Ephesians 2:19-22 Become A Dwelling!

Ephesians 2:19-22  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

In last week's breakfast we saw Paul connecting the Gentiles who were far away from the knowledge of a righteous God to the Jews who were near to a holy God because of the law.  Through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, both Gentile and Jew are to be one in God’s dwelling place.  Jesus prayed for this unity.  He prayed that through the apostles’ message of the Good News that all people, everywhere, would become one with him as He is one with the Father.  My prayer is not for the disciples alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.  Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  (John 17:20-23)  Because of the work of the cross, the Jew and the Gentile became one with Christ.  They died with him and were raised with him to everlasting life.  This everlasting life came to them as unmerited favor, for they, both Jew and Gentile, were bound by the devil, caught in slavery to his will.  The Bible says clearly that no one is good, no one truly seeks God’s will, so grace had to rescue all of mankind from eternal death.  No person on earth was perfect as God is perfect.  Jesus said, “Be ye perfect.”  Since all were IN SIN, all needed a Savior.  The rightness with God had to come apart from the law, for the law only condemns since no one can please God through his or her words or actions.  Sin is a permanent despoiler without the Creator’s intervention.  We see humanity destroyed in Noah’s time because of the aggressiveness and violence of sin.  But God had an intervention plan.  He approached Abraham, chosen out of all people, and gave him a promise that he would be the father of many nations.  He told Abraham that his people would inherit a land for all of eternity.  These promises were believed by Abraham.  He believed in God’s goodness and kindness towards him.  He accepted this undeserved kindness and believed God would fulfill his words to him.  As the Bible says, Abraham’s position of being righteous before God was not because of his good works or his special attributes: it came because he believed in the goodness of God towards him.  He placed his faith in God’s words and not in his own reality, for he and Sarah could not have a child, for both of them were too old to birth a child.  As with the Jew and Gentile Christian, salvation comes from the goodness of God and not from works.  The Creator hung Jesus Christ from the cross, his goodness revealed to the world.  Anyone who believes in this act of grace towards mankind will be saved.  As with Abraham, salvation comes through faith in God’s words, his actions, and not in man’s words or actions.  As Paul writes to the Romans, And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works.  For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.  (Romans 11:6)  Paul says that God has made believers citizens of the heavenly realm because of God’s grace towards them.  Just as He chose Abraham to life eternal, they now have life eternal, no longer foreigners and strangers to the mercy and grace of God.  They are now full members in the Temple of God.  You too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

As Paul preached, the plan of redemption is for all people everywhere.  The law, works, special intentions will never succeed in bringing people to a righteous God.  The goodness of God does not come from the goodness of men.  Salvation is the work of God and not of men.  He alone is perfect, eternal, and faith alone in his eternal perfection is salvation for all men, Jew and Gentile.  For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.  Or is God the God of Jews only?  Is he not the God of Gentiles too?  Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.  Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith?  Not at all!  Rather, we uphold the law.  (Romans 3:28-31)  The Jew and the Gentile uphold the law when they trust in the only One who completely satisfies the law's requirement on a person’s life.  Righteousness comes from God, not from man and his efforts.  Perfection is God’s character, not man’s nature.  When Abraham received the promise that he would inherit the land of Canaan, he was in a deep sleep, a troubled sleep because God was talking to him about what would happen to his descendants.  He tells Abraham that his descendants from his loins will be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years, but then He will rescue them and give them Canaan to dwell within forever.  As Abraham is sleeping, God confirms by himself the covenant between him and Abraham.  Normally in a covenant between two people, both people have to affirm the covenant, but in this situation we see God’s affirming both sides of this covenant.  Abraham’s commitment to the covenant is not there.  Canaan is given to Abraham’s descendants based solely on God’s goodness.  We, who have an eternal Canaan waiting for us receive it freely, for it is God’s work, not ours.  When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.  On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”  (Genesis 15:18-21)  He drives away our enemies and gives us his eternal dwelling place.  This promise of an never-ending home with God comes solely through the cross.  Sacrifices had to be made for the covenant between God and Abraham.  Abraham was a sinful man, so the death of animals and birds was a requirement for a relationship with God.  A penalty had to be paid for sin before a permanent covenant could be made with God.  A heifer, a goat and a ram, along with a dove and a young pigeon were Abraham’s offering as a means to satisfy God’s requirement on his life.  But the fulfillment of the covenant was God’s work, not man’s work.  Jesus died on the cross because it was God’s desire to redeem mankind from sin.  When the Israelites were going into Canaan, God reminded them that Canaan was given to them as a gift, not because of their righteousness, for they were a rebellious, stubborn people, who did not deserve this good land of milk and honey.  But God gave it them because of his goodness and faithfulness to Abraham’s trust in him.  We who are outside of the perfection of God receive heaven not because of our goodness our righteousness, but wholly because of God’s love towards us.  Jesus died for us while we were yet enemies to him.  We enter heaven only because of the work of God, not ours.  Jesus said, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”  He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.  (John 12:32-33)  God’s gift to us of eternal life and of the heavenly Canaan comes to us through the cross of Jesus Christ, freely given to us by the Father God.

Jews and Gentiles are one because of the cross.  The enmity between them has been torn down.  Now Paul sees the unbelieving Jews as an enemy to the cross and its reconciliation message for all people.  But Paul knows that this enmity is in the plan of God.  When the Jews come back to God, they will come back to him not by their own efforts or their works to fulfill the law, but only through the undeserved grace of God.  The Gentiles were strong enemies to God’s light, his rule and authority.  But God came to save Jew and Gentile through the cross, giving them grace rather than their deserved judgment.  God now has the unbelieving Jews as his enemy, rejecting his gift of life through the cross.  Paul says something very hard for us to understand.  As far as the gospel is concerned, they (the Jews) are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.  Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.  For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.  (Romans 11:28-32)  The light of the world, through Jesus on the cross, came to the Gentile to retrieve him from darkness, but this same light has been exposed to the Jews: the cross and not the law.  Through the cross, they too, the Jews, can be made right with God through faith in the work of Jesus on the cross.  But because of their disobedience, they cannot see the light, but they will someday.  And when they do see the light, they will know it is the hand of God for their redemption.  In spite of the Jewish disobedience to God’s plan, they will receive undeserved grace.  Both the Jew and the Gentile will know emphatically that their salvation came out of God’s plan of grace and not out of their efforts to please God.  Abraham’s faith was based on the fact that he believed in God’s goodness towards him, not earned by him or deserved.  God chose Abraham to reveal himself.  Now through Jesus Christ, God has revealed himself to the world.  All that is needed is to accept this gracious gift of eternal life.  As Jews and Gentiles alike we are under the authority of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  He was lifted up so we might have eternal life.  However, we are to die to this finite world and its desires.  Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.  (John 12:23-26)  To know God in his fulness and his purpose for our lives, we must allow him to have full control over our lives.  If we are to be an image of God, we no longer carry on with the identity of Jew or Gentile.  We are now ONE WITH HIM.  We are to be in his harvest field, not in preserving our lives for our own pleasures and wants.  As Christians we are all joined together for his purposes in our lives.  As members of the Temple of God our lives should exemplfy God to humanity.  Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  (Romans 12:10-14)  Abraham believed in God’s goodness to him.  He believed God chose him for better purposes than just to live in a childless marriage.  We too should believe we are more than just isolated entities, living out our lives in a selfish manner.  We should want to glorify God by producing many seeds for the kingdom of heaven, people who are no longer foreigners and strangers to a mighty, loving, holy Creator.  Walk in confidence of your position in Christ as a dwelling in which Christ lives where you glorify God.  

  

Ephesians 2:11-18 Make Peace!

Ephesians 2:11-18  Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of  hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

As we read in last week’s focus, people, both Jews and Gentiles, are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  All people have access to the Father by one Spirit.  This act of oneness is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross: He died for all human beings.  People do not have to die because of their sins as was the case in Noah’s time because Jesus came to die for the sins of the world.  The penalty for sin has been paid by the Righteous One, the Son of God, on the cross.  God brought this gift to mankind through his covenant with Abraham.  God would bless all of mankind through Abraham’s Seed.  To confirm this promise forever, He told Abraham and his ancestors to be circumcised.  Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.  No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.  I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.  I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.  The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”  (Genesis 17:3-8)  This act of cutting away the flesh was to be performed on all Jewish males at the age of 8 days.  After circumcision, every male had a sign on his body that he was committed to the God of Creation and that he would serve God and him only.  Circumcision came after God stated his promise to Abraham.  This act of circumcision affirmed that the Jewish people were his own people, separating them from everyone else on the face of the earth.   However, Abraham’s covenant was said before the act of circumcision.  God had told Abraham that he has been MADE BY GOD to be the father of many nations.   Abraham would also be the father of those who were not circumcised or from Abraham’s loins.  All people would receive the blessings of the covenant with Abraham.  They also would be known as God’s chosen, his special people, inheritors of God himself and his eternal land.  Those who were far away from God, not with the markings of circumcision, would be brought close to God by the blood of Christ.  Jesus died for whosoever will, not just for the circumcision people of the Jewish lineage.  All people who trust in Jesus would be cloaked under the promise of Abraham.  God would be their God and their descendants’ God.  Salvation, the Good News of eternal life, would be for all who fall under the name of Jesus Christ.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16).  Circumcision is not the qualifying element in the redemption of mankind; the spirit of God in people is the key to life forever.  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”  (John 3:5-8)  Cutting away the flesh cannot transform a life to an everlasting life; only the Spirit of God can perform that transformation.

The Old Testament reveals clearly the weakness of trying to please God through the acts of the flesh.  The Jewish people who had every male circumcised lost contact with their God in many ways.  Their kings were often leaders of sin rather than righteousness.  After the division of Israel into two nations, all the kings of the kingdom of Israel consisting of ten tribes were evil.  And many of the kings in Judah, made up of two tribes, were evil.  In the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam, their first king, set up two gold calves to worship in his nation.  One was in the city of Bethel and the other in Dan, one golden calf in the upper part of his kingdom and one in the lower part of his kingdom.  These idols represented fertility and power.  This worship of this god was brought out of Egypt.  In the wilderness, this idea of the bull god was so strong in the Israelites, that Aaron was compelled to mold gold into a form of a calf to worship when the people thought Moses had abandoned them.  Jeroboam now brought this idol into prominence in Israel.  Jeroboam did this so the people would not go into Judah to worship the only true God in Jerusalem.  Israel had other idols too that that they worshiped, gods of the heavenly bodies and of fertility.  They even sacrificed their own children to these gods.  Finally their wickedness became so persuasive that God abandoned them completely.  The Assyrians invaded Israel, killing many, and taking the remaining Israelites into Assyria as slaves.  The people of Israel disappeared from history after this devastation.  But Judah still existed.  They also were evil, but sometimes good kings would arise and lead the people back to the God of Abraham.  But even though the men were circumcised, they also forgot the God of Abraham and did evil in the sight of the Lord.  Finally about 100 years after the Kingdom of Israel disappeared, Judah was defeated by the Babylonians.  Many were killed and others became slaves in Babylon.  Now both Israelite nations were defeated, and the land of Canaan was in the control of the Gentiles.  Circumcision and the law and regulations never changed permanently the hearts of the Jewish men and women.  As Jesus said, they needed to be born again.  Cutting away of the flesh and the laws never change their Adamic nature.  As Paul said, there is something inside me that wants to do evil, to separate me from the authority of God.  To illustrate the Adamic nature of the Jews, we see a remnant of Jews in Egypt who fled from the Babylonians.  Jeremiah had prophesied over and over that God was judging them for their idol worshipping and their wickedness, but they would not repent and now these Jews found themselves in the foreign land of Egypt.  But their attitude toward God and toward their idols had not changed at all.  Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord!  We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.  At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.  But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”  (Jeremiah 44:15-18).  Their allegiance to the God who brought them out of Egypt was nil.  They served their idols with relish, believing any success they experienced in life was because of their worshipping of these idols.  They forgot God; therefore, God abandoned them.  And it would take 2,000 years for the land of Canaan to be theirs again.

Circumcision and the laws could not change the hearts of the Jews.  But God had a plan from the beginning of time to bring all people to him as his own, circumcised in the heart. And that plan came through his Son, through whom He created all things.  Jesus would create a new heart in those who would put their trust in him.  The Spirit of God would come to those who were cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.  God sent his son to connect all humans together as his children.  The animosity between the Jews and the Gentiles would be broken down.  This animosity was so great that the Jews could not even associate with the Gentiles, and for sure, not enter their houses.  But we see Peter in the Bible given a vision to accept all foods that God blesses as worthy to be eaten.  After this vision, Peter is called to the Gentile home of Cornelius.  God tells Peter that he should go to this devout Gentile and present him the Good News.  Peter does exactly that.  He now understands because of his vision about food, that whatever God blesses, he should not reject.  While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.  He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile.  But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.  So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.  May I ask why you sent for me?”  (Acts 10:27-29)  Peter is at Cornelius' house because God is now going to open the Good News to all people everywhere.  All people, all lands, will receive the Good News that Jesus saves.  The promise to Abraham will be fulfilled.  You will be the father of many nations.  God will imprint on people’s hearts his circumcision, not of the flesh, for it could not affect man’s nature, but of the heart, a change inside out in a person’s life.  God’s promise of inheriting a new land would be theirs, for the kingdom of God would be the inheritance of this new people, chosen to be God’s people forever.  How is this accomplished?  In Acts we see Silas and Paul talking to their jailer about his salvation.  The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”  (Acts 16:29-31)  Paul is telling the jailer, you do not have to be afraid, God has eternal life for you.  Through the man Jesus you can experience peace with God.  He has brought all people in the world in right alignment with God; all people can know the Creator as their Father, Gentiles and Jews alike.    For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two.  Therefore, may we all walk in that glorious freedom today, praising our Lord for our salvation.   

        

 

Ephesians 2:1-10 By Grace

Ephesians 2:1-10 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Paul does not exclude any person on earth, Jew or Gentile, when he says, ALL OF US also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  All people were under the devil’s influence, following the way of disobedience to God’s authority, the Creator of all things.  Because of our waywardness to God, we were dead in trespasses and sin.  We were no longer in his likeness, his goodness.  But God’s love is enduring for those He has made.  He had a plan of redemption for all mankind from the hold of the devil and his destructive nature.  Even though we were dead to him and his nature, God brought us life through Jesus Christ the Lord.  Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  Before the Redeemer Jesus came to earth, man was considered in a failed state, caught in chaos and violence, no door was opened for mankind to eternal life.  As in the book of Judges, even with the law as a governing agent to the Israelites, the Jews resorted to their own way of seeing life.  Everyone did what was right in his or her own eyes.  Except for times when God manifested his power through a special man or woman, there was no God in the land.  The Jews, God’s chosen, even under the light of the law, reverted to the darkness of the flesh, just as in the days of Noah.  All mankind, Gentiles and Jews alike, resisted God’s rightness over their lives.  Paul relates that the Gentiles were far from God, living in darkness.  The Jews were considered closer to God because they had the light of the law.  However, the Jews resisted God’s demands on their lives, even though they knew God’s nature of righteousness through the law and its regulations.  God’s enduring love towards them had been present with them through their deliverance from Egypt and their traversing through the wilderness.  The Spirit of God was with them in the wilderness in the cloud by day and the fire at night.  In the wilderness, God directed Moses to construct a tabernacle where He would meet with the people, forgiving them of their sins, accepting their sacrifices and abeyances.  In the book of Ezekiel we see God lamenting the waywardness of the Jews after they were settled in the Land of Promise: Canaan.  The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.  On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.  No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you.  Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.  “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!"  (Ezekiel 16:1-6)  God made Jerusalem his place of dwelling.  He brought the Jews to Canaan to make it beautiful, a reflection of his glory on earth.  But instead of the Israelites making this land that was once a place of the barbarians, glorious, they corrupted it by their sins and the hardness of their hearts.  This is an allegory of God delivering the Jews out of Israel, an outcast people, who were dying in Egypt.  Their baby boys were left to die after birth.  But God picked the Israelites up, cut the umbilical cord, washed them, and bundled them in cloth.  He saved the Israelites: by God’s grace they were saved, but the Israelites in the land of Canaan forgot God’s goodness and wandered away from him, fulfilling their fleshly desires.  

