Preface are our instructions for living as Grace-Age Believers. The indices, which Grant and Rideout inserted, appear as marginal and outline notes in The Numerical Bible, currently available from Loizeaux Brothers Publishers. Those notes can be enormously helpful in your personal Bible studies as they increase your ability to follow the flow of doctrinal information. You want it as it was received by first generation Christians from divinely inspired authors of the letters and accounts now compiled as The Bible. This study is by no means intended as an exercise in numerology. It is an examination of God's written message to man in light of what many men, F.W. Grant and Samuel Rideout included, found throughout the text of the Bible. They noted a consistent flow (1) in the presentation of principles and (2) in the revelation of God's work in man. Both are too systematic to be coincidental. Every student of scripture is encouraged to consider this observation carefully and in much greater detail than is presented here, by using the fuller treatment given in The Numerical Bible. You will find an extensive commentary contained in those eight volumes--a rich and rewarding resource and a very cogent exercise in discovering a dispensational interpretation of Scripture.
EPHESIANS
Introduction:
In Acts 19 Luke tells us that Paul came to Ephesus (Acts 19:1) "...through the upper coasts" and searched out "certain disciples." His concern for them was whether they had "...received the Holy Ghost"(Acts 19:3). Paul understood that this all-transforming experience was a defining mark of the newly reborn Christian. It was the common evidence of having been claimed by God as His own, visited first on Israelites at Pentecost Acts 2, then to Samaritans (Acts 2:8), and last to Gentiles (Acts 2:10). This mixed band of Ephesians had accepted the Gospel of repentance as taught by (Acts 10:4) John the Baptist. That separated them from Israel, but it did not define that unto which they were in fact separated. Learning that the Holy Spirit had not visited them, Paul baptized them (Acts 10:5) "...in the name of the Lord Jesus." This meant that they were no longer disciples of John looking forward to that One Coming who is "greater" than John, but men, now redeemed, and placed into Jesus as Lord. To signify that event, (Acts 10:6) Paul "Laid his hands upon them" and when this was done, they were infused by "the Holy Ghost and they began to speak other languages and prophesied."
This was a very dramatic beginning for the young church in Ephesus and it caused quite a lot of division between people as they wrestled with their individual responses to Paul's Gospel--some believed and some did not. This dispute over the souls of men (Acts 10) raged for over two years. During that time, Paul's reputation as an evangelist and the name of Jesus Christ touched virtually all who lived in or passed through Ephesus and the surrounding province of Asia Minor. As a result, many who had paid homage to the Gods and Goddesses of the temples by dedication of works of gold and silver, were converted into believers and abandoned those previous practices. This cut off a serious source of revenue for the (Acts 10:24-28) silversmiths and craftsmen associated with the temple of Diana.
One outspoken craftsman, Demetrius, gathered others around him and incited them to seize those who were obvious leaders of the Christians. They caught Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonian traveling companions of Paul, and (Acts 10:29) took them captive into the theater. It was only through intervention by the town clerk (Acts 10:35) that the mob was prevented from seriously harming those two Christians. The crowd was angry and offended that any inhabitant of Ephesus would not acknowledge and worship their goddess Diana. Ephesus was a beautiful city, trendy and growing in influence, but it was not benign in its attitude towards those who professed Christianity. For believers it was a very openly hostile place to worship and witness.united with God; they have a "position" in Him. Unbelievers are limited to their earthly existence with no claim on either eternity or a relationship to God.
Positional Truth, as a doctrinal principle, is the definition of all that the Christian has now obtained because of where he/she stands before God.
Paul's letter to the company of believers in Ephesus was written about 62 A.D. during his first Roman imprisonment. The letter centers on the doctrine of Positional Truth. In it, Paul answers several questions regarding our heavenly citizenship and the assets that are ours as joint-heirs with Jesus of all that the Father has laid in store for His Son. Those new believers in Ephesus needed to hear and understand this truth and they desperately needed assurance of their relationship to God in Christ because they were under constant duress.where he/she stands before God. Is the believer royalty or commoner, forgiven or condemned, rich or impoverished? Are we working to achieve something of value to give God, or are we depending on Him for everything, time, energy, assets, that we spend? Well, some of the answers to these questions may help in your own daily walk--
Every true believer is solidly planted on the ground of grace and is, as a result, at peace with God.
Every true believer is solidly planted on the ground of grace and is, as a result, at peace with God. Many things are packaged with that condition of "peace"--We are "accepted" by the Father--We are "heirs" of His Kingdom--"Trophies" of His Grace--"Objects" of His affection--"Sons of God"--Members of the "Body of Christ". These assets and everything that comes with them have become our inheritance because we are in Christ. We have been joined to Him forever and now own what He owns. Try as I might, I cannot even begin to appreciate the full implication of what that really means.
"There is no question about there being a beautiful new position for the believer, but people limit it to its being theirs when they die. Scripture shows that it is ours now! (But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ--) Ephesians 2:13 They say, 'you get heaven when you die'. No such thing. You are there now. It is not your death that entitles you to it, but the Lord Jesus' death. There is not a single shade that was between the Father, and us but the Lord Jesus has removed in His death. No person can be truly happy until he knows that he has a new place now, and this is where the Lord Jesus is."
"Set you affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God"-- Colossians 2:2-3 --J. B. Stoney************
"Here both Jew and Gentile lose their places, as such, and are brought into one body, and united by the Holy Ghost to each other and to Christ, the Head, a Man glorified.
Now this body is in the world, as is the Holy Ghost, whose presence constitutes it. It is not in heaven. The Head is in heaven, and the members have a heavenly position in union with Him; in fact, they are in the world. This body has been passing along through the world; its unity maintained as perfectly as the day in which the presence of the Holy Ghost first constituted it. Nothing has ever marred its unity.
--F. G. Patterson************
"If you look at Christ, dying on the cross for your sins, you will get relief for your conscience in the knowledge that those sins are put away forever. But if you look at the cross, and see Christ dying for you, and see that you died with Christ, you will learn that you have a new life, and a new place, a new standing before God altogether. As the Apostle says,
'I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me' Galatians 2:20
It is an immense thing to see this new standing. As a sinner I was in Adam, and a partaker of death and judgment, but, by grace, I am now in Christ, where Christ now is, before God." --W. T. P. Wolston