Ephesians 1:3-6 - We Are Accepted in the Beloved

Thethird great blessing we learn from verse 6, is that we are “accepted in theBeloved”. The first time the word “accepted” was used is in Genesis 4:7,where God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but He rejected Cain's sacrifice. Cain wasvery angry and God told him: Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not beaccepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire isfor you, but you should rule over it."  God was saying that if Cain would do the rightthing by bringing the right sacrifice that God could accept that he would beaccepted, otherwise sin would control him when he could have “ruled” orconquered it by the acceptable sacrifice.  Wehave been “chosen” and we have been “adopted”. And we also been “acceptedin the Beloved to the praise of the glory of His grace”. One of the worst emotionsto have in our life is the feeling that we are being rejected. We might feelrejected by our parents. Sometimes we get rejected or feel rejected by ourpeers, by our friends, and rejected by our co-workers. There's this terrible sensethat you have when you walk into the room, people don't want you in there.You're not wanted. You're not a part of the group.  I'veheard that young people will do anything to be accepted by their peers. They'llchange their looks. They'll change the color of their hair. They'll doeverything to look like those who accept them. My friend, oh my friend, you andI have the great spiritual blessing of being accepted by God. Before we becamea believer we were alienated from God. We were enemies from God. We were at warwith God. But Jesus Christ came, and He took the rejection of men. He wasdespised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows (Isaiah 53:3).  Jesustook our sin. He took our place. He is the sin offering that God accepted. Theonly offering for sin that God could accept. He was the perfect sacrifice, the Lambof God, the One without spot and without blemish. He was stainless. He wasperfect before God. He was the only sacrifice that would satisfy the wrath ofGod. God had to turn His back to His Son when He was on the cross and in asense reject His Son, as His Son, so that His Son could become our sin on thatcross and die in our place.  Nowbecause Jesus paid the full price. The offering for sin has been accepted. Whenyou read about the sacrifices and offering in the Old Testament you can’t helpbut notice how many times it says that God could not accept certain sacrificesor offering because they didn’t meet His standard. But thank God, now the onesacrifice of Jesus Christ has been accepted.  “Tothe praise of the glory of His grace…” It is all by the grace of God and not what wedo. It's not by our works of righteousness. There's nothing we could do. If wecould bring peace to the whole world and settle all the wars and conflicts andby doing so got the Nobel Peace Prize, that will not give you one merit to enterheaven one day. It is only by the grace of God through the blood of JesusChrist and the fact that God has accepted His sacrifice. Now,you and I are accepted in the beloved. And my friend, if you know you'reaccepted by God, what does it matter if men reject you, if friends or anyoneelse rejects you? You know that your greatest need is to be accepted by God,and you are accepted in His Beloved Son Jesus Christ. How should we respond tothis great fact and truth? We should live acceptable lives before Him as weread in Romans 12:1-2. We make acceptable offerings by giving ourselves whollyand completely to Him and please Him because we have been accepted.  Don'tever forget that you're accepted by God. You're accepted in His family. You'reone of His children. What a great, awesome, and wonderful spiritual blessing! Godbless!