Who are the Saints?

Ephesians 1:1-6

Today, my attempt to write on one of the deeper truths of the Bible, and one that many scholars and teachers have been tentative in addressing.  The first two verses are a greeting to the churches of Ephesus, and it is of interest that Paul calls them saints.  Saints were anyone who had entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ, both the apostles, Paul and John call believers in Christ, saints.  We have gone the way of the world when we begin to place one over the other in the church, are we not many parts but one body?  It is not the faithfulness of men, but the faithfulness of God that we look to!

If you and I, who are the Church, just believe verse three it would be a victorious Church!  Verse three states that “… God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” It is not something we are going to get in heaven, it is not something we have got to earn, it happens when we enter into Christ and He enters into us, at that moment in time, you and I received every spiritual blessing, and we had not done one act of righteousness.  The Holy Spirit knew that our flesh would want to earn blessings, so He put into the mind of the apostle Peter these thoughts; “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our security is not in our performance but in God’s faithfulness!  John 5:24, states this truth, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”  We have this promise in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  If Christians do not understand whose they are, how can we expect them to understand that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has given them every spiritual blessing?  Often we are like a child who has been given a new bike, the best money can buy, and each day we go back to our dad and ask if we can have a bike, a new one just like the one in our garage.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice