Paul’s Letter To the Ephesians 1:22-2:10 [NLTse]
1:22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, Who fills all things everywhere with Himself.
2:1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
8 God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
These past several weeks I’ve been preaching through the “Essentials of Our Faith” of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. If we are going to join that denomination we ought to be certain our beliefs match their beliefs.
You’ll find these “Essentials” on the tan insert in our Worship Bulletins. Will you take it out and set it before you? …
As I preached about several weeks ago, the opening paragraph stresses what the founders of the Protestant Reformation called “sola scriptura”, that the Holy Scriptures are our final authority for faith and practice – that is, for knowing what God would have us believe and knowing how God would have us live out those beliefs in our daily lives.
The heading numbered “1” affirms the mystery of the Trinity: That God has revealed Himself across history to humanity in three distinct Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – but that God remains one deity.
Heading number 2 affirms the full humanity and full deity of the Messiah, Christ Jesus of Nazareth, upholding His miraculous conception and virgin birth, His dying to pay the penalty for human sin, His resurrection and defeat of the powers of death, and His ascension to God’s throne and ongoing ministry on behalf of us, His followers.
#3 affirms the Person and work of the Holy Spirit guiding and empowering individual Christians and the Church of Jesus Christ as a whole to continue the work and ministry of Jesus here in the world.
And #4 is the “Essential” we’re focusing on today:
Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God’s free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, thereby justifies them in His sight. Only such as are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life…
(The Essentials of Our Faith, #4)
This “Essential” focuses on salvation: Who can be saved, and how. To use the words of the Protestant Reformers, we read that God’s salvation is “sola gratia”, by grace alone: Salvation is God’s free gift – crediting us with Jesus’ righteousness (as though we were without sin) all on account of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And yet this is only for those who are “born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ.”
Our reading from Ephesians speaks about being “born of the Holy Spirit”. Paul writes,
“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”
The apostle is saying that, before we became Christians – obeying God and following Christ – that we obeyed the Devil and lived in sin; that the Devil is the spirit that directed us when we refused to obey God, when we lived following our passions and desires. And that that remains true for all those who living apart from Christ.
But Paul goes on: “But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead… For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
So, although we were living lives of death apart from Christ, God raised us from that dead-life and gave us a new life when we began trusting Him in Christ. “Born of the Holy Spirit” we have a new life, a new heart.
This can be seen in the life of one of the so-called “Church-Fathers”, a famous sinner, pastor, and then bishop named Augustine immediately after he found the Lord. An English minister, F. B. Meyer, tells Augustine’s story this way: “Augustine was swept as by a mighty current between two women, his mother, Monica, a saintly woman, and another woman, Augustine’s mistress, who had fascinated him almost to damnation. His life hovered between these two just as your life hovers between Christ and Satan,” Meyer writes. “Sometimes Monica attracted him Heaven-ward, and then the evil influence of this other woman dragged him to the very pit of the Abyss. The conflict was long and terrible, and Augustine was like a chip upon the tide, swept backward and forward. But when the Lord shined into Augustine’s heart through the words in Romans 13:14 – ‘Put on the Lord Jesus Christ’ – everything changed.”
F. B. Meyer continues, “Instantly Augustine arose. He had made his decision. He had counted the cost. He told his friend [of his decision for Christ], and they went and told Monica. And Monica was glad. The next day he went down the main street of [his city]. As he did so, he met the woman who had been the fascination of his soul for evil. As he met her, she said: ‘Augustine, it is I!’ But Augustine replied, ‘Yes, but, it is not I,’ and he passed her and was saved.”
I experienced this myself in one of the pastors of a church I was a part of growing up. Pastor Doug always stressed the importance of small groups in helping us grow as Christians: Helping us learn about the Bible; offering support in living this new kind of life; and for praying and prayer. Everyone knew that keeping each other’s confidences was key to small group success. Except that a member of Pastor Doug’s small group got mad at him (for some reason I can’t recall), and he left the small group and the church and began to blab all of the pastor’s dirty laundry around to anyone who would listen – inside the church and out: All the ways Doug had been before coming to Christ, and the things he’d done, being passed around like trashy gossip.
Some of the leaders told him what was happening, hoping to come up with a plan for shutting the guy up. But Doug had them leave the guy alone: “That’s just the old me,” I remember him saying (or something like that). The person he’s talking about and slandering doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve been made new in Christ!
Like Augustine did, you may be here today struggling with a sinful life. You may even be, right now, in the middle of hearing two voices speaking within you. One saying, “Open to Christ! Open to Christ!” but the other saying, “No, not now, wait for another day.” Acts 26:14 records what the Lord spoke to Paul when Paul was feeling confused and conflicted about what to believe. “Saul, Saul,” the Lord Jesus said to him, “why are you persecuting Me? It is useless for you to fight against My will.” And addressing this very conflict, in 2 Corinthians 6:2 Paul himself declares, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
You don’t have to wait for another day. Don’t think that you have to clean up your life before you can come to Christ. Salvation is God’s gift – “sola gratia” – remember? Just as you are,
this moment,
in the midst of all the fears you’re facing inside you, and all the fighting going on outside,
Christ will come into you,
and not only forgive you,
but change you from within
and give you a new heart.
By opening up to Christ, your “old I” will become a “new I,” and you can say with Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”