Friday, March 27, 2009
Ephesians 2:6-7 God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
GOD'S AMAZING GRACE: UTTERLY DEPENDABLE
Another feature of God's grace that overwhelms us with amazement is its reliability and rock-solid dependability.
Notice the tense of the verb that Paul uses in the Bible verse above. The Holy Spirit did not inspire him to write: "God WILL raise us up with Christ and WILL seat us with Christ in heavenly realms" (future tense) but "God RAISED US up and SEATED US with Jesus in heavenly realms" (past tense). In other words, our privileged status as children of God, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ of heaven's indescribable bliss is a "done deal" as far as our heavenly Father is concerned. He chose us to be His own by grace. He made us His own (by mercifully leading us to anchor our hopes in the shed blood of Jesus). And He'll keep us as His own even to the end!
This is the joy which the Gospel of free grace gives us, the peace that surpasses all understanding which the Spirit plants in our hearts. As we get up in the morning and go through our day, as we meet challenges along life's bumpy road, as we encounter thorny problems (a natural part of our living in a sinful world), we've got the assurance that our Father will make everything work out for our good -- and the best is yet to come. The good things He promises for our future are already ours! "We ARE more than conquerors through Him who loved us." "We HAVE crossed over from death to life." "He WILL rescue us from every evil attack and bring us safely to His heavenly kingdom." "Our citizenship IS in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there."
Isn't it amazing how our God can use tenses of verbs to make us less tense (yea, even supremely confident) by reminding us of the treasures of His grace showered upon us in Jesus our Lord?
