THREE REASONS FOR MY ACCESS TO GOD #1

All believers – Paul’s is saying we all have direct access to God through Jesus Christ. THREE REASONS FOR MY ACCESS TO GOD

“In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
Ephesians 3:12 (NIV)
“in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.” Ephesians 3:12 (NASB)
“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” Ephesians 3:12 (KJV)

Access to God is through Jesus
All the translations we are looking at begin with the phrase “in whom” or “in him”, obviously a direct reference to Jesus Christ at the end of verse 11; Personal access to God is made possible completely through Jesus Christ. Jesus emphasized that principle to His followers:

John 14:1-6…. “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 (NIV)

Jesus tells us all things go through Him to the Father. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Paul is trying to explain something important to us. The Gentile culture of Paul’s day had all kinds of gods and the people believed that the affliction and misfortune that came into their lives was a result of offending those gods. So whenever something bad would happen – someone got sick or died, the crop failed, a storm wiped out one’s property – it was assumed that someone had done something to offend one of the gods. So the people would engage in some kind of ritual in an attempt to appease the gods.

Those rituals often took the form of some kind of sacrifice, even the sacrifice of one’s own child in many cases. There were also different forms of prayer and acts of penance that might be entered into. But the problem is that the people could never even be sure of which god had been offended, because the Ephesians worshipped many gods; they couldn’t be sure that their acts of appeasement would be adequate. Within that culture, the whole concept of having access to or a relationship with the gods was completely foreign. So Paul is laying out this principle that says, yes they do have access to God through Christ.
So Paul makes it clear that we don’t have to try to appease God in order to be able to enter into His presence.

“Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 (NIV)

To have confidence we must have access to God…the word translated “access” in 3:12 in the NASB and KJV and “approach” in the NIV is a word that indicates a formal introduction into the presence of a king. In the ancient world one could not enter the presence of the king unless they had been summoned and were brought into the presence of the king by one of his court officials.

Perhaps you remember the story of Esther in the Old Testament. After she had learned of Haman’s plan to kill the Jews, she couldn’t just go into the king to tell him of the plot, even though she was the queen. She either had to wait until she was summoned by the king or hope that if she chose to enter without being summoned the king would hold out his golden scepter. If he didn’t, do that, she would be killed. Fortunately, because of God’s providence, the king did offer her his scepter when Esther took the risk of entering into his presence without being summoned.

For those of us who are God’s children, Jesus serves as our introducer who escorts us into the presence of the King. And He’s the only one who has the authority to do that. And just to make sure we don’t miss this principle, Paul ends verse 12 with one more reference to the fact that Jesus is the one who has gained access on our behalf.

We get the privilege of relationship with God because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. That’s what verse 12 is saying. “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” Ephesians 3:12 (NIV) Because we have access we can ask him for things that are life changing. We can believe in miracles, signs, and wonders. We do this through our faith in Christ! You are loved...