September 23
Isaiah 41:17-43:13 | PS 67:1-7 | Prov 23:29-35 | Eph 2:1-22
We must be careful whenever reading Scripture, in particular the letters, in order to understand who Paul’s audience was. In Ephesians 1:1, we get our answer, “...To the saints who are in Ephesus...”. Paul was addressing this letter to believers. In Ephesians 2:1-7, Paul addresses three points in the believer’s life: past, present and future. We read first of their past in 2:1-3, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, in the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others.” Note they were called dead prior to a relationship with Jesus. Death always represents separation and there are 3 types of death: physical death which is the separation of the soul from the body, spiritual death in which one is physically alive but being spiritually separated from the living God, and eternal death which is eternal separation from the living God (as Jesus often described as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth). These believers prior to being born again in Jesus were part of the spiritually dead. Like them, we didn’t become spiritually evil, we were born that way, evil, God’s enemies. Interestingly the word walked in this verse means meandering or walking without direction, being influenced by the outside. Like to realize this or not, this was all of us prior to Christ, aimlessly walking, being influenced by Satan, our flesh and the world. This goes to the point that there are only two paths and we must ask ourselves which one we are on (Matthew 7:13-14). If saved, we must also ask, do we more closely resemble those in Christ or the world in what occupies our thoughts, our actions, etc.
With our past behind, Paul now addresses their present in Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”. It is important to see in these verses one participant is passive and the other is active. God is active, our part in the salvation plan is passive. For the sake of space I won’t write it down here but go to Zechariah 3:1-5 for a beautiful picture of this. God saved us through mercy (God did not give us what we deserve) and grace (we received that which we don’t deserve). To “sit down” in Scripture signifies resting after a completed task. If we refer back to the priestly activity in the tabernacle and temple realize there was no chair for the priests, for their work was never over, for the blood of animals can never permanently cover one’s sins. We read in Hebrews 10:11-12, “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” What does this signify for us? It says in Ephesians 2:6 that we also sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This signifies that for those of us who have placed our faith in the finished work of Jesus, our work is also completed for salvation.
This threefold picture in the life of the believer is completed in Ephesians 2:7, “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The “ages to come” represents eternity. Though our salvation is complete our walk is often not restful. We have a guarantee in the person of the Holy Spirit, but often we refuse to yield to His perfection, making our own lives difficult by not being the vessels He has called us to be. With this in mind let us walk boldly to the calling that we have been given as we are encouraged by the words in Hebrews 4:14-16, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: