Ephesians 1:15-23

(Ephesians 1:15-23)

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

『May give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:』It is impossible with human power to realize that "what happened in the kingdom of God, why humans are in this world, and the saved subject is the spirit." Christ comes to those who cry out to God who find themselves in a sin that cannot be escaped. So, they find the way to salvation and enter Christ.

『That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,』 This means that those who have left God are forced to die, and it is a very rich grace to restore them back to the Son of God in Christ. God gives the repentant grace of the atoning death of Jesus Christ.

This is Paul's prayer. He is praying to God that the Ephesus Church will be like this. God must be "God of Jesus Christ." All you have to do is to abandon your willingness to do it, only to die with Christ who died on the cross and enter into Christ. Then it means that God will save you. This is the covenant. In the Old Testament, God sent prophets to the stubborn Israelites, but the people did not know that they were prophets and killed him.

Even though the king killed the prophet, it means that the people killed him. God caused Israel to be destroyed by Babylon, and the people were taken away. God loves his people. But when God is not Lord to them, God is angry. It was because they were ugly in God's eyes. God is the covenant God. In the covenant, God offers abundant grace.

The first covenant between God and man was that God said to Adam, "Don't eat the fruit of the tree that knows good and evil." It is to eat the fruit of the tree of life and protect it from being a spiritual being. But as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, God made them go out of the Garden of Eden, and then made a covenant of the seed in Genesis 3:15.『And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 』Then, through Abraham, God makes a covenant of "earth and seed." Through circumcision, he made a covenant of the seed "cutting part of the body, denying the body". The last is the covenant of blood through the cross of Jesus Christ. The new covenant is the new covenant established by the blood of Jesus. The word new covenant was first mentioned in Jeremiah in the Old Testament, and appears several times in the New Testament.

In Luke 22:15-20『 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. 』.

The covenant is made by both parties. It is not a unilateral covenant, but a bilateral covenant. If you fail to keep, you die. The blood covenant of Jesus has the meaning of redemption: "God will buy those who repent in the blood of Jesus to be my people, obey my words." The obedience is "Die with Jesus at the cross." Those who do not, in God's eyes, are wicked. So, God wants them to keep a new covenant in mind. In the New Testament, the covenant is expressed by baptism. In Romans 6:4-7『 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. 』

Most church people consider the covenant unilateral. They think that if they confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, the blood of Jesus is applied and they are forgiven of their sins. However, the Bible (Romans) says, "Old man dies." Without receiving revelation from God, salvation is unknown. So, the grace of realizing that the body received from the parents dies with Jesus and is reborn as a spiritual body that allows God to be born again. Fight to protect it. The covenant says that we must fight evil to keep it.

The Israelites listened directly to Moses, who sang, "The Lord is kind, long-suffering, and slow to anger." But they listened to Moses, but failed to keep the covenant. God promised to give them the promised land when they entered Canaan, but only two people in the Exodus believed the word and nobody else believed. In the wilderness, all the old people died. In Canaan, only the new man born in the wilderness and Joshua Caleb entered. God is a God of love, but a God of wrath for those who cannot obey the words of the covenant. No matter how confessing your sins and asking for forgiveness, you are only the object of wrath unless the old man dies. If you do not repent and be born again, you will not be saved.

If the previous one does not die, there is no rebirth. Today, many church people think of rebirth as a change of heart. Because the new covenant is engraved in the heart, it is to think of being born again as a change of heart. Engraving on the mind is to light the mind's eyes. So, they realize what God's will is. Like the prodigal son's parable, it is to return as a dead person. Those who did not obey God's Word even when the Israelites entered Canaan were subject to God's wrath. The people did not believe the words of the prophets and killed them all. Israel eventually split the country and was destroyed by the immigrants. Even at the time of Jesus, Jesus said to those who came to Jesus, "The children of the devil who do not abide by the Word."

In 3 John 1:9-10『 I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. 』 Before speaking about the end of the book of Revelation, it was in John's last letter. At that time, there was a man called Diodrebe in a church, and he slandered what the Apostle John said. Jesus said, "God has sent many of God's servants to them, but they have killed the prophets, and they will also kill the Son of God, and they will take away the vineyard given to the Son."

In a letter to the church at Ephesus, the apostle Paul prayed, ``That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:''. If you don't know exactly God's will, you will be the ones who kill the prophets. God's will is that "the prodigal who left the house will repent and return as the dead." However, if you return without dying, you are thinking of God as a loving God who accepts everything. It is a false belief, it must be "God of our Lord Jesus Christ." You must be in Christ to become the "God of our Lord Jesus Christ." Those who are in Christ must be united with Jesus Christ, who died on the cross. If Jesus does not become Lord, they become those who forsake Jesus.