When we were saved by faith in Jesus Christ, we experienced a new birth with a new nature and a new status, a new position in Jesus. Even though we have done nothing to earn it, we are accepted in the Beloved. We are loved by our heavenly Father with the same love that the Father has for His dearly beloved Son. He pursues us with grace, compasses us with favor and honors us with the very blessings His Perfect Son deserves. And this never changes! It’s our identity.

Session 1: “I Am Accepted in the Beloved” transcript/ notes

Welcome to Session 1 of “As Jesus Is, So Am I.” This session is entitled, “I am Accepted in the Beloved.”  This series is going to be about our identity in Christ. It’s a very personal topic for me. The revelation of who I am in Jesus came to me in the most pivotal moment of my life.

Years ago, in a flash of light, I had a life-altering experience: I encountered Jesus, and He showed me what He sees when He looks at me: glorious, blameless holiness. My first reaction was, “This can’t be true! This is so unfair!” He showed me the cross and the blood He had shed. It was His mercy: He took what I deserved. And then He showed me His grace in that I am as He is!

I experienced indescribable love in that moment. I did not deserve this. How could He love me like this? How could Jesus see me as perfect when I had so often dishonored Him? It didn’t matter that I was a minister and that I was burned out working so hard, supposedly for the Lord. Isn’t that what Paul did before He met Jesus on the Road to Damascus? He was as committed as anyone. All week I have been thinking of Saul, as a young man, standing by while they stoned Stephen, and then the murderers laid their coats at Saul’s feet to honor him. Stephen with the very heart of Jesus prayed in his last breath, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” Then 3 years later Jesus appears to Saul on the road.

Acts 9:5-6 – Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” [In other words, “It’s useless for you to fight against My will.”] 6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

That was my response, too. I immediately said, “Lord, what do You want me to do for You? I would do anything for You! I want to live my life for You!” I needed rest, but that’s what that love will do. It’s unfair love!

If I had to use one word to describe that whole experience, it would be the Hebrew word hesed – God’s inexpressible lovingkindness.

I, who had a right to expect nothing from Him, was filled with everything that Jesus is, and I was given everything that Jesus deserves. With that experience came an overwhelming gratefulness that still causes me to cry to this day.

Amazing love! How can it be; That Thou, my God, should die for me?

Oh! That the world would experience this Amazing Love!! 

2 Corinthians 5:16

So I want to talk about our identity, and I want you to understand that I am talking about an inward spiritual identity, not an outward identity.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote about living the resurrection life in the spirit while we are still on earth in these earth suits and what it means to be a new creation in Christ. He started the chapter like this:

2 Corinthians 5:1-5, TLB – For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—[We are going to leave these bodies. What does that tell us? We are not these bodies! These bodies are not our identity!] we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 How weary we grow of our present bodies. That is why we look forward eagerly to the day when we shall have heavenly bodies that we shall put on like new clothes. [These new clothes will match the new creation that we are.] 3 For we shall not be merely spirits without bodies. [What is that saying? We are spirits right now! That’s who we are at our core. These earthen vessels don’t match our redeemed, everlasting spirit, created anew in Christ Jesus.] 4 These earthly bodies make us groan and sigh, but we wouldn’t like to think of dying and having no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will, as it were, be swallowed up by everlasting life. 5 This is what God has prepared for us, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. [We were born again by faith in Jesus Christ – we were born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13) “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6)]

We are spirit. So when I speak of identity in Christ, I am speaking about our spirit, not our flesh. Later in the chapter Paul wrote: 

2 Corinthians 5:16 – Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.

What is Paul saying here? We don’t regard ourselves or others by anything outward – by appearance or behavior or by nationality or skin color or beauty or educational level or status in society or by accomplishments or by the money we make or if I could add, given our current culture, we don’t identify people by sexual perversion or perverted gender ideology. We’ve got to see beyond the flesh if we really want to know people and if we really want to help people. 

If we regard someone according to the flesh, it’s the most unloving thing we can do. It’s not true acceptance. It’s enabling.

