What does it mean when God says you are accepted?

14

You Are Accepted

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, it seemed like I never fit in. My dad, for whatever reason, moved my family to different locations quite a bit. In most cases, I believe it was related to his job. So, I never had the chance to make friends and be in their life over an extended period of time. And being an only child, I didn’t have a brother or sister to confide in.

In my teen years, I longed for acceptance by my peers, whoever they might be. At this time in my life, my father opened a spa and grille business in what was considered to be the epicenter of crime in my hometown. I’d work for him after school and soon became friends with many of those in the neighborhood.

Most of them would meet up in a nearby park, usually in the evening hours, and would gather together for food, alcohol, drugs, and sex. At first, this was quite an alarming lifestyle, as I was attending a private Catholic high school whose values taught were contrary to what was taking place in this environment. Eventually, I began to partake in what everyone else was doing in the group.

My dad disapproved of my choice of friends and this caused friction at work and home. I longed to leave the household and live on my own to have the freedom to do what I wanted. While I did attend college after high school, I’d still party with my contemporaries on the weekends.

And then it all came crashing down. After receiving a college degree to teach high school mathematics, I was unsuccessful in getting a job. I broke up with a young lady I’d been dating over something foolish. Many of my associates had gotten married, which limited my interaction with them. And my relationship with my father remained strained.

I needed assistance. I felt isolated. I longed for a new start. I remember the times in my younger years when my parents would take me to church. I wondered if the God I heard about in the messages from the pulpit could change my life. So, I decided once a week, beginning with the church I attended as a little kid, to visit the many other faiths in my home city to find out if the God they believed in could help me personally.

And then it happened. On the Sunday of a holiday weekend, I’d just gotten out of working for my dad at his business. A parade in honor of the celebration was passing by. So, I decided to walk behind it until it dispersed at the city’s town hall. As I was about to turn around and walk back to my father’s store, where my car was parked, I heard a loud noise in the distance.

What appeared was a gathering of people standing before a platform where someone was talking on a microphone over a loudspeaker. As I got closer, a young man was talking about God. He said there’s one true God who wants to be your best friend. He wants to come into your life and give you a new nature. He wants to guide you. He wants to be involved in every aspect of your life. And then he proclaimed the gospel of repentance and faith for whosoever will.

While there’s more to this story, eventually, I responded to what was said, and immediately I was saturated with a wave of divine love, peace, and joy. What I realize now is that at this time and forever more, I became accepted by Him, just like you were accepted at salvation. Approved in what sense? Please go to the book of Ephesians, and we’ll find out.



Ephesians 1:6

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

You should praise God the Father because of the glory (the glorious manifestation102) of his grace (the revelation of his unmerited love103) wherein he had made you accepted (freely bestowed on [you the grace which saved you],104 when you responded to it; by which He honored you with blessings). These favors could refer to the many irrevocable absolutes received at salvation that we’ve been looking at in this study.

What we know about the word accepted is that it’s a verb in Koine Greek in the form of an aorist active indicative. The aorist tense in this context is considered as constative meaning that this acceptance views something in its entirety. With that said, this verse could be described by saying that God the Father acknowledges you in the beloved whereby you were bestowed in its completeness all spiritual blessings at the point in time in the past when you responded to the gospel.

And finally, this acceptance is in the beloved (in the sphere of the Lord Jesus, His [Person, and work] on the Cross105).

So, remember, at salvation, God the Father has accepted you, i.e., made you the subject of His grace and freely bestowed upon you irrevocable spiritual benefits. Thank you, God!

Are you ready to find out what another one of these special honors is that has been bestowed upon you? I am. Onward Christian soldier.



Endnotes

102UBS New Testament.

103UBS New Testament.

104Weust’s Word Studies.

105Weust’s Word Studies.