Waters of Life

Biblical Studies in Multiple Languages

Search in "English":

Home -- English -- Ephesians -- 022 (The renewal of godless ones)

This page in: -- Arabic -- ENGLISH -- German -- Indonesian -- Turkish

Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson

EPHESIANS - Be Filled With The Spirit
Meditations, Reflections, Prayer and Questions over the Epistel to the Ephesians
Part 2 - A doctrinal theology of the Apostle Paul so that Semitic and Greco-Roman church members might live together in peace (Ephesians 2:1 – 3:21)

The renewal of godless ones (Ephesians 2:4-7)


Ephesians 2:4-7
2:4 “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, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7).

The grace of salvation has both a positive and a negative outworking. In the act of redemption, we are freed from the burden of our sins and uncleanness. In this positive working we are renewed at the very core of our foundation.

Paul described spiritual death as the sinister and bitter distress of all mankind, brought about by man´s countless sins. Nevertheless, once the cause of spiritual death has been dealt with, and after all of our sins have been atoned for and removed, then even the distress clouding our very existence can be removed.

To that end the apostle confessed that God, in His compassionate mercy and enormous love, conferred upon us His own divine life. However, this does not come to us directly from God, but alone through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Only with Him and in Him do we have the chance to be liberated from our spiritual death and bondage – through the power of His great love!

The Lord Jesus said to His followers: “I am the bread of life!... Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (John 6:35, 53-57).

At the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples in Jerusalem, He took bread, broke it, and gave it to them, saying: “Take, eat; this is My body” (Matt. 26:26). Just as the body of the Passover lamb in Egypt was, after it had been slain and roasted, divided among all members of Jewish families, so Jesus desires all of His followers to receive power to live with God. This happens when they take His body into them and when they begin to live a new life in this power. Just as spiritual death was brought about in sinners through their actual sin, so should the life of God be implanted in them through the Lamb that was slain. Without the Lamb of God there is no eternal life. “His death was our life! His shackles purchased our freedom”.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).

Paul and John testify that the Father´s raising up of Jesus, following His substitutionary death of atonement for sinners, not only made Him alive, but, as a result of this sacrifice, the Father also bestowed eternal life upon all the followers of His Son. Therefore His resurrection is also our resurrection. Through His “again being made alive”, we have been placed into the life of God. Jesus testified to this incredible fact even before His death and resurrection: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). The risen Lord encourages us to believe on His glorious resurrection so that we might be involved in it. Whoever clings to Jesus by faith has already been raised up from death. He bears in him divine life as a fruit of His great grace.

Paul went even further in his venture of faith and testified that Jesus´ ascension to heaven is also our ascension. Since we have been incorporated into the spiritual body of Christ by faith, we, too, have ascended to His Father in heaven with Him.

The risen One later promised the spiritually repugnant church leader at Laodicea, through the Patriarch John, that in the event he should overcome his love of money, he would sit with Jesus upon His throne (Rev. 3:21). Paul indicated that true servants of Jesus, endowed with the glory of their Lord, would sit “with and in” Him upon thrones (Matt. 19:28). The Holy Spirit inspired the prisoner of the Lord, held captive on the dreary and barren island of Patmos, with promises that were neither intrinsic nor logical. Rather, they imparted and conveyed portions and shares of spiritual realities. The followers of Jesus live “in Christ”. They have risen “with and in Him”, and have already been seated “with and in Him” in heaven! Do you believe that? The Chinese reformer, “Watchman Nee”, is purported to have incorporated these three levels of our hope into a creedal confession.

Prayer: Father in heaven, You are truly our Father, also. Your Son Jesus placed us in Your family and assured us that we have, today already, been endowed with Your eternal life. We worship and praise You and thank the Lord Jesus Christ for His unspeakably great grace, which He promised and realized in us, together with all justified sinners. Amen.

Questions:

  1. How do we recognize that God loves all sinners?
  2. What does the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to heaven mean for His followers?

www.Waters-of-Life.net

Page last modified on February 03, 2018, at 04:38 PM | powered by PmWiki (pmwiki-2.3.3)