Plainer Words since 1968
February 3, 2013
PLAINER WORDS ONLINE … ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED
“To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6)
To be accepted has the thought of being taken or received with favor and esteem. The idea of being accepted is to be “pleasing to the receiver.”
The Bible sets forth some Divine standards for acceptance in God’s sight. He sets exceptionally high standards in all of His doings. Notice the unacceptable and the acceptable offerings He required in Leviticus 22:
“Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats. But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you. And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD” (Leviticus 22:19-22).
We see that the unacceptable “hath a blemish” and which is accepted as perfect, is “without blemish.” The Passover Lamb was to be “without blemish” (Ex. 12:5). The Passover Lamb typified “Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). As Peter said in his first epistle, “… ye were not redeemed with corruptible things … But with the precious BLOOD OF CHRIST, as a LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH AND WITHOUT SPOT.” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
The Church, which is His Body has been made accepted in the Beloved—the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ “hath made us accepted” in Christ. God sees us as being “holy and without blame” because we are accepted in Christ. We are pleasing to the One Who accepted us, because of the fact God sees His completed work—“ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10). The Lord Jesus Christ will ceremoniously present this glorious Body of believers to Himself:
“That He might present it [the Church] to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27).
I find three words in Ephesians 5:27 to be very expressive. They are “spot,” “wrinkle,” and “holy.”
Spot is “spilos.” “Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the New Testament” defines “spot,” (a noun) as a spill or stain, and is used metaphorically as a moral blemish in Ephesians 5:27.”
Wrinkle only occurs once in the entire Bible. Vine’s defines “wrinkle” as coming from an obsolete verb, “rhuo,” signifying to draw together, as a wrinkle on the face. Without wrinkle describes the flawlessness of the complete Church, as the result of the love of Christ—so complete in the drawing together, it is without seams.
Holy (hagios) = Sacred; Set apart for God, to be, as it were, exclusively His. “Hagios” was the word the Greeks used to signify—“dedicated to the gods.”
The Levitical Priests were to be without any blemish. A Priest would profane sacred rituals if he had any physical blemish. The sacrificial animals were to be blemishless.
Furthermore, the Priests were to be a perfect specimen of fallen men!
The disqualifications of becoming a Priest are enumerated in Exodus Chapter 21:
16 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath ANY BLEMISH, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a BLEMISH, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
19 Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,
20 Or crookbackt [hunch-backed], or a dwarf, or that hath a BLEMISH in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
21 No man that hath a BLEMISH of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a BLEMISH; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.
22 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy.
23 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a BLEMISH; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.
The Bible speaks of two types of—Blemishes; one is physical, and the other is moral. The blemishes listed in Leviticus 21:16-23 are physical in nature, and a Levite who even had just one of these was disqualified from holding the Office of a Priest. A moral blemish was, also, a disqualifier for a Levite from becoming a Priest. A Priest who failed to follow the Priestly Code and who did immoral acts was punished; sometimes, even unto death (Nu. 4:15).
THE CHURCH, WHICH IS HIS BODY WILL BE PRESENTED TO CHRIST---BLEMISHLESS
The Church over which Christ Jesus is the Head will be presented to Jesus Christ Himself, in resurrection or change, WITHOUT BLEMISH. We will have neither physical, nor moral blemishes. Otherwise, we would not be a Glorious Ekklesia without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. It will be morally blameless [holy] and “without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). We will be perfectly acceptable to God, as the Father.
We have been made accepted in the Beloved. The “Beloved” refers to Christ, the ONE God loves. Notice, again, the rendering of Ephesians 1:6:
“To the praise of the glory of His [God’s] grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved [the One He loves]”
An echoing Truth to Ephesians 1:6 is heralded by Paul in Colossians 1:12, where we are to give thanks unto the Father; “which hath made us meet [qualified] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” for we have been “translated into the Kingdom of His Dear Son” (Col. 1:13). We can live there, now, in Spirit as we RECKON this Truth as being so. In resurrection or change, we will be manifested, in person, as the Ministers of His Pre-Millennial Government, which is to say—the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son.
Our blemishlessness will not be the result of what we did, or can do. It arises from the blemishless Sacrifice on our behalf “in the body of His flesh, through His death” (Col. 1:22).
The Ekklesia, which is His Body is so perfectly complete in God’s sight, that if it were to be called for, we would be welcomed by Christ Himself in the Holy of Holies in the “True Tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Heb. 8:2).
When the Day of Christ dawns, we will exchange pleasantries with Heaven’s angelic dignitaries—Principalities, Powers, Mights, Dominions, and Thrones. We will be greeted with favor and esteem [i.e., accepted].
While we acknowledge Present Truth, we find very little acceptance among Christians in this world. In fact, we have been scorned and told that we have been categorically rejected. Most all of you have been ungraciously dismissed as if being “untouchable.”
I have often thought of the “leper” among the Israelites in Old Testament times. He was a marked man and dwelled outside the camp alone. Not only that, but with his upper lip covered as he went about, he cried loudly, warning the people he was a leper by shouting “Unclean, unclean.”
Those who embrace Present Truth may be looked upon as having the cursed plague of rightly dividing the Word of Truth. It may be contagious; would the leaders of the churches feel safer if we announced we were “Unclean” wherever we went?
“And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be” (Lev. 13:45-46).
Or, would they have us wear an arm band, as the German Jews had to do in the 1930s and 1940s. This would identify us as being UNCLEAN!
But, in view of WHO WE ARE in the eyes of the world, we are not a people to be highly regarded. One reason is because we are dead and our real life is hid with Christ in God.
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
Presently, we are “persona non grata”, that is to say, we, as diplomatic representatives, are unacceptable to the governments to which we are to be accredited. For you see, our Government is in exile, awaiting its inauguration—When the Lord Jesus Christ begins to judge the quick and the dead at the Appearing of His Government (2 Tim. 4:1).
~~THE END~~
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