WEDNESDAY, June 3, 2009 READ: Ephesians 3: 1 – 15
SUBMITTING TO GOD, THE FATHER AS FATHER
MEMORIZE: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named….” Ephesians 3: 14, 15
Family, both in Heaven and on the earth, originated with God. Family was designed, brought into being, and is being used to fulfill the divine purposes. This is not easy for the social engineers to acknowledge and accept. They believe that it is their prerogative to determine what the human family should be and what purpose it should serve in society. The more they work at redesigning the family, the more difficult it becomes for the family to be and do what God has in mind for it. It is therefore more and more incumbent on the Church of Jesus Christ to recover and to emphasize the Biblical teachings concerning the human family, and to help it to be what God has in mind for it to be. We must reaffirm the fatherhood of God, the Father, and to help people to come to acknowledge Him and to submit to Him.
Here in our text, Ephesians 3: 1 – 15, we are able to see how God has unveiled His mystery and enabled Paul to understand it. This mystery has to do with the salvation that we experience through Jesus of Nazareth, when we acknowledge Him as God’s Son (cf. 1 John 5: 4, 5; John 1: 12; 6: 37 – 40; Hebrews 2: 9, 10). In vv. 1-7, we are able to see that God did not reveal, or, openly disclose to people with whom He dealt in the former times. He was using means to get them to understand that the One who was promised and who was being sent, was His Son (cf. Genesis 3: 15; 12: 1-3; Isaiah 9: 6, 7). As for example, God’s promise to give Abraham a son, through whom he would have descendants, entailed more than Isaac (cf. Genesis 15: 1 – 5; 22: 18; Galatians 3: 16). It was difficult for the Israelites to understand that God could have a Son, without Himself having a wife. Are you in touch with that? That was a major point of the running contention which existed between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jewish religious leaders of His day. They considered it blasphemy for Him to have claimed to have a Son to Father relationship with Jehovah. Paul is here asserting that, God had been working to make that truth known, and finally with the incarnation, with God, the Son, taking on human flesh, God was now building His household and bringing “sons into glory.” By receiving Jesus Christ as God’s Son, we are affirming the fatherhood of God, the Father, and that He has fulfilled His promises to provide redemption for Adam’s descendants. In vv. 8 – 15, Paul made the point that as the Church is being built, as Jews and Gentiles come to faith in Jesus Christ, it has the responsibility to make God and His purposes known in the world. As the Church lives according to God’s design, in submission to God’s will, His wisdom is made known to the “principalities and powers in the heavenly places.” It is He who brought family into being. His intension was that His own example as Father should inspire human fathers to emulate His fathering for their descendants to see. Their descendants should therefore be able to come to put their trust in Him, for salvation and then to glorify Him, to make Him famous. Salvation from sin entails coming to submit to God, the Father, "... the God and Father of our LORD, Jesus Christ" as our Father (cf. Matthew 5: 16; Philippians 2: 7- 11; Acts 2: 36; Romans 10: 9, 10; 1 John 5: 5)?
Knowing God enables us to live in praise and acknowledgement of Him as our Source. Have you acknowledged God, the Father, as the Father of our LORD, Jesus Christ? Have you submitted your life to Him? Are you acknowledging Him as your Father?
PRAY: LORD, God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, You brought family into being. You are Father over Your own family and household. Please teach me Your ways, LORD, and help me to submit to You and open up my life to You as my Father. I am asking this in Jesus’ strong name. Amen.