God had never so spoken of man before. To succumb to that is inevitably to come to disaster. If you're interested in reading the results, visit here: https://pandemicworshipsurvey.blogspot.com/, We gather together in the name of Jesus Christ. Today there are all sorts of zig-zag and criss-crossing separating fences running through the races and people of the world. I should like some of you young men who do not pray at the prayer-meeting to make a start. When you are satiated to-day, you sit down and weep about to-morrow, what you shall have to eat. Ed. Or, what was the manner of life that we lived? If you don't, your wife does. But then he adds a third point, which was not given in the previous part of the chapter; namely, that they might know "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead.". thou art dead! Life sees no charm in death. and unless the Spirit quicken thee, thou shalt be cast into the valley of Gehenna, to be the food of that worm which never dieth, but eateth souls throughout eternity. One of the tragedies of the nineteenth century was the career of Oscar Wilde. Never were they to reign; never will they be one with Christ like the saints. If there be a spiritual death, and you are dead, be startled; for within a little while God will say, "Bury my dead out of my sight." We confess our praying to you, and ask for your Spirit to pray within us. All the enmity of natural men is against that truth. Oh, the many dead prayers that are heard at the bedside; so many good words rushed through at a canter! I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. BEST VALUE in digital Bible study. You have got to take the leap of faith into the second story and hope that you land on something.You have got to just hope that you can have some kind of satisfying experience of truth. That is the result of life. Christianity demands love even to our enemies, but Plutarch said that the sign of a good man was that he was useful to his friends and terrible to his enemies. Other nations might be governed by democracy or aristocracy; Israel was a theocracy. Paul had begun by saying that, as we are, we are dead in sins and trespasses; now he says that God in his love and mercy has made us alive in Jesus Christ. He sought to get Jesus to worship him during His wilderness temptations ( Matthew 4:9 ). It is not the impartation of Godhead: none can be so foolish as to think of such a thing. Contemporary Call to Worship I have heard that when a man is nearly drowned, while he lies under the power of death, he feels little or nothing, perhaps has even pleasurable dreams; but when, in the process of restoring him, they have rubbed him till the blood begins to flow, and the life begins to revive a little, he is conscious of pricking and great pain. What can be conceived more dreadful than such a condition, positively without spiritual life, dead in offences and sins! Hands had to be washed in a certain way; dishes had to be cleaned in a certain way; there was page after page about what could and could not be done on the Sabbath day; this and that and the next sacrifice had to be offered in connection with this and that and the next occasion in life, The only people who fully kept the Jewish law were the Pharisees and there were only six thousand of them. Its tougher than titanium and softer than a feather, more electric than lightning, more vast than the universe. But outside of Christ the message is true. Caused spiritual death. DEATH is often used by all writers, and in all nations, to express a state of extreme misery. Even after all our efforts we still so often feel that we have not done enough. This illustration of spiritual fellowship lost does not end sadly. As being the image and glory of God on earth, he is the one that gives names to his companion, or to the subject creation. We have not only left the dead, and become joined to Christ, but we are made to sit in heaven with Christ. Just as Christ is the sample and model whether of nature or relationship, so the Holy Ghost is not without His own proper place in bringing the saint into the reality, knowledge, and enjoyment of both. Whether it be so or not with every person restored from drowning, I do not know; but I think that it is so with every person restored from drowning in the river of sin. He knows instinctively that she was part of himself, and gives her a name suitably. One of the regular passengers commented on the change. Those who were once "dead in sins" are now alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10); and those who were once "aliens and strangers separated from God" are now members of God's family (Ephesians 2:11-22). Start for FREE. It becomes the pleasure, the delight, the thrill of our lives. Corruption has not yet done its work, and tender care has guarded the body as yet from what will surely come to it; yet is there death, sure, complete death, in the one case as well as in the other. ye are dead! Christ is not darkness but light, and puts all in the light; He makes us to be children of the light, that so we may be able to judge ourselves, not discerned by man as such, but capable of discerning whatever claims our attention. (There is no need to credit the re:Worship blog itself.). When the preacher said that Paul was not a Christian when he wrote those words, though I was only seven days old in divine things, I knew better than that, so I never went there any more. Web14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its Oh, to live in heaven, to dwell there, to let the heart be caught up from this poor life into the life that is above! Oh, hideous spectacle! Thou hast the dew of thy youth, O child of God; and thou shalt have yet more of it, and be like thy Lord, when he shall take thee away from every trace of death, and the corrupt atmosphere of this poor world, and thou shalt dwell with the living God in the land of the living, for ever and for ever! You have got a wrong and blasphemous concept of God. It shines in full contrast with Israel. It was as though a tarnishing breath had swept over the reminiscent mirror of his mind and left a little film behind it, so that no past thing he wished to see therein was reflected with quite the same pristine clearness. In Him we enter into favour, "in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences," not exactly according to the praise of his glory, "but according to the riches of His grace." Everybody is doing it." There never can be spiritual understanding, unless souls let in this after all plain principle, that the suited good depends on the relationship in which we are placed, whether to God, or to any other. These verses are really preliminary to Pauls main point. In this first part, Paul writes about humanitys reconciliation with God. What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. It is a divine spark, a light from the great central Sun of light, the great Father of Lights. Dear God we are sorry for not loving people like you do. There is nothing mysterious about this. He gives them new life, and he does this on the basis of Christs death and resurrection. Think of their giving themselves first to the Lord, then to us by the will of God. No; the first thing he did was, he put his hand, not on him, mark you, but on the bier ; "and they that bare it stood still." But the man who lives the Christless life takes his own way of things, even when he knows what God's way is. Impossible that the new nature could countenance sin; the very essence of it is rejection and exposure of what is contrary to God. then, I grieve to say it, ye are dead! He went up after all the working of evil had been really defeated and destroyed in the sight of God. Think of a great cathedral. He wrote in few words no doubt, but he has written with divine perfection, and clearly enough for those by God's grace made competent to understand, let the words be ever so few. Therefore it is the failure to reach the goal we ought to have reached. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit," when he has given us the new life. You see, after the total indulgence of the lust of his flesh, not withholding anything from himself, he came to the conclusion life is empty and frustrating; there is nothing worthwhile under the sun. Revealed to all the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, to one as much as another, it never seems to have taken such a hold of the others as of Paul. The sword must be the real intrinsic power of the word wielded in the Spirit, which does not spare anything. Connected with nature, He has sealed us, as it is said here and elsewhere; and connected with relationship, He is the earnest. So Paul says to the Gentiles: "You are no longer among God's people on sufferance. Thanks to those of you who took time to answer questions and offer comments about how your congregation navigated worship during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it is possible to make atonement for a broken law, but it is impossible to make atonement for a broken heart; and sin is not so much breaking God's law as it is breaking God's heart. But then the possession of a nature capable of communing with God did not and could not satisfy. New International Version (NIV), Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ, In contexts like this, the Greek word for. There are indeed some missionary churches who would have all their congregations worship with the one liturgy used in the churches at home. (118) Il expose et esclarcit ce quil avoit dit ci-dessus. He explains and illustrates what he had formerly said.. And what had God done now? It was not confined to those that had their hope founded on Christ while the nation refused Him. I thought, "Yes; I know all about that; that is my case." Righteousness supposes a claim in the first place, however met; even though it may be God's righteousness, still it is God acting in consistency with Himself and His own claims. Reader 1 You are no longer strangers. we are reluctant to speak the truth to each other for fear of offending. We are sealed with the mark of the Holy So he came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and peace to them who were near, because, through him, we both have the right of entry into the presence of the Father, for we come in the one Spirit. He will bring him in everywhere. Do not the tears rain on her, as if they would sow the seeds of life in that dead