dead; that he is as much a subject to the Name of Jesus as he was when Jesus conquered him.

As you start today in the newness of life, take some risks—God will guide you. Give more generously—God will supply. Love more freely— God will energize you. Say “can do” more often—God will amaze you.

Prayer: Abba Father, I am Your fullness, and is complete in You. Endue me with the spiritual wisdom and understanding of my inheritance in Your works, and the complete knowledge of God, that I may walk worthy of You, fully pleasing You, strengthened with all might, according to Your glorious power, and being fruitful in every good work, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

What Is Meekness?

 What Is Meekness?

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

Meekness begins when we put our trust in God. Then, because we trust him, we commit our way to him. We roll onto him our anxieties, our frustrations, our plans, our relationships, our jobs, our health. 

And then we wait patiently for the Lord. We trust his timing and his power and his grace to work things out in the best way for his glory and for our good.

The result of trusting God, and the rolling of our anxieties onto God, and waiting patiently for him is that we don’t give way to quick and fretful anger. But instead, we give place to wrath and hand our cause over to God and let him vindicate us if he chooses. 

And then, as James says, in this quiet confidence we are slow to speak and quick to listen (James 1:19). We become reasonable and open to correction (James 3:17). James calls this “the meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13).

Meekness loves to learn. And it counts the corrective blows of a friend as precious (Proverbs 27:6). And when it must say a critical word to a person caught in sin or error, it speaks from the deep conviction of its own fallibility and its own susceptibility to sin and its utter dependence on the grace of God (Galatians 6:1).

The quietness and openness and vulnerability of meekness is very beautiful and very painful. It goes against all that we are by our sinful nature. It requires supernatural help.

If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ — if you trust him and commit your way to him and wait patiently for him — God has already begun to help you and will help you even more. 

And the primary way that he will help you is to assure your heart that you are a fellow heir of Jesus Christ and that the world and everything in it is yours (1 Corinthians 3:21–23). The meek inherit the earth.

BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 3.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY MAY 15, 2025.

SUBJECT: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 3.

Memory verse: "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” (Second Thessalonians 2 vs 13.)

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 3 - 8:

1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 

1:4: just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 

1:5: having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 

1:6: to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

1:7: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, 

1:8: which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

INTIMATION:

Now notice from the Scripture we read today that He chose us in Him way back before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish in His presence, and out of His love for us, He foreordained us into the position of sons to Himself through Jesus Christ.

Let it soak into your very being that way back, before the foundation of the world, God planned to have us. We are the product of His plan. And when the fullness of time came, He said to the great heathen world: ‘Whoever will, may come and become a member of My fore-planned family.’;

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7 vs 37 - 38). It is the call "If anyone thirsts,” and if you’re a ‘believer’ you have answered that call; you are a member of that holy body that can stand in His presence without the sense of guilt and condemnation. 

The apostle Paul tells us that "He has freely, by grace, made us accepted in the Beloved. It isn't done grudgingly, not scantily, but it was according to the riches (glory) of His grace. In the Beloved we have our redemption through His blood, the remission of our sins, and it is according to the very riches of His love, His glory, and the fullness of His grace.

Can you see your place now? You must glorify Him by taking your place in Christ. Never think of your worthiness, for He is your righteousness. Don't think of your ability because He is your ability. Enjoy your rights and take your place and fill His heart with joy.

As I said before, very little is known by many Christians of ”spiritual wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” The spiritual wisdom and understanding is ours to have. And when we have it, there will never be a struggle after faith again. Your prayer life will be like that of the Master. The sense of unworthiness that comes from sin-consciousness would be destroyed in that full knowledge—that ‘exact and perfect knowledge,’ of our redemption and righteousness in Christ.

When we have grown to that fullness, into full manhood and womanhood in Christ, we are imparted with the reality of our being “delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1 vs 13 - 14).

If you are then conscious of that perfect redemption from Satan's dominion, you will walk with a sureness that Jesus had in His earth walk. That sureness comes from knowing that everything you had ever done, and all that you ever were, stopped at the New Creation. All your past has stopped being, and you start anew.

Then if you make mistakes, or commit any sins, you have the intercession of Jesus. All you have to do is acknowledge your mistake or sin, confess and repent of your sin, and you obtain mercy and it is wiped out instantly, and your fellowship is restored.

