I came across a phrase in Ephesians 1 that was kind of like a cup of hot chocolate milk. It was like wrapping my hands around that hot cup and carefully lifting it to my lips, and taking in that sweet-tasting creamy liquid, enjoying the warming comfort of it as it went down so smooth . . . aaahhh! . . . so good! That’s kind of how I feel as I mull over this short phrase in Ephesians 1.

” . . . by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6b)

Interesting that, as I look at other translations, it is only the NKJV that translates it in my “hot chocolate” sort of way. Other translations are a little different . . . one says, “with which He has blessed us in the Beloved” (ESV) . . . another, “which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (NASB) . . . or, “which He has freely given us in the One He loves” (NIV). Not too different but different enough. How come?

I don’t really know, but as I try and peer at the original language through my Bible program I notice that it’s all about grace . . . literally.

Paul, just before this, says we were saved “according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Redeemed by His sovereign choosing for the purpose of bringing front and center the glory of His grace. By which, the NKJV translators say, He made us accepted in the Beloved. And that phrase has a variation of the word “grace” repeated twice . . . so that I think it might go something like “the grace by which He grace-ingly graced us” in His Beloved Son, the Agape, the personification of self-sacrificing love.

So translate it “accepted” . . . translate it “blessed” . . . translate it “freely bestowed” . . . translate it however you want, but let the sweetness and the warmth and the comfort of the phrase fill you. Those who are in the Beloved (that would be me) are glory-displaying, praise-generating, objects of worthy-of-repetition grace.

It is amazing grace . . . grace that is greater than all my sin . . . grace that was poured out on the day I was saved and grace that is sufficient for everyday thereafter . . . grace that seats a place for me at the table of God Himself.

And this grace is found in the Beloved. The Son who delighted to do the Father’s will . . . to be obedient to the requirements of redemption . . . obedient to death, even death on the cross. The One who knew no sin, yet became sin for us. The One who is risen, alive today, and seated on high . . . continuing to “grace-ingly grace” us through His Spirit of promise by which He has sealed us (1:13).

Accepted in the Beloved . . . a phrase evoking a response that I find difficult to put into words . . . a phrase which, for me this morning, is better felt than tell’t. Just like a hot cup of chocolate milk . . . creating that warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside

O thank God for so much grace that translators can’t agree on how to translate it . . . except to know that it is all found in the Beloved . . . to Him be the glory . . . amen.