earth again? Therefore, put on the full armour of God. "The exceeding riches of his grace" are infinity itself; but they all come to us "through Christ Jesus." That is exactly the right that Jesus gives us in regard to God. That is a perfectly possible translation; but the word Christos ( G5547) is not primarily a proper name although it has become one. Our state and course are such as deserve wrath, and would end in eternal wrath, if divine grace did not interpose. A state of sin is a state of conformity to this world, Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 2:2. As though the keen, quick, razor edge of his power to reach and re-evoke the by-gone charm and glamour and essence of things had been blunted and coarsened. Paul thinks of this building going on and on, with each part of the building being fitted into Christ. If everybody is jumping in the fire, are you going to jump in the fire? He is startled a hundred times. When we get "together with Christ", then are we made alive, then are we saved. When a person really and truly falls in love, his love compels him to goodness. This is true of Jews and Gentiles alike. Accordingly he brings in the most important of them, first, the wife and the husband; then, children and their parents; and, finally, servants and masters. (a) God is perfection; and, therefore, only perfection is good enough for him. Oh, be aware of his devices; seek to "keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." The have but anticipated the statement of the fourth and fifth verses: "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.". ", In the Homeric Hymns the assembly of Olympus is charmed by the Muses who sing "of the deathless gifts of the gods and the sorrows of men, even all that they endure by the will of the immortals, living heedless and helpless, nor can they find a cure for death, nor a defence against old age.". I spent my life trying to satisfy my fleshly desires.We read concerning Solomon the king, as he was trying to find meaning in life how that he pursued so many different directions. It is neither right nor possible to leave the teaching of Paul here--and yet that is where it is so often left. God had something more to teach those who are the natural denizens of heaven. 22. It was a choice of God Himself before there was any creature responsible or dependent. I mention this, because it is a striking proof that an error imported into Scripture leads even right-minded men into sad evil. The sinner arrogantly lives in total disregard of the will of God, as though the Creator has no law or moral judgment for His creation. can she be dead? The hand of God was heavy on my life. I think that, usually, when the divine life comes, the first consciousness that we get of a quickening is a sense of pain. And as there is one Lord, so "one faith." The miserable condition of the Ephesians by nature is here in part described. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. When persons are only learning the elements of truth, the grace of God provides precept on precept, line on line, for those who want it. There is no consciousness of greatness in all the world like that. WebCall to Worship: Ephesians 2: 11-22 We gather together in the name of Jesus Christ members of Gods family, and brothers and sisters to one another. And the apostle concludes the whole of this part of the matter "to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." 12. It is the mystery of Christ; and this is what secures the blessing in its fulness and purity for the church of God. Call to Worship #2: L: We gather to share in our love of God. Satan is allowed to go on for a little while longer, because God is gathering out the joint-heirs, while the evil develops itself in a new form Man had been shown to be the enemy of all righteousness, and now betrays himself the enemy of all grace. His life will be ever afterwards a loosing and letting go; for he will need it till he cometh up to be with God for ever and ever. the Christian's dynamic is the desire to serve. Is He not satisfied with giving us a nature like His own? He broke down longstanding walls of prejudice and hostility between Jew and Gentile,male and female, slave and free. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, Nothing without Christ Jesus, you see. (Ephesians 1:1) It was pre-eminently for this that he had been chosen as an apostle; and he represents his apostleship not here as a question of calling, but "by the will of God:" everything in this epistle flows from the will of God; "to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.". Paul uses two illuminating pictures. New to this blog? So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners resident in a land that is not their own, but you are fellow citizens with God's consecrated people and members of the family of God. Observe, therefore, that what was the first in counsel is the last in revelation. P: I will fasten the belt of truth about my waist. All of us have sinned, all of us have missed the mark. Lazarus was of a rich family; very likely they wrapped him up with more care. When you see a person meandering you get the impression he is not really going anywhere and he doesn't have any purpose. The word Paul uses (apokatallassein, G604) is the word used of bringing together friends who have been estranged. We begin then to make a great many attempts at things which we never attempted before. It is not so in the word of God. Let us use a human analogy. 