Freedom and Confidence

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

FREEDOM AND CONFIDENCE

Eph 3:7-13

7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

NIV

Again, some personal remarks from Paul regarding his calling to be a preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles. It almost sounds as though he is defaming himself, saying he is less than the least of all God’s people, but at the same time, he is letting them know it was by the grace of God he was given this gift, this task to inform them of the unsearchable riches of Christ. It is interesting as to why the riches of Christ would be unsearchable. A few other translations use the word unfathomable, while one uses endless treasures available. The Greek would imply just that, untraceable, or cannot be traced out. The riches of Christ are beyond our ability to completely explain with words, they just cannot express the fullest of Christ’s riches. We do not have words that can do that. Paul says his task is to make plain the mystery in Christ that was kept a secret for ages. He says he will explain the administration of that mystery. It does appear there is no mystery after we read everything in the gospels and of the letters Paul, Peter, and James have written. It is by faith we are saved, God is a just God, he is God and there is no other. We may not be able to explain God in such a way that we can completely understand or comprehend who he is. But what we do know is that he sent his Son, Jesus who did appear in the flesh and lived among mankind. He came for one purpose and that was to satisfy the requirements of God’s need for justice. We may not fully even grasp all of that, but the fact is God does demand justice for disobedience, or sin. It was that justice which cast Adam out of God’s paradise he created just for Adam. We have all be cast out, being the descendants in the flesh of Adam. However, God does not want us to remain in the outer darkness. So he came to pay the price himself thus reconciling us to him by himself. So because of Jesus, we fear nothing from God, in fact, because we are in Christ, because of our faith in Jesus we can approach God without fear, and with freedom and confidence. To think we can have this intimate relationship with God, who is beyond our ability to completely understand. It almost defies reason. But then that is what faith is. We would not need faith if we could see all there is to see and know about God. We do not need faith regarding our nature, for we know ourselves completely, we know our every thought, our every desire, our temptations, our very character, or personality. We know our body, every flaw. We feel every pleasure and every pain. No faith is needed here, but when it comes to God, in all reality, even though he has given us his word and tells us quite a lot about himself, we know very little of the fullest of his being. But what we do know should be of great encouragement to us. We know he loves us enough for Jesus to die for us and to reestablish us, reinstate us back into his paradise, where we belong. He came into the outer darkness where we lived and showed us the way back through the gate into his paradise, in fact, Jesus opened that gate, allowing us to enter in, out of our darkness into his light. So we have through faith in Jesus freely walked into the presence of God with confidence.