Chpt 6 – Sealed!
It’s just beyond our imagination that God would indwell us and that our spirits would be as He is in this world! In our spirit we are a brand new person! Old things passed away; and all things have become new! As Jesus is right now, so are we in this world. Our spirit, the real “me,” was created in righteousness and true holiness. And then we read Ephesians 1:13, which tells us that the moment we said yes to Jesus, God stamped us with His seal of ownership and gave us His Spirit as a guarantee of our salvation (2 Cor. 1:22). We were sealed “in Him” which means our life is now hidden in Christ (Col. 3:3). We are not merely standing on the Rock; we are in the Rock, as safe and secure as God Himself.
And that’s good news – what God does in the spirit always remains constant and unchanging regardless of fluctuations in our performance! One-third of our spirit is already complete! Our new man has been created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24). We’re not evolving into it because in our spirit, we already are!
Accepted
Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV) “… to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
What a wonderful thing this is! It would have been more than any of us deserve to be forgiven by God, but then to be given certain rights and privileges would have been more than we could have expected. The Lord went further than that–He has actually accepted us.
The Greek word CHARITOO that was translated “made accepted” in this verse was only used one other time in the N.T. That was in Luke 1:28, which says, “And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored [CHARITOO], the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”
So, “being accepted” in Ephesians 1:6 is equivalent to being “highly favored” in Luke 1:28. Mary had nothing on a born-again child of God! As Mary, the woman who bore Christ, was accepted so are we highly favored of the Lord! Wow! And it’s all because of what Jesus did for us!
Jesus became sin so we could become righteous (2 Cor. 5:21)!
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus became what you were so you could become what He is. He took your sin and gave you His righteousness! The moment we were put into Christ, we became as holy and righteous as we ever will be. How could it be otherwise? Jesus Christ is the Righteous One and in Him we are as righteous as He is.
Jesus didn’t just take our sin figuratively; He literally became our sin. Then He suffered the wrath of God for our sin! He was our “sin offering” and our “burnt offering.” He became what we were so we could become what He is. Think about it: How many sins did Jesus commit before He was made sin? None. How many righteous acts did we do before we were made righteous? None. God did it all. It’s called the “Great Exchange!” We do not need to work to become righteous. The moment we put our faith in Jesus, we were stamped “righteous” for all time and eternity!
God doesn’t look at us the way we look at ourselves. He looks upon our spirit and sees that we are righteous. If we’re born again, it doesn’t matter if we’ve rebelled or just aren’t everything we should be. God sees us as righteous and truly holy because He’s looking at our spirit.
Repeat this three times: God is pleased with me!!! (Eph. 1:5-6)
Accepted means more than just mere toleration. He’s literally pleased with us! We might not be pleased with the shape our mind or body is in, BUT God sees us in the spirit. When you were born again, you became a brand-new creature (2 Cor. 5:17), and He’s pleased with His workmanship (Eph. 2:10)!
Preserved & Protected
Once we believed, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 1:13). Our born-again spirit was created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24). As Jesus is, so became our spirit right here in this world (1 Jn. 4:17). It became one with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). Then all of this goodness was immediately sealed tight with the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit seal keeps the good in and the bad out! The Holy Spirit encased our born-again spirit!
Born of God
When we sin, our spirit does not participate. It retains its original holiness and purity – and will for eternity! (1 John 3:9). This means we are as righteous and holy now, in our spirit, as we will ever be! Many people struggle to understand 1 John 3:9 because it’s context clearly shows that Christians do sin (1 John 1:8; 1 John 2:1). BUT in John 3:9 it says, “If you’re born of God, you cannot sin.” What?
Big Sins Little Sins
Our spirit is the only part of us that’s been born of God. This means our performance doesn’t affect the purity and holiness of our spirit!
When we understand Spirit, Soul, and Body, we know that it was our spirit that changed. Created in righteousness and true holiness, it’s been sealed by the Holy Spirit so no sin can penetrate it. The righteousness we were born again with stays uncontaminated. Since God is a Spirit, He always deals with us Spirit to spirit. No matter how we’re performing, we can always approach Him in our born-again spirit! That’s awesome!
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