Prayer: Abba Father, I am what I am in Christ by the riches of Your grace. I pray for the full revelational knowledge of my inheritance in Christ according to the good pleasure of Your Will, in Jesus’ most precious Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Ideas Have Consequences

 Ideas Have Consequences

The aim of our charge is love. (1 Timothy 1:5)

Victor Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Second World War. As a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry he became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which sold over eight million copies. 

In it he unfolds the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy — namely, that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the concentration camps that man can endure almost any “how” of life, if he has a “why.” But the quote that stirred me recently was this:

I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. (“Victor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview,” in First Things, April 1995, p. 41.)

In other words, ideas have consequences — consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior — good and bad — does not come out of nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil.

One of the ways that the Bible makes plain the truth that ideas have practical consequences is by saying things like, “Whatever was written in former days was written . . . [that] we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope. 

Again, Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). The imparting of ideas through a “charge” or through “instruction” produces love. 

Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures. 

Another way the Scriptures show us that ideas have consequences is by using the word “therefore” (1,039 times in the NASB). “Therefore” means that what follows comes from somewhere. For example, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Or: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Or: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34).

If we want to live in the power of these great practical “therefores,” we must be gripped by the ideas — the views of reality — that go before them and stand under them. Ideas have consequences. So, let’s bring all our ideas under the authority of God’s word.

BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 2.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY MAY 14, 2025.

SUBJECT: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE IN CHRIST! - PART 2.

Memory verse: "And raised us together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2 vs 6.)

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 17 - 23:

1:17: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

1:18: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

1:19: and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to working of His mighty power

1:20: which He worked in Christ when He raised Him up from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

1:21: far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

1:22: And He has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,

1:23: which His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

INTIMATION:

In the first three chapters of the apostle Paul's epistle to the church in Ephesus, he enumerated the consummation of Christ's substitutionary work for the believers regarding Satan and his cohorts —the demons. His heart intent is that we come to the full knowledge of what we are in Christ.

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus, and the prayer is applicable to all believers to this day. The apostle Paul prays that our eyes be opened or enlightened, that we may know what is the richness of the glory of Jesus’ inheritance in the saints—in the substitutionary work accomplished for us believers, and what the exceeding greatness of His ability on our behalf who believe.

He clearly stated that, it is according to the working of the strength of the mightiness of God, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him up from the among dead.

He declares the same ability that wrought in the dead body of Jesus when He was raised to immortality, is at work in us. Yes, undoubtedly so, because the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is indwelling us by grace (unmerited favor) of God.

Now see how the apostle Paul made known this fact to the saints in Rome; "And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken (or heal or strengthen) your mortal bodies." (Romans 8 vs 11). The heart can hardly take it in that the same might, the same ‘Resurrection Power’ that wrought in the dead body of Jesus is ours today. That same Spirit that embodied the power is indwelling us today, and with the same power. 

Now, consider deeply the mystery in our memory verse, "And raised us together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Reconcile it with this, "And He made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come." An everlasting authority, isn't it?

You must always keep in mind that we were raised together with Him, and He made us to sit with Him in the heavenlies; so representatively, we are seated on the Throne with Christ, and all the authority in His seat, and position, is made available to us seated with Him. And He also has given us the “power of attorney” to the use of His great name. 

Remember, Jesus Christ is the head of the body. The body and the head are one entity. We are members of the body—the church. So if the head is exalted, the body is exalted with it. If He has been given all authority, that authority belongs to His body—the church, for its benefit. If He conquered all the forces of darkness and left them paralyzed and broken before He arose from the dead, it is as though we had accomplished the mighty work. It is reckoned to our credit.

Notice carefully the 22nd and 23rd verses:

"And He has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." We are His body, therefore, all these malignant, wicked influences are beneath our feet. We have been made masters of them all. He did not defeat them for Himself, but for us. He did not fight that battle for His glory, but for our good. 

This knowledge should become as common to us, and as usable as the multiplication table. And when this is done, ‘Believers’ will spend less or no time glorying the devil, instead of using the time to glorify Jesus Christ for His triumph over Satan and his cohorts, on our behalf. If you embrace this truth, you will hardly give the devil any room to minister his usual lies to you because, by God's grace, you have known what you are in Christ!

The big question still remains, “When will the hearts of all Christians embrace this ‘Truth,’ and their minds become fruitful with this mighty unveiling of what we are in Christ?” 

Prayer: Abba Father, all that is within and in me is thanking and praising You for Your unparalleled love for me, and the riches of the glory of my inheritance in Christ. Endue me continually with the spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge, and understanding of You, and to know the hope of Your calling, in Jesus’ most wonderful Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!