Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Thought:  To me, the universality of the gospel is a much-needed and very powerful quality.  It is available to all and helps each of us right where we are.

Question:  What does it mean to be "near" the Kingdom of God?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:17 (NIV):  "He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near."

Jews were nearer, I suppose, because of their exposure to the things of God, especially the Law.  Christ told certain ones in the gospels that they were "near" the Kingdom of God.  Usually it was due to their great faith.  Gentiles were "far away" because of lives lived with no tradition of Law or heritage in the things of God.  But Jesus preached to both.  This is the beautiful thing about God.  He is no respecter of persons.  All need Him universally.  The message of the preaching was, and ever is, peace.  What another beautiful thing about God!  He loves everyone and He brings everyone peace!!  In His love He provides peace, and it unites those who were "near" to those who were "far away", closing the gap.

Prayer:  Lord, where would we be if You had not "come" to "preach" to us?  We would yet be separated from others and struggling with hostilities.  Thank You for bringing us out of such strife with Your gospel of peace.  Amen.

Thought:  To me, it is a great work for man to have peace with his fellow man, as accomplished in Christ; but it is a greater work for those men to have peace also with God.

Question:  Has my hostility been "put to death"?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:16 (NIV):  "and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."

Reconciliation is what the cross accomplished.  Reconciliation was achieved for both the self-righteous law-keeper and the hopeless Gentile dog who kept no laws.  Both are sinners and in need.  Both are unable to save themselves.  Both come together "in Christ" if they yield their free-will to Him, believing Christ is Savior and Lord.  Once yielded to Christ and saved, the two formerly opposing sides are at peace.  No more disagreements need exist.  No more hostility between issues of law-keeping need exist.  Christ kept the law--that is what's important.

Is this to say that no one need keep the law anymore?  No, of course not.  It is discovered that "in Christ" we are finally enabled to keep the law, and for the first time.  The Jews thought they were keeping laws because they tried to, but now "in Christ" they finally do truly "keep" the law.  The Gentiles never had laws because they were kept out of that tradition, but now "in Christ" they discover the ways to "keep" the law.  Christ becomes their law.  They "keep" themselves "in Christ," both of them.  Thus steeped into Christ and joined into His "Law of Love" they are no longer hostile to each other.

Prayer:  Lord, Your peace truly does pass my understanding.  You have conquered our hostilities by way of Your love.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, the peace God offers in His Son is the answer the world needs--oh, that all would believe so that peace could be applied to any problem!

Question:  How can Christ both "abolish...the law" and "fulfill the law"?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:15 (NIV):  "by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace."

How did Christ destroy the hostility barrier between Jew and Gentile?  He "abolished" the law in his flesh on Calvary by dying.  By offering up His body as the ultimate sacrifice for everyone's sin He broke sin's power.  Commandments and regulations of Judaism were done away with; they were no longer mecessary.  Yet Christ's flawless life was a fulfillment of the law because He was the only sinless person to ever live.  Thus, in Christ, the dichotomy of abolishment and fulfillment meet and are fully satisfied.  Christ's intention, among many his Father had willed, was to join Jew and Gentile together into one "new man."  All are united in Christ.  The "new man" is the resurrected Christ, the Savior of both Jew and Gentile, living inside each man.  Both are sinners; the Gentiles faced their sin more quickly than did the Jews who believed their heritage and rule-keeping was what saved them.  Thus the majority of believers today are Gentile and only a remnant of Jews will be saved.  But those saved Jews are at peace with the saved Gentiles.  All in Christ are at peace with each other when they are abiding correctly and fully in His Spirit, and in His resurrection power.  Any two people who clash can be brought to peace "in Christ."  Think of it!

Prayer:  My King and God, thank You for giving us Your Son, the Prince of Peace.  Thank You for the way You have healed all hostilities.  May many more needy individuals enter into Your peace!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, God has resolved our spiritual human-need crisis very well, and very simply:  it's all "in Christ."

Question:  Do I fully appreciate what God has done when He embodied every solution to my soul's needs in His Son?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:14 (NIV):  "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,"

Paul of course refers here to Jew and Gentile people.  "The two" differing groups are made one "in Christ."  There's that phrase again:  "in Christ."  Everything good and valuable is in Jesus Christ.  Christ Himself is "our peace", our salvation, our joy, our life, our everything.  The only way we can have any of these qualities is to be, to exist, live and thrive, IN CHRIST.