Why do we do it? I think it’s a lack of faith that the Holy Spirit can open eyes and hearts and ears and transform someone from the inside out. He did it for us. Why can’t He do it for others? True acceptance is to see as God sees. And you can only do that by the Spirit.

We don’t evaluate ourselves or others from a human point of view. We “regard no one according to the flesh.” “Regard” is the Greek word “eidō.” It actually means to see with the eyes, to perceive and understand; to experience, to know. So we don’t know – see and identity – people by the flesh.

The opposite of flesh is spirit. So Paul is telling us how to see – not with our natural eyes, but with our spiritual eyes.

We must see – we must identify – ourselves and others according to the spirit.

• Who does God see when He looks at you?
• Who does God see when He looks at your children, your friends, the strangers that you meet? 
• What is God’s heart for you and for them?
• What is God’s plan?
• What is God’s will?
• What does the Bible say?

Accepted in the Beloved

Now to the passage that contains the title of this message which comes from Ephesians 1:6. God has “made us accepted in the Beloved.” Beloved is capitalized because it is referring to Jesus. We are accepted in Jesus. 

Now that version is the NKJV. Before I get to that passage in NKJV I’m going to read the context in another version so we can marinate in this beautiful truth.

Ephesians 1:4-8, TLB – Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love. 5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to! 6 Now all praise to God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. 7 So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; 8 and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times.

Now to the NKJV of this passage:

Ephesians 1:4-6 – He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons [huiothesia – God predestined us to be His huios – His heirs] by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. [capitalized because it’s speaking of Jesus]

The phrase “We are accepted” is the Greek verb “charitoō.” It means “to pursue with grace, to compass with favor, to honor with blessings.”

“Charitoō” comes from the noun “charis.” It is the verb form of the noun grace. “Charitoō” is active grace that is brought to us “in the Beloved.” 

“Charitoō” is God’s divine initiative to honor us with the covenant blessing we have in Jesus as a co-heir. It is never earned. It flows entirely from the defining characteristic of God – His lovingkindness – His hesed. 

“Even though I have no right to expect anything from Him, He is pleased to give me everything.” (Michael Card)

• “Charitoō” is when God’s favor moves from promise to manifestation
• “Charitoō” is when the abundance of His grace moves from God’s perfect plan before the beginning of time into our experience. And this happens when we come into God’s family by faith in Jesus Christ.

When we were saved, we experienced a new birth with a new nature and a new status, a new position in Jesus.  Even though we have done nothing to earn it, He pursues us with grace, compasses us with favor and honors us with the very blessings His Perfect Son deserves. And a this never changes. It’s our identity.

The verb “charitoō”, “made us accepted” is in the aorist verb tense – a one time action, never to be repeated. It is a permanent status. We are as Jesus is! Once we are accepted, we are always and forever accepted – in the Beloved – in Jesus Christ.

Jesus becomes the plumb line of our lives.  Ask, “Does this apply to Jesus?” If the answer is yes, then it applies to you. “Does that apply to Jesus?” If the answer is no, then it doesn’t apply to you. Why? Because you are a child of God, accepted in the Beloved.

Now to the word, “Beloved” – again, capitalized because it speaking of Jesus. But it’s not a noun! It’s a verb! We are accepted in a verb! Did you know that Jesus is a verb?!

“Beloved” here is the Greek word agapaō, the verb form of agape – unconditional love. And it’s in the Perfect Passive Participle verb tense.

What does this mean? It means “having been loved.” This verb tense means an action having been done to the subject, rather than the subject doing the action.

Who is the subject? Jesus. So “Beloved” here means “Jesus having been loved.”

So this isn’t about the love of Jesus for us. This is about the love of the Father for the Son. And we are accepted in “Jesus having been loved by the Father.” We are pursued with grace, compassed with favor, honored with blessings through the very same love that the Father has for the Son.

John 17:23, NLT – [Jesus prayed to the Father – ] “I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” [Wow! As Jesus is, so am I!!! We are loved with the infinite love the Father has for the Son.]