God had foreseen this wickedness, this desertion from him and his ways, but He preserved a Seed in the loins of the Israelites.  Even though they were a rebellious people, God promised their father Abraham that He would bless them and all people everywhere through the Seed of the Israelites.  Even though the Jews were often openly rebellious to any controls over their lives by the Creator, the law was still in their midst.  Many times they would return to God and repent of their waywardness, proclaiming loudly with tears that they would succumb to God’s authority and do what is right in his eyes.  "We will do it!”  But their proclamations were short lived.  However, the law and it regulations were foundational in their society as a theocracy.  Paul reveals in his epistle to the Galatians the reason God placed the law into the Jewish society.  Before the coming of this faith, we were held in (protective) custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.  So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.  So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  (Galatians 3:24-29)  The law placed the Jews in protective custody, away from the total degradation of the world.  Even though the Jews failed miserably to be pure and holy by following God’s righteous commands, they knew the law separated them from other people; they knew they were a chosen people by God.  The light of the law revealed this to their hearts and minds.  The law was a guardian, a protection from the corruptive nature of the world, a way to keep the Seed safe in a world of flesh.  But now the law and its regulations were no longer needed to do that, for Christ has been born.  The Seed came to the world to redeem the world from the mayhem of sin and death.  As God clothed his chosen Israelites through the law, we, the redeemed of God, are now clothed in Christ.  Now, all are free who find themselves IN CHRIST, those who were once clothed by the law and those who never knew the law of God.  All people are free; redemption has come to the world through the blood of Jesus Christ.  As we read from Galatians we are all children of God through faith, and there are no separations according to race or gender, for Christ has made us all heirs according to the promise.  Abraham’s seeds were promised the land of Israel where God dwells.  Now we who are heirs of that promise have the eternal land where God dwells.  We are the chosen, the children of God.  Once we were dead in transgressions and sins, but by grace we have been saved.  God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in his eternal land of promise.

