3.With what does Paul bless the saints in Ephesus?

Grace and peace from the Father and from the Lord Jesus.

Grace is the goodness and favor of God given freely to us. Grace includes vastly more than forgiveness. Grace well may be the most misunderstood term in Christian thinking.

The grace of God has come to mean "God’s riches at Christ’s expense." The concept is that God has done everything for us and all we are required to do is believe and receive His salvation.

The concept is correct in some aspects but it is not being correctly applied. To truly believe and truly receive is infinitely more than a mental acceptance of biblical statements.

God indeed from the beginning of the world has perfected our redemption. But the working out of the Divine redemption requires the most rigorous application and cooperation on our part.

To be saved is to be removed totally from the influence of Satan, to be transformed into the image of God, and to be brought into union with God through Christ. The grace of God makes such change possible by giving us the Spirit of God, the new birth, the written Word of God, the gifts and ministries of the Spirit, the body and blood of the Lamb, and the numerous tribulations through which the Holy Spirit guides us. We enter the Kingdom of God through much tribulation.

The current understanding is that redemption takes place the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus. Redemption does take place the moment we place our faith in the Lord Jesus, in the vision of God but it has to be worked out by a life of patient, cross-carrying obedience. For the redemption to take place in actuality we must embrace the Divine vision of what God has spoken concerning us and then set out on our pilgrimage.

The grace of God is not just a legal declaration of Divine truth and forgiveness. Rather it is the Substance, Virtue, Truth, Strength, and Glory of God in action through Christ.

The grace of God comes to us each day in the form of Divine Virtue, strength, and guidance. Each day is filled with evil and with the challenge to overcome the evil through Jesus. If we appropriate the grace of God for the day, overcoming the evil of the day, we move forward in the program of redemption. If we do not attend vigilantly to the Holy Spirit, neglecting to seek the mind and grace of God for the day, we cannot overcome the evil of the day. In that case, we did not move forward in the program of redemption. We were not "saved" that day.

We are not stating that we are saved or lost each day. Rather we are referring to the fact that salvation is a continuing process—a process that can be stopped if we do not do our part. The reason Christian thinking is clouded concerning the program of redemption is that attaining eternal residence in Heaven is considered to be the goal of salvation. The prevailing belief is that to be saved is to go to Heaven when we die.

This is not scriptural. The goal of redemption is not eternal residence in Heaven. The goal of redemption is deliverance from Satan, transformation into the image of the Lord, and union with God through Christ. Therefore to not follow the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification is to not be saved—for to be saved is to be delivered from sin and brought into the Presence of God.

The current understanding of grace is that our belief constitutes the transformation. The reasoning is as follows: "Since the Bible says I am a new creature, therefore I am a new creature regardless of observable change in my behavior. The Apostle Paul declared, `I have been crucified with Christ, and I am not living anymore but Christ is living in me.’ Therefore such is true of me immediately, independently of any program of transformation or any faith and obedience to God on my part."

One can understand how the new believer could arrive at this understanding by selecting a verse here and there, but his relatives and friends, and the rest of the world, can see that his old nature is very much alive. The new Christian must be taught that his position in Christ is just as Paul states, but his actual experience of redemption may not as yet have attained the vision.

The concept of an abstract grace that operates independently of any change in our behavior is a mammoth error of Christian thinking. The result of the current teaching of "grace" is churches that believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures but do not read and practice what the Scriptures teach They do not practice what is commanded because (according to the current teaching) keeping the commandments of Christ would be "works," and we are not saved by works but by faith. It is a removal from reality.

The person who actually loves the Lord Jesus is the one who keeps His commandments. The "believers" who do not keep His commandments and who teach others to not keep His commandments are Christians in name only. They do not know or love the Lord.

Obviously, to ignore the commandments of the New Testament because they are perceived as works, but to hold to the New Testament statements concerning forgiveness and legal position in the Lord Jesus, is inconsistent. If one is true the other is true. If one is applicable the other is applicable.

God is not leaving it to the Christian churches to climb out of this doctrinal fog. The judgments that will fall on the Western nations, the traditionally Christian nations, will be so catastrophic that the churches as we know them will be blown about uncontrollably. Many true Christians will be martyred. Some will fall away from the faith. Others will become part of the great babylonish (manmade, man-centered, man-directed) denomination that is at hand. From this hodgepodge of religious confusion will be drawn a holy remnant, a Gideon’s army. The remnant will be a firstfruits of the Bride of the Lamb. The remnant will understand the difference between true faith and righteousness, and the current concepts of faith and righteousness.

The grace of God is not God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Nor is it true that grace is merely unmerited favor, in the sense that we remain corrupt in personality while God covers us with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Grace is best defined as the love and favor of God flowing toward us through Christ with the purpose of delivering us completely from Satan’s works and influence, conforming us to the image of Christ, and bringing us into perfect, complete union with the Father.

True Divine peace is the deeply felt assurance that we are abiding under the protection of God, that our prayers are being answered, that we are moving toward the fulfillment of the desires of our heart. The most comprehensive definition of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

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