"Backward"

  Maybe we have things on backward. We spend way too much time proclaiming the church than the Christ of the church! When looking carefully at Ephesians, Paul points, blesses and proclaims Christ and the God who gave Him to us. After all, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3). That alone is enough for us to honor our God. But then it was God who worked out the whole plan, who lavished upon us His grace, His love, who adopted us and made us holy and blameless before Him. What was our doing in all this? How did we plan this?

  Paul prays that it the eyes of our heart that needs enlightened to know the hope of His calling and what is the surpassing greatness of His power to the true believer (Eph. 1:18-19). It was us, every single one of us that was dead in our sins. We were made alive together with Christ in the working of God (Eph. 2:1-8). We did nothing to give ourselves life. Life was from God through Jesus. It is God's gift to us. It's at this point we are reminded that as a Gentile, we were excluded from any help, hope and without God in this world (Eph. 2:12). Here is the eye opener that we might be missing: from this point it was Christ and His blood that brought us near to God, giving us access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18-19). It is Christ Jesus that became our peace and reconciled both Jew and Gentile in one body to God. It is through Christ Jesus that we are of God's household, who God is fitting us together growing into the holy temple of the Lord and built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit (Eph. 2:19-22). This is the body of Jesus, the church and if we would look carefully, we have nothing to do with it. All our part was trustingly committing our lives to Him! It's not about us but Him! Jesus does the filling not us. We have our place and stance before the Lord as His body simply because of the grace and mercy shown each of us.

  Maybe we have things on backward. Our proclamation is not us the church and what's right with us. The proclamation is Jesus and Him crucified as He alone is the only One who through His blood and sacrifice brings us together in one body called the church. The church is to glorify the Christ and God who planned it all, not ourselves!