In Christ – The Basis For Our Acceptability

Passage: Ephesians 1:6

“…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”  

There is currently a controversy over the Master’s Golf Tournament that revolves around the exclusive and male requirements for membership in the club.  Many object to the exclusion of so many and to the exclusive nature of the membership of the country club at which the Masters is played.  There are many such exclusive clubs in the world where people go and do sports, or conduct business, etc.  Many of them are so exclusive that admittance is strictly controlled and one does not get in except that one be either a guest of or be vouched for by someone who is already a member. 

Though it would be wrong of us to suggest that the family of God is such a club, we need to see that such “vouching” is needful for us to gain entry to the presence of God.

This verse tell us that we are “accepted” by God.  We have looked at what that means and explored its significance earlier in these studies.  However, there is one more idea that we need to explore a bit, and that is we need to note that we are accepted, but not on our own merits, but we are accepted because of another.

Paul uses a simple prepositional phrase to suggest this to us.  We are accepted “in the beloved”.  “In the” suggests instrumentality.   The Beloved is the instrument or the basis upon which we are accepted.  We are accepted on His merits and not on our own merits.  It is His qualities that secure us access to the Father, and not our own.  He “vouches” for us (though that is not the most accurate description of His work). 

“Beloved” is a reference to Christ.  It is a form of the Greek word “agapaow”.  We need to talk a little grammar here to understand this word a bit more.  Sorry for the technical stuff, but it is helpful in this instance.  This is one of the basic words for love in the New Testament.  This particular word is used primarily of Christian love and means to show or prove one’s love; long for, desire, or to place first in one’s affections. 

It is a verb, a participle in the perfect passive dative masculine singular.  A participle is a verb that is used to modify or tells us something more about another verb.  Some have described it as a verb acting like a noun or an adjective!  That is the case here.  We are accepted in the One who is Beloved.  The verb “loved” is here acting as an object of the sentence, a spot normally occupied by a noun. 

We further noted that this in the Dative case.  That is a function of the preposition with which it is associated.  “In” requires that the word that is its object be in the dative case.  That is how we know that “beloved” is the object of the this prepositional phrase.  The Dative case is the instrumental case in Greek.  In tells us that the “beloved” is the instrument by which the Father has made us accepted.  God doesn’t accept us on our own merits, but rather, He uses the instrument of the Beloved to make us accepted.

We also said that this is in the “perfect passive”.  The perfect tense is a form of the past tense in Greek.  Is speaks of a state of being in which the subject of the sentence now exists that began as sometime in the past and persists until now.  The Passive idea tells us that the subject is not the doer of the action, but the receiver of the action.  The beloved is not loving Himself, but is loved by another, here referring to the Father.  This love has its root in the past but is a state of being now for the Beloved.  He is loved from the past, and is still in the state of being loved now.

Now, all of that out of the way, we need to draw some conclusions about what it all means!  Think on that through the day today and we’ll come back to it tomorrow!