"To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us ACCEPTED in the beloved."
When Jesus came up out of the water He heard His father say "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased". He leaves and immediately goes to the wilderness where satan says "If you are the son of god..."? Notice that satan conveniently leaves out the word "beloved" when he throws his darts of temptation. He won't remind us because when we truly know we are "beloved", whatever he throws at us can not succeed. No temptation, no trial, or no weapon can succeed against us. Not even the giant ones. Consider David and Goliath. That story is such a beautiful picture of Jesus and His grace. Let me explain. Names in the Bible are significant. They mean something and can point to a message that God wants us to get. In this case, the name David means "Beloved" or Grace. On the opposite side we have Goliath. His name means "disgracefully stripped and held captive". The place where the two of them met was in the battle field at what was considered the "blood line". Are you seeing the picture yet?
Like Goliath, since the fall of man we have been stripped of the glory of God that was with us and we all have been held captive to the clutches of sin, legalism and trying to abide by laws. Yet when we get born again in Jesus, the "beloved" we are set completely free from not only our captors but all the guilt and shame (disgrace) that comes with it. It happens when we see the truth of the blood (blood line) of Christ. It is THE truth that sets us free. It takes a David to knock down a giant. In other words, it takes someone who KNOWS that he is God's beloved to win the fights of life!
We are God's beloved not because of what we do. Christ did it all. He is God's Beloved. But God put us in Christ. That is why we are "accepted in the Beloved." By the way, the word accepted here in the original greek form means "highly favored" so we are highly favored in the Beloved. Wow! And what God said to Jesus, He says to us today: "You are My beloved son. In you, I am well pleased." When was the last time you saw yourself as well pleasing to God? Here's the thing. We have the assurance that it is not based on what we have done, but what Christ has done. We are still God's beloved no matter what we have done.
No one understood this more than the woman caught in adultery. I used to wonder how she could "go and sin no more" after doing something she most certainly must have really enjoyed. I fully understand this delima. What power could possibly trump the pull of sexual sin? Then I saw it. The power of "nor do I condem you". Jesus took away her judgement and sentence of death. That is what the beloved did for us all. He took our judgement and sentence for our sin and said I accept (highly favor) you and placed us in Himself. Out of His enormous Grace, God highly favors us and covers us with His love. His Beloved.
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