Articles
What God Has Done For Us
Many people who at least admit the existence of God and that the Bible is His inspired word will also admit the great grace He has shown to man in conceiving and executing a plan for our salvation. Some, though, who do not know God as well, might express doubts as to why God would do this for us; some go further and bristle at the idea of God demanding anything of man — His creation — saying boldly, “I didn’t ask Him to do that for me!” While that may be true [God had the plan in place before we were created], we should be thankful He did conceive and execute and reveal this plan, else we would have no possibility of forgiveness and salvation.
The Bible is, in fact, the history of God’s dealings with mankind as history unfolds and brings us ever closer to the coming of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Much of this world’s history is not recorded in the Bible, but only because it was not a part of the unfolding plan of God; what is not told or revealed is irrelevant to our salvation or something we just do not need to know. But what we do know is important; it is important because with this knowledge, we can see the motivation behind the plan, the reason some things were done and other things not done, and what has been done for us that we could not do. When we see all God has done, we may hopefully understand those were things we could not have done [or cannot do] and appreciate what He has done, though He was not obligated to do so. Hopefully, we will come to the conclusion God truly loved us more than we can really ever understand, and we can gain a better understanding of just how undeserving we all are, and be eternally grateful for what God has done for us.
So what has God done for us? Let us let the apostle Paul tell us, in the words written to the disciples at Ephesus. In his opening words, Paul tells us of the great things God has done for us, so let us consider these things, and how we should respond.
He Has Blessed Us With Every Spiritual Blessing. (Eph. 1:3) To the one who recognizes he has sinned against God, and also recognizes he has nothing to offer God for those sins, this should be supremely comforting. Simply put, there is nothing we need [spiritually] that He hasn’t provided for us. We do not have to worry about some lack, for He has thought of everything, and provided it. As Paul said in his letter to the Roman brethren, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32) Indeed! He has, in fact, freely given us all things we need, spiritually speaking. Let us not overlook where God granted those spiritual blessings to be: In Christ.
He Chose Us To Be Holy. (Eph. 1:4) The Calvinist will use this verse to teach [falsely] that God chose the saved before we were ever created, but let us read what Paul actually said: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” What God chose was that we should be holy and blameless. God did not choose that His people could rest on His work of forgiveness and cleansing and thus live however they want, but that they should be holy and blameless [regarding sin] people. This was what God has always sought of His people (cf. Lev. 20:26). Let us not overlook the fact God chose us to be holy “in Him” [Christ].
He Chose Us To Be Adopted As Sons. (Eph. 1:5) Again, the predestination is not individual/particular, but that we should receive the “adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” We who were once called His enemies (Rom. 5:10) would be called His sons, if in Christ. Truly, this is an amazing act of grace! What man would provide a way for his enemy to be adopted into his family, with all the benefits and and an equal opportunity to share the inheritance? God would, though! Let us note that this adoption was made possible by Christ, not man.
He Made Us Accepted. (Eph. 1:6) Paul would later remind these same disciples that once, outside of Christ, they “once walked according to the course of this world” and “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh” (Eph. 2:2, 3); such a life was unacceptable to God, but now [in Christ] we are acceptable. But let us note it was God who made us accepted — we didn’t do it by our own means, for we had no means. As Paul noted to the Roman brethren, “we were still without strength” (Rom. 5:6); it was because God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Let us note again that we were made accepted in Christ.
His Grace Abounded Toward Us. (Eph. 1:7, 8) That grace, Paul said, was what brought to us “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Grace brought us salvation (Rom. 6:23b), and salvation because of that forgiveness made possible through the blood of Jesus Christ. Again, let us note it is in Christ we have that redemption and forgiveness of sins.
He Made The Plan Known To Us. (Eph. 1:9, 10) Later, Paul will remind these same brethren that the gospel — what had been a mystery before its revelation — was “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6), and that it was this message he had preached to them and written about to them, and that they had understood and believed and obeyed (Eph. 3:3, 4). It would have done us no good for God to have conceived and executed this plan, and then not told man about it! But He did! Let us note again that the promise was in Christ.
From these words, it is obvious that God had done much for us, necessary if we were to have any hope of forgiveness and salvation. He knew even before we were created that all men would sin, and had in place the plan for our salvation, and Christ as the Savior (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Pet. 1:19, 20). The plan for our salvation was not an afterthought or a 'plan B,' but something God had in mind long before the need existed.
From these words, too, we should see that anything and everything He has done for us requires that we be “in Christ” if we are to benefit from this great work of God. Every spiritual blessing is in Christ; we are to be holy and blameless in Christ; we are adopted as sons by Christ; His grace abounded towards us though the forgiveness made possible by the blood of Christ and extends only to those in Christ; and the promise of salvation to both Jew and Gentile is limited to those who are in Christ. With all these things noted, the next question logically arises: How is one “in Christ”?
Paul told the roman brethren that they had been “baptized into Christ Jesus” and “buried with Him through baptism” (rom. 6:3, 4). He also told those in Colossæ that it was when they were “buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God” that God then made them “alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2:12, 13). He reminded those of Galatia it was “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). So, are you truly “in Christ”? If not, these blessings are not yours. Yet. —— Steven Harper