Christ has "destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility."  Peace eradicates hostility.  The barrier that divided Jew and Gentile, to me, consisted of several things.  First of all birthright.  To be a Jew and thus know God at all required that you be a descendant of Abraham.  This was an unresolveable problem for most gentiles.  Circumcision was a second barrier.  And on and on we could go.  All the Pharasaical laws and rules piled up into an insurmountable barrier wall that excluded Gentiles.  Apparently Jews were convinced that no Gentile could possible know God because they were not blessed with all that the Jews were given.  How tragic!  But whether or not this was justified, the barrier stood and was insurmountable.  Only God could begin to break it down.  Only Christ could "destroy" it utterly.  Hostility of men is an unresolveable, non-mediateable, immoveable barrier, that only the touch of God can help.  God's touch is the gift of Jesus Christ.  Jesus embodies peace because He dissolves hostilities.  He does so by eliminating the need for rule-keeping as a way of salvation.  He improved rule-keeping by keeping all rules Himself and covering us when we all fail to keep the rules.  Thus the Jews needed no longer to vainly glory in their rule-keeping, (which was a lie anyway.  No human can truly keep all rules.)  And thus the Gentiles needed no longer to worry about their failure at rule-keeping:  a new standard was raised--Jesus Christ, the only authentic Rule-Keeper.  Entering vicariously into Him is our way to "keep the rules"!  Entering into Him is our only way of peace because He is our peace.

Prayer:  I am so glad, Lord God, that all my needs are met in Christ!  Help me to remember this at every point of want.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, it is extremely rewarding to be "brought near" to God.

Question:  Do we know when we're "far away" from God?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:13 (NIV):  "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ."

We love to see the many appearances of the word"but" in New Testament writings!  Paul knows how to remind us of our horrible lost state, our sinfulness and degradation (Romans 1 & 2), and the disparity culturally between Jew and gentile.  What's to be done?  The solution, the comfort, the answer is always and only found in the person of Jesus Christ.  "In Christ Jesus" we have real help!  Are we "in Christ"?  It certainly would behoove us to be!  "You who once were far away," as described in verse 12, was a former picture of the status of the Ephesians.  All those reasons (verse 12) piled together to create a huge distance from God--a hopeless, uncrossable gap no man could engineer a way over.  But God can bring the Ephesians, and all gentiles everywhere, near to Himself.  Notice that no man, Jew or gentile, had the ability to fashion a way back into God's nearness.  Only God could do anything about this immense problem.  And do something He has!  He has beautifully gifted us with His only Son, Jesus Christ.  He has shed His Son's blood.  We draw near only through His blood--there is no other way.  If you now wish to be found "in Christ" you must come through the blood.  If you desire to remain "in Christ" that is also kept going for you through the blood and its daily application to your daily needs.  Only the blood of Christ has power enough to draw us nearer to God.  Again, no self-effort saves us; neither can self-effort keep us (in right relationship with God).  Only Jesus' blood preserves us blameless, thus enabling our nearness to God.  How much we owe God great praise for His unspeakable gift:  His Son Jesus Christ our Lord!!!

Prayer:  Great praise is Yours, oh Father God, for bringing gentiles (like me) near to Yourself through Christ!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, we're all suffering an identity crisis in regard to knowing God--unless we've come to know Jesus Christ.

Question:  Am I still a "gentile in spirit", or have I been born into the family of God by receiving Christ?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:12 (NIV):  "remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world."

The lot of a gentile (non-Jew) unbeliever is truly a sad experience, especially for those alive at this time when Judaism was on the rise.  No wonder they were called "gentile dogs."  The Ephesian Christians had formerly been 1) "separate from Christ."  That's the worst experience of all for anyone, gentile or Jew.  Without Jesus they were dead nothings, even if they were lucky enough to have been Jews.  The Ephesian Christians had formerly been 2) "excluded from citizenship in Israel."  Uncircumcision banned them from Israeli citizenship.  They were politically outcast as well as socially separated.  They were thus categorized as pagans.  The Ephesian Christians had formerly been 3) "foreigners to the covenants of the promise."  Jews only were given the covenant promises by God, that is, that Abraham would father their nation, blessed of God and protected.  Gentile non-Jews had to survive somehow as "foreigners" to these wonderful promises.  And lastly, the Ephesian Christians had formerly been "without hope and without God in the world."  Only Jews had an in-road with God.  This left everyone else, gentiles, out in the cold.  This shunning left them no hope.  No hope equates to no God.  This is the condition of anyone, really, who does not come to God in and through Jesus Christ.  Thus the picture of the gentile/Jew problem is in reality a true picture of the unbeliever problem we each have to deal with as we seek for salvation.  To be "gentile" in spirit is to have no hope, no God, no Christ--to be lost "in the world" of sin and death.