Back to Ephesians 1:6 – 

Ephesians 1:6-7 – He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him [in Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

We have redemption through Jesus’s blood and forgiveness of all of our sins according to the riches of God’s grace, not according to our behavior or anything outward. We’re not trying to get it. We already have it according to the immeasurable, unlimited, unconditional riches of his grace.

“Accepted in the Beloved” is our identity forever because God’s grace is endless and His blood is eternal.

There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins

And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains

Ever since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply

Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be ’til I die

1 John 4

1 John 4:10 – In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins…[as a self-sacrifice to take away our sins.]

This tells us how God’s love was demonstrated for us. He didn’t just forgive us, He gave us a whole new identity by removing our sins once for all.

Hebrews 1:3 – when He had by Himself [without any help from us!] purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Colossians 1:22, NLT – Yet now He [God] has reconciled you to Himself [past tense] through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence [right now!], and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him [present tense] without a single fault.

You stand before Him without a single fault because of the blood of Jesus – the liquid love of God.

Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16-17 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [Remember Matthew 18:14 – “it is not the WILL of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” 1 John 5:14-15 – Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His WILL, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.] 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Did you know that God didn’t send Jesus to condemn you and point out your faults? Actually, it’s the total opposite! He came to show us the kind of love that never holds anything against us – unconditional love!

1 John 4:17 – As Jesus is so are we in this world

1 John 4:16-18 – And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. [believe – pisteuō – to be persuaded of, to place your full trust, hope, and confidence in] God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. [God’s identity is love. Our identity is His beloved. Next verse – ] 17 Love has been perfected among us [love has been accomplished/ carried through to completion; it is finished (teleioō)] in this: [this is how we know that we are loved perfectly – ] that we may have boldness in the day of judgment [boldness – parresia – free and fearless confidence, without concealment – you don’t have to hide anything! Nothing to hide, nothing to prove, nothing to gain, nothing to lose, no one to convince, no one to impress. Why?] because as He [Jesus] is so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. [That word torment literally means “punishment.” What is the ultimate punishment? Separation from God! Rejection form God. We do not have to fear separation or rejection from God. We don’t have to fear that when we know the perfect love that doesn’t count our sins against us.]

So “as Jesus is so are we in this world.” This is present tense. It’s not “as Jesus was.” Because of God’s amazing grace, we are like Jesus NOW. We are pure and holy. We are seated in heaven. We are glorified in our true identity and spiritual nature.

And it is from this perspective and paradigm and position that we’re called to live and relate to the world around us. I call it “living from the inside out.” We don’t live from the flesh which is our outer identity that others see. Why? Because that is not how GOD sees us.

It is what God sees that matters. He sees what no man can see. He sees perfectly what He has accomplished in us through His Son. He sees beyond the flesh. Beyond the emotions. Beyond the behavior To the spirit – our spirit inseparably joined to His. And it is through the Holy Spirit that we can now love with His love!

Verse 19 – 

1 John 4:19 – We love Him because He first loved us.

The word “Him” is added in the NKJV for some reason. It is not in the original and is not in any other version that I can find. It’s not in the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV, CSB, or even the AMP. In all the other versions it’s simply: “We love because He first loved us.”

And in the context of 1 John 4, we see throughout the chapter the exhortation to love others with the love of God that comes from within us – it’s a love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us when we are born again. (Romans 5:5)

The love of God overflowing from us to others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated towards us – in that while we were still sinners Jesus died for us. And the more we know and believe the love that God has for us, the more we will love others.

We will want all people to come to Jesus by faith and receive that same love. We will want all people to be accepted in the Beloved because actually, He has already accepted them.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 – God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, [that means God is NOT COUNTING your sins against you. Why? Because all our sins were counted against Jesus at the cross. God won’t find fault with us because He found fault with Jesus for all our sins.], and [God] has committed to us the word of reconciliation. [What is the word of reconciliation? It’s right there in the text: God is NOT COUNTING your sins against you!] 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: [this is our plea to the unbeliever:] we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

He doesn’t desire that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) All that He is asking is for them to receive His extravagant love and amazing grace. He won’t force it on anyone. And He is patiently waiting, because He loves the world, each and every one.