Since we are presently sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, we should spread the Good News that Jesus saves and that redemption has come to all people.  As our text for today states, It is by grace we are saved, through faith—and this is not from ourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  For the redeemed are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for his people to do.  As God’s handiwork, his masterpieces, we should display the works that we are through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  When redeemed, we become vessels of God--we are to reveal God through our lives.  Yes, by grace we were saved.  The dead cannot save themselves.  A super intervention is needed for the dead to become alive.  But now since we are alive, we have a responsibility to the Maker of All Things.  Our lives should be a pronouncement that God lives.  In writing to the Romans, Paul asks the Romans to accept the weaker brethren who struggle over things in life.  We should not condemn them or ridicule them, but be considerate of them and love them as they are.  By loving them, they might see a better way to serve the Lord.  As God’s workmanship, we need to take on the kindness, gentleness and goodness of the Lord.  God asks us to accept the plentifulness of his love and spread it to others.  We are to be fishers of men, for the grace of God has placed us in that position.  When we see Peter, James and John called to be fishermen, they came with humble hearts, knowing that they were dealing with someone, Jesus Christ, beyond their understanding.  Jesus asked Peter to go out into deeper water to fish.  Peter protests, but does it any how.  Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.  But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”  When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.  So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.  When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”  For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.  Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”  So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.  (Luke 5:5-11)  In this scene, Jesus gives Peter and the others an illustration of their lives. They will catch an abundance of men and women, so much that their lives will overflow with the catch.  We see this immediately in Peter’s first sermon at Pentecost.  Even his shadow gathers men and women in the boat of life, for his shadow heals the sick as he walks through Jerusalem.  We see Paul gathering in fish after fish in the communities of the Gentile world.  The Good News has come: faith alone IN CHRIST is making the world whole.  No longer are God's people governed by outside laws of right and wrong, good and bad; now they are governed by the Holy Spirit inside them.  They become literally Temples of God.  The Temple is a holy place. And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness!  The entire top of the mountain where the Temple is built is holy.  Yes, this is the basic law of the Temple.  (Ezekiel 43:12 NLT)  We are no longer beset with transgressions and sins before God’s eyes.  Jesus’ blood, his sacrifice, has cleansed us before God, now and forever.  We, by faith, accept this reality of purity.  Right and wrong, good or bad cannot put us in this position of absolute holiness.  Ezekiel goes on and describes the surrounding environment where the Temple exists:  The entire top of the mountain where the Temple is built is holy.  What this means we really do not know, but when Paul and Silas talked to the fearful jailer about his salvation, Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”  (Acts 16:31)  We see Paul including the surroundings of the Temple, his family, as being holy.  When Paul talks about marriage,  For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband.  Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.  (1 Corinthians 7:14)  We see the surroundings of the believing spouse affecting those around him or her.  Our lives are to influence many.  We through our testimonies should initiate holiness in others through their personal faith in Jesus Christ.  Definitely, we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Walk in the knowledge of Christ’s workmanship in you today.     

  

  

    

  

 

Ephesians 1:15-23 Riches of Glory!

Ephesians 1:15-23  For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Paul in this epistle to the church at Ephesus desires the Christians to understand their marvelous, eternal position IN CHRIST that God has planned for them from the beginning of time.  He is opening their eyes to the full knowledge that they who were once dead in transgressions and sins are now alive to God because of his merciful grace towards them.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  They, as with all people who put their trust in Jesus' work on the cross, are the new Levites whose inheritance is God himself, not land or possessions.  In the Old Testament, the Levites were given no land in Canaan, for their inheritance was the eternal God.  Paul knows that the Ephesian Christians are sitting in high places with Jesus himself.  Their inheritance is to be known as the children of God.  God sees them as his own, just as He sees Jesus as his own Son.  This glorious understanding of who they really are IN CHRIST is critical for them in this Greek community where most people worshipped the goddess Artemis.  At one point, the silversmiths of Ephesus stirred up trouble for the Christians because they were losing income.  Fewer people were buying images of Artemis because of the impact of Christianity on the Greek society.  Ephesus was a difficult place to live for Christians.  As newborn Gentile Christians they faced constant persecutions and hardships from the idol worshipping society where they lived. Therefore, Paul prayed that they would have a deeper understanding of their position in Christ.  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.   To know Jesus better, to know God’s eternal plan for humans’ redemption, they had to know their special place in the heart of the Creator from the very beginning.  “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?  You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.”  In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.  Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.  But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  (Hebrew 2:6-9)  Man was given the authority over all that was created.  He was made a little lower than the angels, but because of sin, man became susceptible to death.  The fear of death was always a part of mankind’s existence.  But Jesus came as the son of man, also made a little lower than the angels, but He came to conquer death, to give himself as a complete sacrifice for that which man had no control over: death.  He not only died, but He was also resurrected.  Consequently, all people who place their trust in Jesus, died with him and are now alive evermore, seated with him in heavenly places.

