2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
God leads me to continue our discussion of the book of Ephesians, which in EPH 2 deals with the subjects of going from death to life (1-10) and being one in Christ (11-22). We need to bear in mind that the first three chapters of Ephesians reveal the blessings God gives us, blessings that help to equip us to do spiritual warfare and win. The second three chapters of Ephesians show us how to use these blessings.
EPH 2 opens with a statement of what our condition was before we came to faith and were able to receive God's blessings. EPH 2: 1-3, "In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God. Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and mind. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's wrath." You may remember that I have cited RO 1: 18-27 many times. This is the passage which reveals the mechanism by which Satan works his evil. As I write this series, we need to pay attention to the numerous names that are used to describe God's and our adversary. Here, we see "ruler of the spiritual powers in space." As you know, God led me to emphasize EPH 6: 12 when I was writing about His full armor. Part of that armor is the "combat intelligence" He gives us through Paul on the enemy. EPH 6:12, "For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age." This may sound like the stuff of a sci-fi adventure, but believe me, it isn't! The evil that we see being done is generated by Satan's influence and that of his evil angels on people without strong faith in God. All of this got started with the original sin of Adam, which we inherit, because we are all descended from Adam. When RO 6:6 speaks of "no longer being slaves to sin" when we put our old being to death by coming to faith in Christ, we have been truly freed. Remember Christ's words in JN 8: 32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." I like to think of this as having a connection between ourselves and Satan severed like unplugging something from an electrical outlet. It can be plugged in again if we are foolish enough to choose to sin, but there is now a choice as to whether we will sin. Beforehand, there was no choice.
EPH 2: 4-5 restates what Paul said in RO 3: 24-25. It is by God's grace that while we were spiritually dead in disobedience, He brought us to life with Christ. EPH 2: 6-7, "In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus." Remember RO 8: 17, "Since we are all His children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for His people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share in His glory." The bottom line is that the suffering we must do as a course of battling spiritual warfare and enduring in our faith will qualify us to be joint-heirs to the Kingdom with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That gives us both hope and great motivation to endure.
EPH 2: 8-10 is one of the most often read passages in the NT. This is where Paul tells us that our salvation is not through our own efforts, but is God's gift to us. That's surely a gift motivated by His profound love for us. EPH 2: 10 gives us insight into both God's will and His marvelous plan for us. "God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do. This reveals the truth about the fact that unlike the approach that traditional Judaism and a number of Christian and other denominations take, we cannot work our way into heaven. The good deeds that we do are a natural outgrowth of the fact that we are saved. God has imputed His righteousness to the believer when justification took place at the time he came to faith in Christ. Therefore, our salvation is from nothing more than our willingness to believe in Christ and repent. When God was preparing us to do these good deeds is when He gave us the talents we have to do them.
As I discovered, God had more for me to say about going from death to life than I originally thought. Therefore, I will take up the second part of EPH 2, which deals with being one in Christ in tomorrow's message. When we put what is in EPH 1 with what was discussed here today, it is not hard to see how abundantly God blesses us. And there is even more in the rest of the first three chapters of Ephesians. If we are feeling loved, it's no accident.
PRAYER: O Lord, while at the same time that You prompted Christ to command us to pray for those who persecute us [MT 5: 44-45], You also tell us through David in PS 31: 23-24, "Love the Lord, all His faithful people. The Lord protects the faithful, but punishes the proud as they deserve. Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the Lord." You are a God Who has no evil in Him; You are always good. That is why David was able to say in PS 34: 19-21, "The good man suffers many troubles, but the Lord saves him from them all; the Lord preserves him completely; not one of his bones is broken. Evil will kill the wicked; those who hate the righteous will be punished." PS 36: 7-9 expresses the content of our hearts as we pray to You this morning. "How precious, O God is Your constant love! We find protection under the shadow of Your wings. We feast on the abundant food you provide; You let us drink from the river of Your goodness. You are the Source of all life, and because of Your light, we see the light." It is because of the sacrifice of Your Son on the cross that we are brought from death to life. Our faith in Him is Your gift to us along with the gift of the Holy Spirit. We stand in humble gratitude at Your altar and offer You the confession of our sins, adoration, worship, dedication and diligence to living "in Christ," loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, and praise. Thank You, Dearest Abba, for releasing us from bondage to sin and for making eternal life possible for us. In Christ's name, amen.
Tomorrow, I'm led to go on with discussing being one in Christ from EPH 2: 11-22. In the meanwhile, we all go on facing the challenges to our faith with God's every blessing and His full armor to protect us. We have been given the Holy Spirit, Who allows us to understand the "combat intelligence" God gives us and Who encourages us to have the grit we need to stay the course in the spiritual warfare we must face. Throughout our whole lives as we hang in there for God, we are assured that He does the same for us and always will. So face whatever challenges we have knowing that we are surrounded by the aura of His love and faithfulness. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn