“From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 3:15
Why do we hear and read the Bible? The Holy Scriptures reveal our utter sinfulness and point us to God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and His holy life in our place and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world. The Bible tells us how to be saved — through faith in Jesus Christ and His cross — and how God would have us live as His redeemed children.
Grant, O LORD, that I hear, read, and meditate in Your Word that I might trust in Jesus and His cross for my salvation and then walk in Your ways. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
“…in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:21-22
As believers in Jesus, trusting in His atoning sacrifice and being baptized in His name, we are a part of Christ’s Church and are built together with all other true believers to be a holy temple in which the LORD God dwells through His Spirit.
Grant, O Lord, that I remember, as one who trusts in Jesus Christ and His cross, that I am Your temple and that You dwell in me by Your Spirit. Keep me in the true faith for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone …” Ephesians 2:19-20
Those who have faith in Jesus Christ are no longer separated from God’s people but are fellow citizens with all the saints and are a part of Christ’s Church, the household of God. Their faith rests upon the foundation of God’s Word, the teaching of the apostles and prophets; and the teaching of salvation through faith alone in Jesus Christ and His cross is the central truth upon which their faith is built.
Thank You, O gracious God, for bringing me to know and trust in Christ Jesus, my Savior, that I might be a part of Your people and Church. Preserve me in this true and saving faith unto life everlasting. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
“And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” Ephesians 2:17-18
In the Gospel, Christ Jesus promises forgiveness, pardon, and peace to all who despair of their own righteousness under the Law and look in faith to Him — to His holy life and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world. This peace is preached to both Jews and Gentiles because it is through Spirit-wrought faith in Christ that both have access to God the Father.
Grant to me, O Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, the peace of sins forgiven through faith in Christ Jesus and His blood, shed on the cross for the sins of the world. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” Ephesians 2:14-16
Jesus Christ, by His holy life and innocent sufferings and death on the cross, has made full atonement for the sins of all, having fulfilled the demands of God’s Law and paid the just penalty for all our sins, that both Jew and Gentile might look to Christ in faith and be reconciled with God the Father. Through faith in Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile have peace with God and are one in Christ!
O Christ, You have, by Your atoning sacrifice, won for us forgiveness of sins and peace with God. Grant that we look to You in faith and so be reconciled to God through Your innocent sufferings and death in our stead. Amen.