Prayer:  Lord, help me to remember what I would be without You--without Your Son--so that I may fully appreciate Your Great Salvation.  Amen! 

Thought:  To me, it never hurts to remember, in humility, who we are and where we have come from!

Question:  Has anyone done more than God to elevate "unacceptable" classes of people?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:11 (NIV):  "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called 'uncircumcised' by those who call themselves 'the circumcision' (that done in the body by the hands of men)--"

Paul describes how it is to be outside of Christ.  He reminds his readers in Ephesus, who now believe, that "formerly" they did not believe.  He reminds them also that Jews had called them, labelled them, outcasts and unacceptable.  (To the Jews one had to be circumcised in the flesh to be acceptable.)  Paul also adds the noteworthy comment that this acceptability was worked out, or accomplished, by the Jews themselves upon themselves.  It was not an act of God.  (Can people, any people, make themselves acceptable to God by their own hand, their own effort, their own "work"?  And then can they impose that "work" upon other peoples?)

Prayer:  Thank You, oh my wonderful God, for making the "unacceptables" fully acceptable in Your eyes through Christ, not through men's works!  Amen.

Thought:  To me, meditating on what it means to be "in Christ" does more to lift me, heal me, direct me, encourage me, etc., than any other activity, and should far outshine my own works.

Question:  Have I learned the proper time and place for my "good works"?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:10 (NIV):  "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Why is salvation not of works?  So that works may be given their proper place; not as a way to save our own soul, but as a way of life after our soul is saved.  We are molded into lives of good works by God.  He is the Master Craftsman.  Being The Master, He does the creating, directing and shaping.  We, the lump of clay, (Isaiah 45:9 and 64:8), become the "workmanship", or, that which is fashioned.  A lump of clay must be submissive or it is no lump.  A striving, working lump becomes resistant, in its own free-will, bucking against the will of the potter, God.  A compliant lump receives grace while a willful one cannot.  Grace received initiates salvation and prepares the life to begin good works.  Grace resisted prevents salvation and any "good" works become misapplied, as the person continues to strive to save self.  

Emphasize the word God in this verse and we begin to see the whole point.  God does salvation, we don't.  He works on us, not we on our salvation.  And see how the foreordained purpose of Christ is woven into this whole doctrine:  we were "created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance...", that is, God made a way for His original plan to succeed despite our sinful interruption--He provided Jesus Christ.  God's workmanship upon us is all "in Christ."  As long as we are there, "in Christ", God can work on us and in us.  Outside of Christ no workmanship is possible.  This speaks not only of salvation, that is, that we are saved only by having Jesus, but also of the good works after salvation.  Anything done must be done "in Christ" in order to qualify as a "good work."  Things done in the energy of the flesh, though they may be said to have been done in God's Name, will endure as well as straw in a furnace:  they will burn away.  But all things, large and small, done in the leading and strengthening of The Holy Spirit, will endure, even improve, as does gold in a furnace.  Thus the life lived in Christ will have its good works mean something and its sin processed out.

God "prepares in advance for us to do" good works.  His goals did not end with salvation alone.  God has much more in mind than mere rescue for rescue's sake.  He rescues us in order to apply us to His purposes.  These purposes were determined by Him before time was even invented.  When we enter "into Christ" we enter the beautiful scope and sweeping plan of God begun from eternity past, embracing all of time, and flowing on into eternity future.  Even as Christ is an Eternal Being, knowing no creation and no demise, so we fulfill God's purposes in our good works, in time, fulfilling the past eternal plan of God and molding the future eternity with God.  We are immortal in Christ, and our good works will win out over our sinful natures, and will endure forever.  Wow!

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, all that You have planned, all that You have accomplished through Christ--it is amazing and marvellous to me!  Praise Your Holy Name!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, people today really need to see the futility of their own efforts in attaining salvation.

