◄ What Does Ephesians 1:23 Mean? ►

Christ laid aside His heavenly glory to live in humble submission to the Father, doing only those things that He heard from Him so that we might be forgiven and become a new creation in Christ. And because of His obedience, God made Him universal ruler placing ALL things under His feet.

Christ's perfect sacrifice on the Cross forgave us of our sins (past, present, and future), saving us from the penalty of sin and returning us back into irreversible fellowship with the Father, by grace through faith.

Christ's glorious Resurrection made us a new creation in Christ and gave us His indwelling life (in the Person of the Holy Spirit). This new-life in Christ saves us from the power of sin. It clothes us in His righteousness so that by grace through faith, He may live His life through us until it is not I that live, but Christ living in me.

But God has given all who trust in Jesus as Saviour so much more than we could ask or imagine, for God has given Him supreme authority and made Him universal Head over all things. And we are one with Him: we are eternally united with Him, permanently positioned in Him, and forever accepted in the Beloved, for by grace through faith we have become His Body and He has become our Head.

In Christ is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and our Lord Jesus in Whom we trust, has become the fullness of Him Who flung stars into space and fills all in all. And we are one with Him. There is no more intimate union than the Head with its Body, and as such we have been chosen by God to complement Christ, by grace through faith in Him.

God does not need you nor me, and yet in His grace and love, He chose to pay the penalty for our sin, break the power of sin in our lives, and permanently unite us with His only Begotten Son. He chose to bestow on us joint heirship with our Saviour and seat us together with Him in heavenly places. And it is all by grace through faith in Him.

Loving Lord, I do not understand why You should stoop down from Your throne in heaven, set aside Your glory, and come to earth to live a life of rejection and pain, and die on the Cross to save me. I do not understand why You have placed Your life in me and bestowed on me every spiritual blessing. I only know that it is by Your grace that I am a member of Your Body, and Your fullness has filled me in every way. Praise Your holy name, forever and ever, AMEN.