#DailyDevotion God’s Plan Is To Make You One With Israel Through Faith In Christ Jesus
Ephesians 3:2–12
2surely you’ve heard how God gave me the responsibility of bringing His grace to you… 4When you read this, you can see I understand the hidden truth of Christ… 6that in Christ Jesus the people who are not Jews have the same inheritance, belong to the same body, and have the same promise through the good news… He gave this grace: to bring the news of the unsearchable riches of Christ to the non-Jews 9and let everyone see clearly what God planned to do according to the truth hidden from the beginning in God, Who created everything, 10so that through the church God’s many-sided wisdom would now be shown to the rulers and authorities in heaven. 11He planned it through the ages and then did it in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 12In Him, by believing in Him, we have confidence and can boldly come to God.
Epiphany, little Christmas or Gentile Christmas, the meaning of it is detailed here in these words from Ephesians. The Ephesian congregation was by this time mostly Gentile though it started in the Jewish synagogue. Paul, here, claims that he has revealed a great mystery, the hidden truth in Christ. And just what is that? “…in Christ Jesus the people who are not Jews have the same inheritance, belong to the same body, and have the same promise through the good news.”
Just think about that a minute. We see the LORD coming to Abraham with a promise to make his a great nation, to give him many descendents and a promised land. The LORD also promised at the time that through Abraham’s seed (singular) all nations would be blessed. While the blessing is not explicit there in Genesis, hence the hidden truth in Christ, it is explicit in the New Testament. That truth is through faith in Jesus Christ the Gentiles are also children of Abraham and inheritors of the Promised Land. That Promised Land is the New Heavens and New Earth.
The LORD is not so concerned anymore with a little piece of real estate on the eastern side of the Mediterranean. He wants his people to have dominion over all creation. So through faith in Jesus Christ and only through faith in Jesus Christ both Jews and Gentiles are joined to Christ Jesus and his body. It is only through baptism into Christ that we are made inheritors of God and co-heirs with Christ. Part of this inheritance is to receive the righteousness of God. He also bestows upon us his glory and dominion. He makes us participants in his divine nature. In Christ, we are given the holiness of God and made perfect in him.
This salvation of ours, Paul says, “He planned it through the ages and then did it in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” There is salvation nowhere else from God than in and through Christ Jesus. All of God’s salvation plan is seen in Jesus Christ. There is salvation by, in, through or any other qualifiers than through faith in Jesus Christ. It is open to all but only received through trusting what Jesus has done for you. In Jesus, by believing or trusting in Jesus, we have confidence and came come boldly before God our Father. It is his name that gives us access to the Father and his name alone. But with his name we can boldly come before our Father in heaven with all our request because we know that in Christ we have peace with God. Everything that separates us from the Almighty is removed by the name of Jesus who planned it this way. Thanks be to God.
Almighty and merciful Father, you planned before the foundation of the world that men would have access to you and become your heir through faith in Jesus Christ, your Son our LORD. Grant that we may always have this faith unto life everlasting. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.