For You Are All One In Christ Jesus

July 18, 2017

For You Are All One In Christ Jesus

Praise the Lord, all you nations.

    Praise him, all you people of the earth.

Psalm 117:1

Psalm 117 is very short; only two verses. Yet it is incredibly profound in its truth. First, a bit of context will help us appreciate the power of this psalm.

When sin entered God’s creation, God began a plan of redemption, a way of restoring His creation to Paradise. Abraham was called by God to be set apart, to be the first of God’s people in His plan of redemption. However, God’s plan of redemption was for all creation, not just the Israelites. Isaiah’s prophesy of God’s Messiah says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

Jesus, God’s Messiah, affirmed this prophesy when he said, “And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

The Apostle Paul affirmed this prophesy for the New Covenant church when he wrote, “For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us… He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, . . .” (Ephesians 2:14-16).

I believe the greatest mission of the church today is to fully embrace God’s vision of redemption and live by the truth of God: “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you” (Galatians 3:28-29).

When we live this way, we’ll join the psalmist in praising God,

“Praise the Lord, all you nations.

    Praise him, all you people of the earth.

For he loves us with unfailing love;

    the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever.

Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 117

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.