The Redeemed Are One People!
Ephesians 1-4
Here is the theme of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and
therefore to All Believers in JESUS CHRIST! Ephesians 1:4-6 “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, having Predestined us to Adoption as Sons by
JESUS CHRIST to Himself, according to the Good Pleasure of His Will, to the
Praise of The Glory of His Grace, by which He Made Us Accepted in the Beloved.”
Jew and Gentile as One Body in JESUS
CHRIIST!
The Beloved are the Redeemed People (Jews – Deuteronomy
33:12; Psalm 60:4-5, 108:5-6, 127:1-2; Isaiah 5:1-7; Romans 11:26-28) with whom
GOD made an Eternal Covenant that is still active and in force today and will
be Eternally! That is The Old Covenant with Abraham and his descendants. [JESUS
– Matthew 3:17, 12:18; Mark 9:7] Who is The Lamb of GOD Who takes away the sin
of the world (John 1:29, 35, 17:24). {Church – Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians
1:2-4}, and The New Covenant with those Jews (Acts 3:24-26) and Gentiles who
Believe in JESUS CHRIST (Acts 13:22-23; John 3:16-17; Romans 1:16-17)!
This is Paul’s teaching; remember Paul started out as a hater
of JESUS CHRIST! He believed in GOD’s separation between Israel and all other
people groups. He was raised in Jerusalem at the feet of a renowned Pharisee, Gamaliel,
by his own claim he was a Pharisee among Pharisees, ahead of his peers in faith
and practice of the Torah (Philippians 3:4-6); persecuting the Believers (Acts
22:17-20) until he met JESUS on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-30). So he
understood the two faiths (Judaism and The Way [Christianity]) becoming one in
JESUS CHRIST The Messiah.
Ephesians 2:11-18, “Therefore remember that you, once
Gentiles in the flesh –who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the
Circumcision made in the flesh by hands– that at that time you were without
CHRIST, being aliens from the commonwealth (natural state) of Israel and
strangers from The Covenants of Promise, having no Hope and without GOD in the
world. But now in CHRIST JESUS you who were once far off have been brought near
by The Blood of CHRIST.”
GOD raised up Israel to be a nation
that showed GOD’s Glory, Grace and Power to the nations of the world. But they
failed as was predicted by GOD Who Crucified CHRIST before the foundation of
the world (John 17:24; 1 Peter 1:19-20; Revelation 13:8).
“For He himself is our Peace, Who has made both One and has
broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the
enmity, that is, the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances, so as to
Create in himself One New Man from the Two, thus making Peace, and that He
might reconcile them Both to GOD in One Body through the Cross, thereby putting
to death the enmity. And He came and Preached Peace to you who were afar off
(Gentiles) and to those who were near (Israel). For through Him we Both have Access
by One SPIRIT to The Father (Matthew 5:17-20; Hebrews 8:7-13).”
Ephesians 3:1-6 “For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of
CHRIST JESUS for you Gentiles – if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of
the Grace of GOD which was given to me for you,…that the Gentiles should be
Fellow Heirs, of the Same Body and Partakers of His Promise in CHRIST through
the Gospel,”
We are
One Body in CHRIST JESUS!
There are some Christians who believe that The Church (The
Body of CHRIST in the earth) replaces Israel (replacement theology) but that is
false! Paul declares that there is only One Body in Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is
One Body and One SPIRIT, just as you were Called in One Hope of your Calling;
One LORD, One Faith, One Baptism; One GOD and Father of All, Who is above All,
and through All, and in you All.”
GOD’s Covenant with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob is Eternal, that means it is not complete or expired or fulfilled and
it will not be completed until the whole creation is judged by fire and The New
Heaven, Earth and Jerusalem are revealed (2 Peter 3:1-13; Revelation 20:11-22:7).
Ephesians 4:7-16 “And He gave some to be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of
the Saints for the Work of the Ministry, for the Edifying (Building up) of the Body
of CHRIST, till we All come in the Unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of
the Son of GOD, to a Perfect Man, to the Measure of the Stature of The Fullness
of CHRIST; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, Speaking The Truth in Love, may Grow up
in All Things into Him Who is the Head–CHRIST–from Whom The Whole Body , Joined
and Knit Together by what Every Joint Supplies, according to the Effective Working
by Which Every Part Does Its Share, causes Growth of the Body for the Edifying
of Itself in Love.”
There is only one Body of JESUS
CHRIST, it is all who Believe in JESUS as the Son of GOD and Confess that GOD
Raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10).
Ephesians 4:17-24 “This I say, therefore, and testify in The
LORD that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the
futility of their mind…and that you put on The New Man which was Created
according to GOD, in True Righteousness and Holiness.”
The Call
of Unity is the Call of Repentance, we all who Believe in JESUS CHRIST must
stop sinning and live a Righteous (Repentant) life, Holy (Dedicated) to GOD
(Ephesians 4 :25-5:21).
Psalm 133!
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