When our Savior, YAHSHUA redeemed us, He blessed us with all the spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. The moment we accepted His gift of salvation, we became His children and Elohim blessed us in Messiah with all the spiritual blessings (Eph. 1). It is to marvel at the fact that Elohim not only gave us the gift of salvation through His Son, but also made us heirs with Him. As such, we are partakers of all the privileges of children of God. Before the foundation of the world, He chose us to be holy, set apart, blameless in His sight before Him in love; We were adopted as His own children in accordance with the purpose of His will, so that we might be for the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace; we were saved through His blood and forgave us of our sins; we also have obtained an inheritance to the praise of His glory; we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1). We were made alive in our Savior and Lord, YAHSHUA eternally.
In His sufferings to atone for our sins, YAHSHUA was despised, He carried our diseases and sorrows, He was smitten of God and afflicted; He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him and by His scourging we are healed. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet, He did not open His mouth; by oppression and judgment He was taken away (Isa. 53). Suffering the agony of hell in our instead, He cried to His Father, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He suffered insults from those whom He was giving up His life to save them. He was poured out like water and all His bones were out of joint; His heart was like wax; it was melted within Him; His strength was dried up like a potsherd, and His tongue cleaved to His jaws; And (God) laid Him in the dust of death, they pierced His hands and His feet; He could count all His bones… (Ps. 22).
The entire world was under condemnation; sick, hopelessly chained up under the control of the evil one. The Bible says, “As it is written, none is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no not one. All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one…” (Rom. 3:10-16). We all have sinned and are fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). We were dead in our trespasses and sins; we were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation; but God – so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us…He made us alive with Christ; it is by grace that you are saved (Eph.2). In His love and compassion, He forgave us with His precious blood; He healed us with all the stripes He received in His body. Many were they; we cannot fathom the terrible acts from sinners against Him; He redeemed us for Himself and raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together in the heavenly sphere in Messiah YAHSHUA (Eph.2). He provides for all our spiritual and physical needs. In what manner should we show Him our gratitude? Must we live as if nothing happened? While He carries in His body the marks of His sufferings a testimony of His love? We, a speck of dust, made of clay, deserving eternal death, must realize that we were purchased with the precious blood of Messiah, like that of a sacrificial lamb without blemish or spot (I Peter 1:19). We were purchased; so, we belong to YAHSHUA, Who shed His precious blood as a ransom for us; it is by His grace through faith that we are saved; salvation is not of ourselves, but it is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Therefore, Paul says, we live, not us, but YAHSHUA lives in us. That gives Him the complete right to own our soul: will, emotion and the intellect, or the mind. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20). That means, we died to the desires of the flesh that is not pure or according to the will of God. It is a life of faith that compels us to please our Savior, in return for what He did for us. Now, the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death. But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. The mind of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed, it cannot (Rom. 8:6)
Light from the Word 