Accepted in the Beloved

2019-12-22

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

When we believed on the Son of God, everything about us spiritually changed in a moment of time. At that moment, we were changed “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). Having occupied the position of being God’s enemies, we were made sons, being born again (1 Peter 1:23). We were accursed from God, but now He has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

We often ask God to bless us for this or that. Why do we ask Him to do something He has already done? To be blessed with all spiritual blessings is to lack nothing. We were saved, and there is nothing else that needs to be done that Jesus Christ has not already accomplished at Calvary.

Furthermore, we were blessed with all spiritual blessings “in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Our real life, Christ, is there. We need to abide there, where our life is.

Because I believe in Christ, God has chosen me for a special purpose, and that purpose is that I “should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). To be holy is to be set apart for God’s purposes. To be without blame is to be without fault. These are things that I have neither attained in the past nor have achieved today. These are things that God has given me. I may have them in part now experientially, but in heaven, they are already true for me, and on the Day of Christ I will know them altogether, because I will know Him altogether.

We also have been predestinated “unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself” (Ephesians 1:5). We have received the “Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15), but the full adoption is the “redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23), which will happen upon the Lord’s return. This is a sure thing never to be rescinded, because God has promised it here. We are the children of God now, and on the Day of Christ we will fully realize what this means. And it was done by God’s “good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5).

How great is the grace of God? “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). This is a key verse on salvation. His grace extends to me so far, in that I am “accepted in the beloved.” I did not do acceptable things in His sight. There was nothing within me that made God want to save me. Because Jesus bore the wrath of God for my sin, I was made “accepted in the beloved.” The Beloved is Jesus Christ. Can I do anything to make myself unaccepted? I cannot, because I could do nothing to make myself accepted in the first place.

It does not say accepted because of me. Within me “dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). The position of acceptance I have obtained was given, yea, thrust upon me. I have tried to walk away from God, but I found out quickly that it is not a choice.

“Will ye also go away?” (John 6:67)

“Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68).

I am “accepted in the beloved.” You are too if you believe that the Son of God bore “our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

Accepted of Acceptable?

Notice that we are not acceptable, but rather accepted. We are accepted because of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Because Jesus was acceptable, we were accepted. We cannot say in ourselves that we are accepted because of our own lovability.