believed God. Thus when. Paul writes to the faithful it is to identify the saints as those who believe, who com mit themselves to Christ, and who ac tually obey Christ. The letter is addressed “to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faith ful in Christ Jesus.” The word for “saint” is hagios, and it means a holy one. Paul usually applied this term to the true child of God. The primary meaning of the word is separated or set apart. The Roman Catholic Church has tainted the word “saint” with so much superstition that it is almost impossible to restore it to its original and intended use. Today its application is to any who exhibit an exceptional, artificial type of piousness, or to those whose works merit the Pope’s canonization. According to the Bible, all Christians are saints (Heb. 10:10, 14). The tem ple was at one time holy, not because of its materials and magnitude, but because it was a set-apart place for the service of Jehovah. The altars were holy, the vessels were holy, the sacri fices were holy, the priests were holy, all because they were divinely chosen to discharge the function of holy service to the Lord. People in their ignorance, call theirs the “All Saints Church,” and refer to the apostles as “Saint Peter” and “Saint Paul,” but God calls all who have been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus and bom again by the Holy Spirit “saints” (1 Cor. 1:2). The letter, moreover, is intended for “the faithful in Christ Jesus.” The “faithful” are riot mere professors but those who demonstrate their sainthood by their saintliness. Faithfulness to Him whose name is held, bears witness to others of God’s calling. Faith in Christ is much more than intellectual assent; it includes a surrender of the intellect, the heart, and the will to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. The name and fame of a church and its testimony will remain only so long as its mem bers are “faithful in Christ Jesus.” When a man truly has faith in Christ he will keep faith with Christ. If one is not true to Christ, then he has ex
ercised no faith in Christ. The typical Pauline salutation con tinues with the words: “Grace be to you, and p^ace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2). Paul combined the two forms of salu tation used by the Greeks and the He brews to send his Christian greeting. Here is a twofold blessing from two 'persons. The Father sends His grace and peace; the Son says: “Give them Mine, also.” It could not be otherwise, since the Son shares the exalted posi tion with the Father “in the heaven- lies.” God and Christ are One, thus they are the one source of “grace and peace.” The gospel that Paul preached is always known as the gospel of grace, the gospel of the ill-merited favor of God. Strauss declared, “Notice that God will not offer peace apart from grace. Nor can any man have peace before he accepts God’s grace. These two words form no mere conventional courtesy, as the Greeks and Hebrews might use them, but rather they are a rich Chris tian blessing.” Are we saints? Then let us receive and appropriate what is ours, for what is sent to us we have a right to pos sess. All through the pages of the New Testament the grace and peace of God in Christ shine gloriously forth. To ac cept His grace is to know His peace — peace not only with Him but with others also. Ephesians will unfold for us “the riches of His grace” (1:7). Twelve times in this one epistle Paul uses the word “grace.” May each of us lay claim to our possessions. All of the following blessings are ours because of grace: (1) salvation (Eph. 2:8), (2) justification (Rom. 3: 24), (3) victory over sin (Rom. 5:20), (4) power to testify (Rom. 12:3, 15:15, Col. 4:6), (5) strength for service (2 Tim. 2:1; Heb. 12:28), (6) a spirit of generosity (2 Cor. 8:7), (7) sweetness in singing (Col. 3:16), (8) ability to stand (I Pet. 5:12), and (9) strength in suffering (2 Cor. 12:9). There are doubtless many more, but these will suffice to show us the greatness of our need in appropriating God’s grace. 35
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter