In Christ – The Basis For Our Acceptability (Part 2)

Passage: Ephesians 1:6

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

We used to sing a chorus in our services called: “He Paid A Debt He Did Not Owe” in which the words, in part, said: he paid debt He did not owe, for I owed a debt I could not.  I’m glad that Jesus took all my sins away!  And now I sing a brand new song – Amazing Grace the whole day long!...”  Truly the grace of God is amazing in that He found a way to establish us and accept us in Christ.

We were discussing what it means to be “accepted in the Beloved” as Paul tells us in this verse.  More particularly, we were talking about the basis for our acceptance by God as resting in Christ.  The Reformers saw this as a key issue, if not the key issue in all of salvation.  From where do we get the “acceptability” we enjoy before God?  Where does it come from and upon what basis does it rest?  These are good questions, to be sure.

We must start with why acceptability is question to begin with.  Any believer can tell you that there is a sin issue between men and God.  Man, by his nature, is unacceptable to God.  The “unacceptable-ness” is complete and total, again as all genuine believers recognize.  We are ruined by sin, not merely damaged.  Our natures are wicked and we are sold in slavery to our flesh and to the enemy our souls, Satan the Devil.  Escape from this condition impossible when viewed solely from the point of view of the abilities of those in the sinful condition.  We cannot save ourselves, because we are unacceptable to God and cannot, therefore even get a hearing before Him on our own merits, let alone supply the worthiness, or merit needed to secure God’s forgiveness and favor.

Into this situation, the Love of God interjects the Lord Jesus Christ.  On the behalf of His own, god sent His Only Begotten Son to die and shed blood.  He did this both to remove the guilt of sin, and to bear the punishment for it that God’s just and righteous character demanded.  Further, He lived a life of perfect righteousness that is then imputed to the elect by the Father to supply the holy footing necessary to enter into His presence.  All of this accomplished by Christ on the behalf of all of those who would believe, the elect as they are called in this passage.

The scenario then, is thus:  We owed a debt we could not pay, so Christ paid a debt He did not owe!  It was thus His work that secured our position before God, and not our own merit.  God’s righteous and just requirement for payment of the debt of sin, coupled with our defilement and guilt rendered us unacceptable and placed an impenetrable barrier between us and the Heavenly Father.  It was as if there was a great gulf fixed that no man could cross.  It could only be crossed from one direction – God’s direction!  He had to come and get us.

This He did in Christ.  He wrapped Himself in a mantle of flesh and came, and walked as a man.  In so doing, He did what man could not, and would not do for himself.  He provided the means and the foundation for eternal salvation for all who will believe!  Luke said, in the book of Acts (4:12), that there is “..no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  This was not by accident, not was it by coincidence!  It was by design – for God’s greater glory!