Charles Schwab and Sovereign Grace

Sovereign grace we have discovered is what propels out into God's mission.  Now let's continue to explore Ephesians 1:11-14 to see how else it applies to our lives as followers of Jesus,

“11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

We are going to close by looking at the ramifications of verses 12-14. As a result of the sovereign grace of God working out all things according to the purpose of his will we find that we have security.

Security.

It's something that investment companies make millions of dollars off of...

httpv://youtu.be/mFM-m31y5HY

We all desire security and it drives much of what we do and don't do in life.  The perceived lack of security can create fear.  This is what most of the politicians do in their campaigns.  They seek to show that the other party will eliminate security from your life and leave you dangling. When we don't feel secure in our lives we experience fear.

However these verses in Ephesians remove any doubt about security from us. We no longer find our security in the context of finances, power, or relationships with people.  We find them in relationship with the God of the universe. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God and in that sealing we find that there is nothing that can separate us from relationship with God.

This kind of security allows us to live freely.  This kind of security actually sends us with confidence into a broken world without fear of being separated from God. We can enter into relationships with people not worried about our identity because it is wrapped up in God.  We can tell people about Jesus and not have to worry about rejection or pain.

It turns out that when we find our security in the midst of God's grace we are able to step out boldly, confidently, full of grace and truth.  We can then love well to the glory of God.

What would your life look like if you never feared insecurity ever again?

It would be amazing.

Sovereign Grace - It Makes Us Go 2

In the previous post we began to look at Ephesians 1:11-14,
“11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
We dove into the first phrase, "in him".  Now we must grapple with the next, "we have obtained an inheritance".  What is this inheritance? How do we obtain it? What does this mean? How is this connected to sovereign grace? The inheritance that we we obtain "in him" is that of the Kingdom of God. We have been transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of the Beloved Son.  You see, by being "in him" we have all that he has.  Just take a look at Ephesians 1:3-10 for a sense of the inheritance. We gain this inheritance by being "in him" and get to be "in him" by his grace.  There is nothing that we can do to earn our way into being "in him" we are all broken beyond recognition.  That's the way it is.  If you don't believe me, look in the mirror. Seriously, can you tell me you're not broken? I know I am.  I am broken beyond self-repair. So, we need help, we need to be brought in and we are done so by his grace. Check out Ephesians 2. This all means that we have been given something that is bigger than ourselves and we have a responsibility to do something with it.  We must act now in response.  We don't have to.  That is the beauty of sovereign grace.  We are not needed but we are wanted. This is significant.  It means that we can respond to God in proportion as we come to grips with a deeper more full understanding of his grace. We can't judge ourselves by others.  We can only look at the inheritance and ask, "How am I responding?" So, how are you responding? What kind of grace have you experienced?  

Sovereign Grace - It Makes Us Go

As I continue to wrestle through the implications of theology in every day mission I am struck by a simple little question, "How do we keep at it?" We have looked at Jesus as the theological center, we have looked at the centrality of being "in Christ", and so now we must consider the role of sovereign grace in this whole thing. You may wonder why I would place sovereign grace here in the midst of this discussion. I mean, we could naturally look at the person of the Holy Spirit and his role in the incarnational church.  We could naturally look at the importance of the Scriptures.  However, it seems to me that we need to grapple with how we get "in Christ" and we need to come to grips with the sovereignty of God in all that we are. I think the best place to begin is with a little Bible, Ephesians 1:11-14,
"11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."
This little snippet from Ephesians is so full of goodness that we need to work through it over the course of a few posts.  Let's begin with the first phrase, "In him".  We are reminded again that the this is the central understanding of who we are people.  We are people who are "in him".  This is the primary marker of our identity. Paul wants it to be clear that to be "in him" is the context for all that follows. Ae we pursue our brief analysis of this passage we must keep our in-himness in the front of our minds.

Before the Beginning...a Further Reflection

I was thinking about this whole Jesus is the theological center thing all weekend and realized that this rabbit hole is ridiculously deep. I mean here is the God of the universe walking among us. Here, present, in time and space. Think about this reality, just for a moment. It's pretty astounding isn't it? The burning bush, the pillar of cloud and fire, theophanies. But, here is the person of God perfectly human and perfectly divine. To explore the riches of this reality is something that we cannot possibly come to an end of. The practical realities of this truth are limitless as well, are they not? Where did God go when he was here? A manger. A wedding. The wilderness. Dusty roads. A place everyone else avoided. The tax collector's booth. The sea. The mountains. The prostitute's corner. The drunk's table. The Temple. The synagogue. God entered. He engaged this lost world in a very raw and very real way. He didn't hole up in the Temple courts or in the synagogue. He didn't only hang with the religious people. He said things like, "I came to seek and save the lost." "This sick need a physician not the healthy." He said things like, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off." "The son of man has no place to lay his head." He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." He leads us out into expedition. He leads us to a dangerous place. He leads to the place of faith. This is not for the faint-hearted but the for the courageous who can follow a master that is more concerned about glory than safety. I have come to this question, "Am I living safe?" If I am living "safe", I am not following the one who called me. Living "safe" means that I will not be in danger of losing my life. I love the fact that there are people in my life who are not living "safe". They inspire me. They inspire me because they are following Jesus. I want to follow Jesus too. I want to go where he goes. I really do. But, it is scary.