Ephesians Lesson 8 part 4

Ephesians 1:4a
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,..."
We mean that's just mind boggling, and the only thing we can do is take it in by faith. We can't understand and comprehend the full of it, but it's what the Word declares. So we were called -

II Timothy 1:9b
"...not according to our works, but according to his purpose..."
Which is completely wrapped up in the Grace of God. Let's go back to Ephesians where we have left off. This should thrill you when you see how the whole Book fits together so beautifully? How that we were predestined according to the purpose which is all under the control of the power of God. How many were they called? Not as some have speculated as being a remnant few or only a small number of chosen ones but the whole of humanity. Because it says that Jesus' blood was given for "all" and this all is including those from the day of Adams fall until the last human is born. Every thing is working according to the counsel of His own will. And both Jesus and Soul give witness to that Will our death as explained earlier and through the revelation of Christ and the secret hidden in Him. Now verse 12. Now this is for one purpose, this is why we are, what we are, this is why, and who we are.

Ephesians 1:12a
"That we should be to the praise of his glory,..."
Oh if believers could just get a little excited about this fact, that the reason we're left here, the reason that God gives us breath day after day is that we might bring praise to His glory. How? by bring many people to the knowledge of Christ (knowledge and absence = Love and true Love (given by the Holy Spirit within) causes the heart to grow fonder) and by that He brings them to the place of becoming a son of God. There's a verse in Hebrews that speaks what we should offer unto God.

Hebrews 13:15
"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."
With this we find in Romans 12 this:

Romans 12:1-3
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, Will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith."
Who is this measure of faith? Why none other than the ontological essence of Christ restored to us. And that is what God is looking for, and that's the whole purpose of everything! For when we've been raised in Christ our worship then is spiritual for we're to worship in spirit and in Truth.

Start right out with that same prepositional phrase "In whom." All the way through we've got this positional reminder that we are in Christ. That's something that nowhere else in Scripture do we hear of a group of people being actually in the Godhead itself, and in this case the Person of Christ, as an allegory or metaphor. Speaking of the Godhead, and looking where we get this term just turn ahead to the Book of Colossians chapter 2, and we'll have to read verse 8 to pick up the flow.

Colossians 2:8-9
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men (since Jacob and Israels waywardness), after the rudiments of the world (under the influence of Satan), and not after Christ. (do you see the danger? Most of us have just been inundated with tradition. Some tradition is OK, but we've got to line it up with the Word of God, the Revelation of Christ, to see if it fits.) For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

Before we progress lets look at the word "rudiments", remember Genesis chapter 1 and verses 1-3 and I'll include verse 4 which states this:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness." With this we'll look to John chapter 1 verses 1-5 which say this:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."
We've shared that passage of scripture from Amos 8 where the Lord said that a famine would be upon the world and that this famine is a lack of hearing His voice or His Word and that this famine as we've said would be likened to darkness of night which causes us to live by Faith not by our five senses. Well here's rudiments as the principle or elements of the beginning which causes order to come or to be restored in Christ.

Now the definition of the word rudiments is this which we'll take from the Strong's Greek Dictionary: Foundational, initial, to bring into order; then Thayer's Greek Dictionary says this: any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series or composite whole take their rise, an element, first principal; the elements, rudiments, primary and fundamental principles of any art, science, or discipline.

Then while still in Colossians look down the page to verse 20 where we find this:

Colossians 2:20-23
"Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; [these are those things brought about by religion and mans government] Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honur to the satisfying of the flesh."

Now that blows a lot of people's minds. Who is the Godhead? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now that's the Godhead, but Christ is the epitome of it as He settled down in the Godhead bodily. With that resurrected body that He left with at the Mount of Olives, and ascended into glory. Another verse just comes to mind in Isaiah. We almost looked at it in one of the lessons we had earlier. That's the way we share and as these Scriptures come flying through then we feel we have to stop and look at them. Now here again, this is the Christ that died for us, this is the Christ that keeps us today, this is the Christ that is coming again, and we trust real soon. This fits so beautifully with these verses in Ephesians. This is the Christ in Whom we dwell and who by the power and foreknowledge of God now dwells within all who will receive His Gospel. Now verse 6, and remember this is the prophet writing to the Nation of Israel, so the pronoun "us" of course is to the nation.