Question:  Can we receive God's salvation while not doing a THING to earn it?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:9 (NIV):  "not by works, so that no one can boast."

Salvation, says Paul, is not attained by human effort.  If that were a valid way of reaching God, some could boast as being better than some others.  Boasting is not indicative of God or God's children.  It is an outcome of pride.  The competitiveness is also not of God.  Competition must, of necessity, push down some in order to have others be elevated.  This is totally anti-God.  God is pro-underdog.  The system of salvation of the Jews had become highly competitive and was full of potential boastings.  In direct opposition to Judaistic boasts and competitions comes God's grace (verse 8:  "for it is by grace you have been saved...")  Grace contradicts works because works are human whereas grace is totally from God.  Works can never achieve what God's grace has achieved because of their source, man.  Only grace from God can solve the problem of man.  An effort out of man always produces pride, and pride is the essential transgression of all sinfulness, as seen in Lucifer's pride and desire to excel like God.

Prayer:  Oh, Lord, humble me until I know the marvel of this fact:  You have done all the necessary work of salvation, and there is nothing I need do to earn it.  Amen.

Thought:  To me, God's grace is both mysterious and magnificent.

Question:  What was the price of God's grace?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:8 (NIV):  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--"

Why do we say God has been kind?  what is so special about what God has done?  Isn't it only proper that a Creator must rescue His creatures and go to whatever lengths required to do so?  What's special about God's grace is that it cost a tremendous amount, much more than we can realize.  The lengths God went to are exhausive and extreme.  He virtually committed suicide to save us.  This seems to even go against God's own virtuous morality.  He crossed lines, lines of goodness and high propriety standards, in order to reach us.  He exposed His own Life into evil, being swallowed up into evil's existance, ("He became sin for us..."), when God normally cannot even look at evil and certainly cannot abide its presence with Him.  How could He?  He utilized a certain separation that must exist between the members of The Trinity.  While The Son became sin, The Father looked away.  Can we know how devastating this was to The Godhead?  How this tore them apart?  Just as the veil in the Temple ripped apart in a triumphant moment of reconciliation of man to God, the very heart of God must have been ripping apart in agony as sin and evil, in its fullest realities, entered God!  But the great news is that the ugliness of that moment did not last.  The locking embrace of sin in Christ did not hold Him long at all.  Sin had no rights over Him because He has ever been, and ever will be, Himself, sinless.  Thus The Evil One could not hold sway over Jesus Christ.  Our sins did not belong to His Divine Nature and so Satan had to release Him.  Thus, though there is high cost, God's giving of Jesus was the kindest thing He could do:  it was a total gift because we bore none of that cost.  God Himself bore all the cost.  This is grace:  drowning the recipient in kindness and love while you suffer tremendously to do so.  Our salvation is based on this kind of situation.  We acquire salvation by faith, that is, by believing that God has indeed done all this for us.  We accept the unreal lopsidedness of grace.  Salvation is a free gift and so is the faith required to receive it.  Faith believes Who God is.  Do you know Who He is?  When we identify God with His great grace, we know Him better than we ever have before, and we believe what He says.  This is faith.  Faith comes by hearing The Word.  Christ is the Word, Christ is God.  Faith comes by hearing God.  Hearing means understanding.  Understanding God is hearing Him.  But we cannot know God unless He speaks to us.  We cannot understand unless we have the written Logos:  the chronicle of the pre-existant and then condescended Jesus Christ.  This chronicle is The Bible.  The Bible builds faith in God.

None of this great work, whether of grace or faith, is achieved by us.  God has done it all.  He has gifted us more than we know, and we owe Him more than we could ever repay.  He has given Himself, His Son, His Word, His very broken heart.  He has given everything.

Prayer:  Father God, I bow very low as I think of the very great cost You paid to bring Your sweet kindness to me!  Amen. 

• Main
• archives
• Albums
• Links
• Admin
• Send us a story!

• Isaiah - Day 160
• Isaiah - Day 159
• Isaiah - Day 158
• Isaiah - Day 157
• Isaiah - Day 156
• Isaiah - Day 155
• Isaiah - Day 154
• Isaiah - Day 153
• Isaiah - Day 152
• Isaiah - Day 151

• General [315]

• RSS 0.90
• RSS 1.0
• RSS 2.0
• Atom