I am blessed to be a part of God's temple.
What's more, you are His holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say, "I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced."
7 Yes, you who trust Him recognize the honor God has given Him. But for those who reject Him, "The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone." 8 And, "He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they do not obey God's word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.
Ephesians 1:3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
When we think of being a Christ follower or of being religious we usually think of things that we have to do and how we are to behave and how much we will have to struggle with the flesh in order to live a godly life. Duties are what we think of, similar to the ones that we have seen in 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 in my previous post, but now Peter shifts gears and talks about some of the privileges that we have even while we are still here on earth.
The corner stone set the standard it had to be perfect in it's placement and it had to have perfect angles. It had to be the perfect angle from the left wall to the right wall but it also had to be perfectly straight from bottom to top so that the walls would be perfectly straight up and down.
Most people did not see any value in Jesus, the religious leaders didn't think that he measured up, they would never use him to build a temple, but God is building a temple and Jesus is the cornerstone that he started building with.
| “The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.”
-Francis Chan
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We are God's temple
Ephesians 2:20-22 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.God's people used to have to travel great distances to get to the temple but now the temple in Jerusalem isn't necessary anymore, God has built a new temple that is universally located, it is the body of believers all around the world.
When you became a Christian, the first great spiritual privilege is that you are now in union with Christ. What does that mean? He lives in you as an individual and he lives in his church. That means that you have an awesome resource to meet every need. He is with us always and he is available for every need, every trial, every possible circumstance of life.
Other world religions are busy trying to appease their gods but our God's judgement has been handled by the power of Jesus blood offering.
Ephesians 2:6-7 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.I am one with Christ and I should allow him to love others and work through me. Jesus life in me should control me and conform me to me more like him everyday. I need to join Paul and say "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." (Galatians 2:20)
