January 11 Daily Devotional

Saved by His precious blood

In 2:13-16 [Paul] reminds these Ephesian Christians that they are people who have realized that all their own good works, all their good living, all their activities, their nationality, their religion, and everything they had before, are entirely useless, and that they are made Christian, and brought into this unity which is in the Church, entirely by the action of the Lord Jesus Christ, and particularly by the shedding of His blood upon the cross.... That is how these people have been brought into the unity.... These people are those who have been "bought' into God's kingdom and family at the cost of "the precious blood of Christ." No one can ever belong to this family, and participate in its unity, unless he believes that.

The apostle then goes on to say that it is only because of this that we can pray. "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (2:18).... Hebrews 10:19 teaches us the same thing.... It is only by relying upon the blood of Christ, by believing that His blood was shed for us and for our sins that God "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21) ... that we have access to the Father.

The Apostle ends [chapter 2] by saying that the people whom he is exhorting to continue in this unity are those who, as the result of all this, are now fellow-citizens, and members together of the household of God, and are established together and "built (together) upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets," which means the teaching and the doctrine of the apostles and prophets. And because they are on this foundation they have become "a habitation of God," who dwells in them.

The Basis of Christian Unity, pp. 22-3

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Comments on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, A First Book of Daily Readings

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