Blessing God
In our text from the first chapter of Ephesians the apostle opens with a greeting of peace from Messiah Yeshua because peace comes to us from Him, as the result of His atoning sacrifice.
'He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.'So we see how we get that peace from Him; from the Father Who sent Him, but from Him also because He's the One Who died for us. 'The chastisement of our peace was upon Him.'He has made peace through the blood of His cross. There are different roles of the Father, of the Son, and of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit. The Father is the Source; the Son is the Mediator; the Holy Spirit is the Sealer. He seals all the benefits of Messiah's finished work on Golgotha; He seals them; He's the Sealer of our redemption, and of all the benefits of our redemption. They are equal: Father, Son, Holy Spirit - They are all equal; co-eternal, infinite, unchangeable, partaking of the same essence of Deity. But for our redemption, the Father has taken the role of the Head; the Son has taken the role of Mediator; and the Holy Spirit has taken the role of the Advocate; the Comforter; the Sealer of all our benefits. So there we are; there's the salutation! And we see why grace (hesed) and peace (shalom), comes not only from the sender, but from the One who is sent. And where is the Holy Spirit in this? He is the One Who secretly, and quietly conveys these benefits to us. And because He is not mentioned, we have to ask ourselves, 'Why is that?' The answer is, YESHUA said He will not speak of Himself. He shall take the things of Mine, and show them to you. He is the most hidden of the Three, in the Triune GOD, He is the Person that is most hidden; that is the most self-effacing. And yet, He is there, otherwise we could never enjoy those blessings that are wished upon us here. Now we see (from verse 3), Saul begins to mention the reasons why we should praise GOD. He says, Let's look at that first of all. When he says, Can we look at some of the Psalms which show us this. Psalm 72, verses 18 and 19; here is David blessing GOD: Then that famous Psalm, Psalm 103, the first few verses that have been put to song: So David says in Psalm 145: |