"In Christ Jesus" - 10.11.26

"In Christ Jesus" - 10.11.26 Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10 Sermon Series: The Gospel and the Church: Studies in Ephesians Sermon: "In Christ Jesus" (Ben Verhulst) Worship Folder: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gnaU... Reflections: We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us…. We also, in turn, are said to be “engrafted into him, and to “put on Christ”; for, as I have said, all that he possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with him. ~John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion Who then can fully appreciate what this royal marriage means? Who can understand the riches of the glory of this grace? Here this rich and divine bridegroom Christ marries this poor, wicked harlot, redeems her from all her evil, and adorns her with all his goodness. Her sins cannot now destroy her, since they are laid upon Christ and swallowed up by him. And she has that righteousness in Christ, her husband, of which she may boast as of her own and which she can confidently display alongside her sins in the face of death and hell and say, ‘If I have sinned, yet my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned, and all his is mine and all mine is his,’ as the bride in the Song of Solomon says, ‘My beloved is mine and I am his,'” ~Martin Luther, The Freedom of the Christian Oh happy kiss, and wonder of amazing self-humbling which is not mere meeting of lips, but the union of God with man. The touch of lips signifies the bringing together of souls. But this conjoining of natures unites the human and divine and makes peace between earth and heaven . . . For he himself is our peace, who made the two one.” ~Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon on Song of Songs