Ephesians 1:1a

The Will of God is an amazing thing and marvellous in all its way....the plan of salvation for all His creation.

Through it, much has been done, in history and in the present day, and much will still until it finally can see its conclusion, when all things are finally finished.

Through it I say, for some would rather say 'by' it, as if it itself were doing the doings. The plan is BIG, bigger than most conceive in their learning of it. We know than we do benefit from it, praises on High to The Almighty God and to our Lord Jesus, who have revealed in this chapter the compass and grandiour and the length and the breadth of this purpose of God to unite everything under the leadership of Christ, and to destroy all enemies of God. Its not about cleansing us from our sins only and saving us to Life only, but to cleanse creation of all impurity and that all things, on Earth as in Heaven, bask under the Light of God through Christ.

All these things said, to say it all again, very much many things have been have been done 'through' that will that God has......but......some well renouned versions of the New Testament do not bring that across, even others pervert the slight ambiguity of Ephesians 1:1. let us see how:

ASV: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus THROUGH the will of God

KJV: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ BY the will of God

Did you see that?
Petty, you might just say, and I grant you, theres not many letters, but what a word that can make such a difference, a world of difference!
What does it mean?
Well, when a version is done, other do come along and start building on it to make it clear to the audience what they think is intended by the original writer. Take as an example the NLT

This letter is from Paul,CHOSEN BY THE WILL OF GOD to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
There, we can see that not only the transcriptor of the Word of God chose their bias by choosing 'by' rather that the Greek redition 'through', but further pushed that choice on our behalf by adding a word (chosen) to give us no other choice than to believe that Paul was personally chosen by the will of God to be an Apostle of the good news. And although chosen by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, it is not here a true honest translation of the original writer's words, let alone thought.
It was THROUGH the magestic will of God as described above that Paul was able to apostolate. A different thought altogether... to me at least.
Look..... Am I writing this post by the will of God, or am I doing it through His will, which is that all men come to know the truth and be saved?
I let you be the judge of that, and of the Bible you may be holding in your hands right now.

Be ye Blessed forever.

Matthew 1:21-23

"And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us."

Ok, now…… this is where I struggle a bit, and maybe someone could enlighten me on this matter.

Matthew quote from the book of Isaiah, chapter 7 and 8.
There, the king of Judah, Ahaz, finds himself against two forces about to unite to war against him. Samaria and Assyria are pressing in, and Ahaz is starting to worry. The prophet of the time then presents himself before the king from the presence of the Lord, and inform him that there’s nothing to worry about, since after all, the Almighty has decided it wasn’t quite yet time to have Jerusalem destroyed. In fact, says the mouthpiece of God, the king can ask for ANY sign whatsoever he will to have God’s word confirmed in his heart. Ahaz was such a man as not to ask much of YHWH, so it had to be chosen for him, and it was so…..

A maiden was to give birth, and before the lil one could say some comprehensible word, those two nations prepared for war would have suffered a great blow from Jah Himself.
To clarify that, He was going to call the child “God is with us” (Emmanuel), so that Ahaz at least could have nothing else to ask the Sovereign of the universe any more, for it will be clear, because after all, God just needed to speak the thing out instead of bringing a life into this world to help a man understand the certainty of what God said.

Please can anyone tell me what it’s got to do with Jesus, who wasn’t even called Emmanuel ever?

I’ve heard some, then I’ve heard others, but nothing quite gets me there.

Thank you.

Matthew 1:19

"Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily".

Righteous? Joseph? How could a man, pre-Christian as he was, be considered righteous? Even more so, when not obeying the law, which demanded the stoning of this extramaritally pregnant young woman, and escaping the priestly obvious verdict, how could a man be regarded righteous by such ignorance of the God-ordained written code? Can you disobey the law so blatantly and still be considered righteous, and even go further and announce this ‘righteousness’ in the holy writings?.

It has been said the same of the parents of John the baptizer, that they were righteous and blameless before God. Now, in the essential truth, it is fondationally impossible since no one could be found righteous during the Law era, that is, before Jesus Christ had completed his sacrifice to God, he having not even yet been born. So how could such people be called righteous still?

Last night my wife highlighted Matthew chapter 5:17-19, and asked if it would be correct, as in the last part of this passage, to actually teach the Law?

However, I noticed that straight away Jesus moves on to talk about righteousness, not that of the scribes, but that of God, and henceforth in that chapter better know as the beatitude chapter, our Saviour starts teaching the law, but not as a lawyer, rather as a righteous man. In this 5th chapter, after explaining that the adherance to and the teaching of the Law is related to salvation, Jesus starts teaching it, and expounds what it really means to apply the law, not according to the visible, but according to what God sees, thereby fulfilling it in spirit and in truth.

What about Joseph or Elizabeth or Zechariah? I would assume that they understood the Christian, or rather Godly, principles of worship, and through the grace of God, which had never ceased, it being before, during and after the Law, and thus,they could be called righteous before God, though not yet knowing Christ.

Some food for thought here, as we reflect on our own fulfilling the law through Jesus Christ, following the footsteps of those who were without Saviour, as well as He who was perfect in every way.