Jesus talks very plainly to the Jews about being the bread of life.   Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats this bread will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”  (John 6:47-51)  The Ephesians needed to know that Jesus was not only a good teacher, a miracle worker, and a lover of people: they needed to know that He is literally the bread of life and that He has an inheritance for them stored in heaven that is beyond their imagination.  Paul wanted them to know they are in the flesh and are experiencing the vicissitudes of life as all flesh experiences.  However, because of Christ’s work in them they are seated in heavenly places forever victorious.  Jesus emphasizes this point of never dying, But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.  Jesus discourages some of his followers by talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.  To them this talk was canabalistic, challenging their understanding of what Jesus meant by eating of him.  Of course, Jesus' sacrifice was complete.  He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  HIs flesh died and his blood was shed.  All who believe in Jesus must partake of that sacrifice by faith, eating of his flesh for their flesh and drinking of his blood for their blood.  The transference is a complete act.  Jesus’s life for our life; Jesus’ blood for our blood.  He dies in place of us dying.  Anyone who desires to experience eternal life has to put their whole life in Jesus’ life.  This step of faith in Jesus’ work is the salvation act, but Paul in this epistles is telling the believers that God has a marvelous plan that goes beyond just redemption, a plan of glorifying Christians as God's Son is glorified.  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.  (Romans 8:16-17)   The Ephesians needed to know they are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ to fully understand their inheritance and their position.

As we look at the Ephesian church and at their need to have the Holy Spirit reveal the deep things of God, such as the plan of redemption and the glorification of believers as sons and daughters of the most high, we must take notice of the depth of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians.  Do we know who we are IN CHRIST or do we live in a mundane and worldly manner?   Do we believe we are God’s chosen, designed for eternal life or are we living merely with the knowledge and wisdom of the flesh?   Do not deceive yourselves.  If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”  So then, no more boasting about human leaders!  All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.  (1 Corinthians 3:18-23)  Paul is telling the Corinthians that they are immature because they are quarreling over who they want to follow in their spiritual lives.  They are not emphasizing the glorious work of Jesus Christ in their talk; instead, they are talking about who they want to follow and who they want to trust in in this world.  By doing this they are functioning at odds with the Holy Spirit.  What they are breeding is the opposite of the gift of the Spirit: hatred, discord, fits of rage, dissensions, and factions.  The Corinthians were sleep walking through life by quarreling over such foolishness.  They were missing out on what Paul is talking about in his epistle to the Ephesians.  Paul is telling them to set their minds, thoughts, talk, and actions on Jesus Christ and God’s marvelous plan for human beings.  He is opening up the deep things of God.  They needed to know what God had in his plan for them, for they were suffering persecution in a godless community.  He encourages them to fix their minds on the great inheritance they have in God.  In the above verses, Paul is discouraged with the Corinthians because they have become worldly in their view of life.  They are not concentrating on the Bread of Life and his wonderful gifts to them.  Instead, they are quarreling about mundane, finite things of this world such as who they should follow.  When Jesus told the people about the price of following him, He was emphasizing their need to partake of him completely.  Many of his followers left him.  This was too spiritual for them, too hard for them to grasp.  Jesus asked his disciples about their commitment to him.  Would they go away too?  Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”  (John 6:68-69)  Are we seeking the Word of Life, the Holy One of God?   Are our thoughts, our talk, our songs centered on him?  Paul is telling the Ephesians their lives should be focused entirely on God and his Son, Jesus.  He prays that they will have a deep revelation of God and of his wonderful redemption plan for humans.  He desires for them to put aside the foolish wisdom of this world.  Let us all do likewise, as we focus on the words of eternal life, seeking to know the Holy One of God.  Amen!