We have been made partakers of Christ by the goodness of the Father. We can live in victory as God has intended
Ephesians 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The first 3 chapters of Ephesians has laid the ground work. The Father blessed us, chose us, accepted us in the beloved, adopted us, lavished His grace on us; and it gave Him great pleasure to do so. Jesus has made us joint heirs with Him and we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit! We the believer have been called to be strengthen in our inner being by the power of God’s might! Paul shared all these precious truths with us from a jail cell! His plea is for every believer to walk worthy of the calling. In humility and gentleness we are to bear with one another in love. We have a holy calling to walk as the new creation God has made us. This is not an appeal to improve the old man. This is an instruction for the newly created being that we are to live from that very truth. It is already in you to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Hostility is over you have peace with God. From that peace you can walk worthy of the calling!
Colossians 1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
The Father qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance when He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We walk as already qualified by the Father. To walk unworthily would be to deny the work the Father has done. The Father was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to Himself.
Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
There is only one body. Sometimes we get the mentality of church inside the 4 walls. Whoever has genuinely called upon the name of Jesus is saved! There is one Spirit who does many works! It is the Holy Spirit who convicts a man of sin. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts a believer of righteousness. It is the Holy Spirit who seals us after we believer. Truly one hope of your calling! Verse five goes on to say one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Which baptism is the one baptism? Baptism of suffering like Jesus going to the cross? Baptism into Christ? Baptism into water? Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I believe all of them are for every believer; however, scripturally speaking the “one baptism” is the imperative baptism into Christ.
Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
1 Corinthians12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body; whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 John 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.
1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world; our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
As these scriptures clearly teach the imperative baptism is when the object of your faith is put into Jesus Christ. This is the baptism into Christ!
Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
To be immersed into the truth that Jesus is the Messiah is what the church is built upon! Yes, indeed one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, in you all and through you all. Awesome!
Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men."9 (Now this, "He ascended"; what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
To each one of us grace was given! Not just in some small measure. We have grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. That is Jesus gave all of Himself for you and me. That is the measure of grace that has been given to us! You do not lack! Jesus filled all things in every way. Jesus emptied out Hades on the believers side! The wicked remain but the righteous who were in the comfort of Abraham’s bosom were set free into the presence of God.
Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
Jesus Himself gave the fivefold ministry to the church! The apostle, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers were given for the equipping of the church. It is the church itself who does the work of the ministry. Our traditions have told us the fivefold does the work of the ministry; it is not so! It is time for the church to realize we can come into the unity of faith. This only happens as we grow in the knowledge of the Son of God. Oh that we would come to full measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Those who refuse to join the church cut themselves off from the fivefold ministry! The fivefold ministry operating properly always points you to Jesus Christ. The fivefold ministry cannot walk out of balance nor can the church reject the fivefold ministry because of past abuses in church leadership. Let God’s divine order come to both the five fold ministry and the body of Christ so we can walk in God’s ordained purposes.
Ephesians 4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
Those rejecting the gift of the fivefold ministry subject their own hearts to every false doctrine, the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. God calls the church to discipleship. It is time for the church to be established by the word of His grace. The church needs to quit looking for quick conversions and be dedicated to discipleship. True disciples will observe all that Jesus commanded!
Ephesians 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head; Christ; 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
The fivefold ministry is interested in speaking the truth in love. It is a desire to see the body of Christ submit to the true head of the church Jesus Christ. If we will walk in divine order the body will mature and partake fully in the divine inheritance God intends! Abundant life indeed!
Ephesians 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Grace teaches us that we have been set free from sin! No longer walk like the unbeliever in the emptiness of their mind! The unbeliever does it because they are in darkness and are lead by their own emotions and intellect.
Ephesians 4:20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Put off the old man which speaks of conversion at a moment in time. Conversion says you died to sin when you came to Jesus! Discipleship says be made new in the spirit of your mind. Allow your emotions and intellect be trained by the living word of God. Being renewed in the spirit of your mind is walking in the process of learning Christ! Fulfilling God’s destiny is living in the new man. If any man be in Christ He is an new creation. We can live in the new man and never have to live in the old man again. Notice verse 24 the new man was created in true righteousness and holiness. You don’t have to find the holiness or righteousness. You already have it; the Father qualified you! Live in your new found liberty!
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