Studies in Ephesians No.3

Studies in Ephesians No.3

Ephesians 2:1–10 (NASB 2020)

1-3
“And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest.” (NASB 2020)

Things did not begin well. Our connection to the Source of Life was severed. We were dead to God. He could not relate to us in a personal way because we had inherited from our original forefather that death of spirit that caused incompatibility with the Life of God. As a result, we lived lives that were deeply ungodly.

Truth be known, we hardly thought of God at all and if we did, it was not as Father or friend, but rather as judge conscripting us to damnation in hell. We wanted freedom from what we perceived He was, failing to realize that we were in actuality choosing the worst possible bondage instead.

Like most of the people around us, we were driven by the desires of our senses. We were enslaved to our own thinking and twisted in our reasoning, making us children of disobedience. We were consumed by the desire to make ourselves feel good, chasing after possessions, status, and unconditional love. Like lifeless toys, we were enslaved to the puppet-master who runs this temporal world.

We knew nothing of the nature and character of the God who is Love. We did not see that His mercy and grace was what made our continuing existence possible. We could not understand that the love we so desperately sought could be found only in the One who would lay down His life for us while we were His enemies.

Even so, in our hopeless and helpless state, He knew us. Two exceptional words describe at once our helplessness and Father’s boundless mercy, grace, and love, “BUT GOD.”

4-7
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (NASB 2020)

The One who is Love could not leave us longing for love. He knew that what drove us to look for love in all the wrong places was really a longing for Him. Our enslavement to the tyrant of the world made it impossible for us to reach God.

Therefore, in His mercy He took the initiative.

In His grace, he took compassion on us.
In His love, He took the action necessary to show us mercy.
That’s what love does.

While we were shaking our fists and shouting epithets at Him, He made a way for us to see His kindness. As His messenger Paul explained to the Roman saints, “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.” Romans 2:4 (NASB 2020)

Through Jesus Father made visible and available to us all that He is. By His Spirit, He breathed new life into us. This life can never be extinguished. It is eternal life. It is His life.

Separating us from spiritual death by removing that earthy spirit that could never be connected with Him, He placed us into the Source of life. By this new birth in Jesus by His Spirit, He created us again. He erased our history of sinfulness and gave us a completely new life. As Paul told the Corinthian saints, “if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB 2020) Our past is not simply past. It’s gone. Completely eradicated and no longer pertinent to the relationship between us and our Father.

None of this was our doing. Shackled as we were, all we could do was receive this gift. Too good to be true, it was offered to us nonetheless. More than we could ever ask or even imagine, it was provided without cost or obligation. A gift. An inheritance that can never be diminished.

8-9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (NASB 2020)

This ludicrous grace of God saved us. Nothing we could do could contribute in any way. Faith, believing God, taking Him at His word, trusting Him to be honorable and true, this was our response.

Of course, like many, we could have decided to reject His offer of reconciliation. We could have declined free salvation from the bondage into which we had placed ourselves. We could have decided to remain enslaved, to attempt by our own strength to break the shackles and chains.

Such a refusal to be reconciled would be, in a word, rebellion. But why would we make such an unprofitable choice? As the Romans were asked by Paul, “what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.” Romans 6:21 (NASB 2020)

It is hard for some to believe that the kindness of God is real. Hard to grasp the notion that not only is there nothing they must do to ensure His acceptance. As incredible as it can be, there is nothing anyone can do. To have a relationship with a perfect God, requires perfection. What is imperfect is incompatible with Him.

Since God is the only perfect source, acceptance and compatibility with Him can only come as a gift from Him. If it were any other way, we could brag about our righteousness, our character, and our strength. Such boasting is hubris in the extreme. Compared to Father, His perfection, His holiness, and His strength “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6 (NASB 2020)

10
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

As the Psalmist instructs us, “Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 100:3 (NASB 2020)

He is God and we are not. Bragging about anything we could ever do is pointless. It is dust in the wind.

Again, the Psalmist speaks with wisdom when he observes, “For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You When I was made in secret, And skillfully formed in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my formless substance; And in Your book were written All the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” Psalm 139:13–16 (NASB 2020)

We are the skillful craftsmanship of Father God Himself. That He knows us in our substance confirms our great value. That He forms us as He formed the first humans from the dust of the earth and not by mere speech speaks volumes about His care for us.

He knows how we are made.
He knows why we are made.
He knows our aptitudes and proclivities.
He knows what suits us.
He understands how we are and how we can be with Him.
He knows what is best for each of us individually.
He gets us as no one else can.
He has seen to it that we will desire attitudes and actions that are godly. (see Philippians 2:13)

His involvement with us does not stop at our physical creation. It did not stop at our spiritual re-creation. It continues as He leads us by His Spirit within us like a shepherd leads sheep.

Psalm 23:1–6 (KJV 1900)

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Father created us in Christ. Rebirthing us as new spirits designed to express godly attitudes and behave in godly ways. Father knew that godliness is life and health, so He gave us new hearts and placed His Spirit in us. The result is that we have died to sin and become alive to God through Jesus, in whom we live and move, and exist. We are reconciled to God and have nothing to fear from Him. There is no debt. There is no record of our wrongdoing. All of that is taken away completely, never to be remembered again.

As we grow in this grace we find Him teaching us to deny ungodliness and instead, to live upright and godly lives here and now. Indeed He tells us in so many words in Titus 2:11–12. Through Paul He says that, “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age.” (NASB 2020)

Being alive to God and being spiritually joined to Him, we find the He is at work in us. He leads us into truth. He reminds us of what we mean to Him. He causes us to grow in our knowledge of Him. Not knowing facts about Him, though that is certainly good, but knowing Him relationally. Knowing Him in an intimate personal way as we know our family members and good friends.

Knowing Him in this way increases our natural trust of Him. It opens our eyes to the magnificence of His thinking. As Paul told the Philippian believers, “it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 (NASB 2020)

This work, these good deeds Father prepared for us, bring life. They bring deep satisfaction to us, and they bring love and life to those around us. This is work which flows from our own deepest desires. It feels effortless because it fits us perfectly and is energized by the Spirit of Jesus within us. It is, as Jesus put it, an easy yoke and a light burden.

Paul celebrates the wonder of all these things in Romans 5:8–11. There he wrote, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” (NASB 2020)

You are not who you once were, saint. Who you were is gone forever. Who you are now, is a completely new person joined to the Lord and one with Him in spirit. There is no need to look back over your life with regret. No need to think of yourself as unworthy to call Jesus your friend and the Father Daddy. He has made you worthy. He has made you clean. He has made you a slave of righteousness, dead to sin, but alive to Him forever.