“HE HATH MADE US ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED.”
In this text of scripture, the
Apostle Paul teaches us that, in Jesus Christ the people of God have been made
entirely complete. God Almighty has accepted us upon the merits of Christ’s
righteousness and shed blood, and in his very person, as being one with him!
1.
Our Acceptance Before
God Is Eternal.
There
never was a time when God did not view his elect in Christ. Because God always
viewed us in Christ, he always accepted us. We were in the heart of Christ from
all eternity, as the objects of his love and favor. We were in his hands, as
our Surety. Our names were written beneath his in the book of life before the
world began. God chose us in Christ; and in Christ we are accepted.
2.
Our Acceptance In Christ Is Real.
We
are really and truly one with the Son of God! “We are members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones.” Just as the race of humanity was in the loins of
Adam, all the hosts of God’s elect were in Christ. Before God, by God’s decree,
Jesus Christ is our legal, spiritual, and real representative. What that means
is this – What he has done, we have done in him. When he obeyed God’s law, we
obeyed the law in him. When he died, we died in him. When he arose, we arose in
him. When he sat down at the Father’s right, we were made to sit together with
him in heavenly places.
3.
And Our Acceptance In Christ Is Immutable.
Through
our sin and unbelief, we sometimes lose the sweetness of fellowship and
communion with our God. But our acceptance with God never varies! God does not
accept us on the basis of anything done by us. He accepts us for Christ’s sake.
The only way for one of God’s elect to become unaccepted is for God to reject
his own Son, for we are in him! Until God rejects Christ, he cannot, and will
not reject those who are in Christ. This is our blessed security! “He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved.”
“Twixt
Jesus and the chosen race,
Subsists
a bond of sovereign grace,
That
hell, with its infernal train,
Shall
never dissolve, nor rend in vain!