The Cycle of Love

How do we love people with the same love that He has for us? First we receive, receive, receive more of His love, and then we love others the same way that Jesus loves us. At the Last Supper –

John 13:1 – when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

He would love them to the end of their unfaithfulness, their wandering and even their betrayal of Him.

In the next 24 hours, they would all fail Him:

• Peter will swear and curse that he never knew Jesus. (Matthew 26:74) 
• They would all fall away. (Matthew 26:31)
• They would be scattered, each to his own and would leave Him alone. (John 16:32)

Knowing all of that, Jesus still loved them to the end. The Lord knows everything about us, and He still loves us anyway. He doesn’t just love us until our next sin. He loves us to the end.

1 John 4:7 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.

What kind of love? 11 verses later it’s called Perfect love. What is perfect love again? What is a sign that we’re receiving the perfect love of God? We are not afraid of punishment. We do not fear separation or rejection from God. We don’t fear the wrath of God.

Romans 8:39, The Message – Nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

If Jesus embraced us, we ought to embrace others with perfect love. Perfect love drives out fear, so we must drive out the fear in others that we would ever leave them. They need to know that there is nothing they could ever do that would make us not love them.

God says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) I want to tell you, that Even if we the murderer in the prison cell, He will never leave us! 

That’s the kind of love He has for us. So that’s the kind of love we have for others. They need to know and believe the love we have for them, and then they will know the love of Jesus for them.

The outcast woman at the well – full of shame and avoiding people by coming at the heat of the day to draw water – had a divine encounter with True Love – Jesus who loved her to the end of herself. And because of that love, she became an evangelist. 

She became an unashamed Parrhesiastes who ran to the town and invited everyone to come to Jesus –

John 4:29, 42, NLT – “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! [She had been married 5 times and was living with a man who wasn’t her husband. Jesus knew this and, full of perfect love, told her that He knew these things about her. He knew her inside and out! And He didn’t reject her. And the most amazing thing about this is that this is how she knew He must be the Messiah. In her heart of hearts, this is who she dreamed the Messiah would be. She said -] Could he possibly be the Messiah?” [So the people came to see Jesus for themselves.] …. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

The Messiah is full of love. He didn’t come to condemn, but to save. By definition the Messiah knows everything about us and loves us anyway!

The Messiah doesn’t deny sin. He didn’t deny this woman’s sin. He just wasn’t repelled by it. He came to her because of her sin! He wanted to set her free!

If Jesus were to deny sin, then He never would have come because if there is no sin, there is no need for a Savior!

And how did He save us? By becoming one of us! The Son of God came down from heaven to identify with us – to become the Son of Man – to take our identity of sin, to become sin, so that we might become as He is.

To another woman – the woman caught in adultery, He said, 

John 8:10-11 – “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? [After He Himself ran them off pointing to their own hypocrisy: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” They would have thrown a stone, but couldn’t. He, being perfect, could have thrown a stone, but wouldn’t. Instead He loved her with perfect love.] Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; [He forgave her when no one else would! But He never denied her sin and her need for a Savior. He said – ] go and sin no more.”

You see, true love and acceptance never enables sin or denies sin. True love and acceptance empowers us to go and sin no more!

From September 10, 2025 – Lasting love:

Through Jesus, God demonstrated His love towards us before we loved Him back.

Through Jesus, we have come to know and believe that love that God has for us.

Through Jesus, we demonstrate God’s love towards others, even while they are still wandering.

Through Jesus in us, they too will know the love that God has for them.

Through Jesus, they will love others because God first loved them.

Through Jesus.

Copyright info: All scriptures in the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

• (NKJV) New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
• (NLT) Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
• (TLB) The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
• The Message, Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson