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This last letter which I am going to read to you, is addressed to two companies of believers; it contains the final revelation to Paul after Israel as a Nation had been set aside for the time being. (Acts
28:25-28)
You were born a Gentile or a Jew.
You have redemption through the blood of Christ.
You are not under Law, but under Grace.
The Jew has NO advantage here.
You are ONE NEW MAN created in Christ Jesus. (Eph.2:15)
You are no longer (as a Gentile) “afar off” - no more “strangers and foreigners” (Eph.2:19).
The “middle wall of partition” has been broken down (Eph.2:14).
You have access by one Spirit unto the Father (Eph.2: 18).
You are fellow citizens of the Holiest of all (Eph.2: 19).
Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. A building fitly framed together ... for an habitation of God.
You have been chosen in Christ, before the “overthrow” of the world (Eph. 1 :4).
Predestinated unto sonship (adoption) (Eph. 1:5).
You are Members of the Body of which Christ is the Head.
You have equal rights and privileges, the Jew is no longer “first”.
You have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of your inheritance (Eph.1:13, 14).
You have (unlike any other company) been made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, and will be manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).
If you would like to know more of your unique position and peculiar privileges, read the Epistles which are specially addressed to you --- Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and 2 Timothy.
In these Epistles we read of a Mystery – “HID IN GOD” (Eph 3:9), not hidden in the Scriptures. Colossians chapter one
states that it was “hid from ages and from generations”. It was a sacred secret revealed to Paul, and made known by him after Acts 28:28, concerning a far above all heavenly company. The ONE BODY
(Eph.4) of which Christ is the Head.
This Company is blessed with every spiritual blessing “in the Heavenlies” (Eph.1). The expression “in the Heavenlies”
occurs only five times in the New Testament and these occurrences are found in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
This is a sphere of blessing which is absolutely unique. It was to this place that Christ ascended “to the Right Hand of God”
far above all heavens (Eph. 4), and the members of His Body have not only been raised, but seated in Him there. It is not merely heavenly blessings, for this is the portion of all who are in Christ, but a PLACE
of blessing distinct from the New Earth or Heavenly City which comes down from God out of heaven (Rev. 21). What an unspeakable privilege! Our life now
hid with Christ in God, awaiting the day when this body of humiliation shall be fashioned like unto His glorious body, and at His glorious appearing be manifested with Him in glory.
In the Acts period we find a body which began at Pentecost consisting of Jews only. To this body the Gentiles were added
after Peter received the vision of the sheet (chapter 10), eight years after Pentecost, but in the revelation given to Paul
after Acts 28:28, we have a new creation, a body of the twain (Jew and Gentile), both having equal rights and privileges.
How unique the blessing! Chosen in Christ BEFORE (not “from” Matt. 25:34) the foundation (overthrow) of the world (Eph.
1). Seated together in Him. far above all principality and power and might, and dominion and every name that is named ---
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
“The church which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all”
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