19. The heart itself then, is broken, and bleeds at ten thousand wounds. Not so. Our first birth, the natural life was of the flesh. I shall not do so; for although I have read portions which refer to that glorious subject, I have had pressed on my mind a subject which is not the resurrection of Christ, but which is in some measure connected with it the resurrection of lost and ruined men by the Spirit of God in this life. my sister, that thou who in thine outward carriage art so good, should yet have sins in the chamber of thine heart, and death in the secresy of thy being, which is as true a death as that of the grossest sinner, though not so thoroughly manifested. Reader 2 I cant remember a time when I felt alien here. The apostle treats it as our business diligently to observe it. But, at the same time, our living prayer bursts out hours before the appointed time, or sometimes it will not come at the time. We cannot earn God's love; but we can and must show how grateful we are for it, by seeking with our whole hearts to live the kind of life which will bring joy to God's heart. But I dare say I have some characters that are illustrations of that case too. This discussion has two parts: vv. God is not only love but light; and inasmuch as this epistle reveals how fully God associates us with Christ according to His own nature, so having first shown us the privilege of loving, as He Himself loved us in Christ, now it shows that we are made "light in the Lord." It is not carnal blessing such as was in measure given under the law to Israel, and will be under the new covenant by and by; it is spiritual blessing. (v) It is the life which follows what the King James Version calls the desires of our flesh. For the first time in his life Little Billee has taken part in a drunken debauch and has himself been drunk. For many of you it is your favorite subject. Here are some indexes that might be helpful: INDEXES: For a complete list of all the indexes on this blog, click here. in your case, if you are saved, you will have to join with even the worst in saying, "I have been quickened by divine grace, or else I had never lived." We need both motive and object, and hence could not be said to be love; because not we, but only God acts from Himself, as much as for Himself. 11. The central idea of sin is failure, failure to hit the target, failure to hold to the road, failure to make life what it was capable of becoming; and that definition includes every one of us. "Rabbi," she said, "bring me near." '', "no man is called a living man, but he who is in the way of truth in this world.----And a wicked man who does not go in the way of truth, is called, , "a dead man". Here the prayer is not, as in the first chapter, that they might know the power that had wrought toward them; it is now that their hearts might be in the secret of His grace according to the power that works in them. And so these gifts are given, as it is said, "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man., unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.". The sound of music, and the voice of friendship and of alarm, do not arouse it. It is impossible for flesh to be true to it. "And so God provided the way for the forgiveness of our sins, and having forgiven us our sins we became alive in the spirit, or were born again. When we were still dead in our trespasses and sins God loved us.God has loved you from eternity, there has never been a time when God didn't love you. We have seen that the basic meaning of hagios ( G40) is different. A new life, I no longer relate back to Adam, my father after the flesh. It is not again a simple question of a new nature, but of a new man: the first Adam, with all remedial or corrective dealings in him disappear, and one new man comes before our view. young man, I weep, I weep over thee; thou art not yet so far gone, that they have rolled the stone against thee; thou art not yet become obnoxious; thou art not yet the staggering drunkard, nor yet the blasphemous infidel; thou hast much that is ill about thee, but thou hast not gone all the lengths yet. There will never be a time when God doesn't love you. It was developed in a positive and comprehensive way, as in Romans. Praise the Lord! What is the value of any other unity? For we are his work, created in Christ Jesus for good works, works which God prepared beforehand that we might walk in them. The corpse looks like life still; yet is your beloved one in the coffin as dead as the mangled bodies on the battle-field. What was our lifestyle? "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." Lord God, we confess that we have each of us grieved the Holy Spirit. Such is the very power that has taken you and me up in divine grace, and wrought toward us. Scripturally-based resources for worship planners and leaders. They are in Christ; Christ died, and therefore they died. Friends, our God has poured out grace upon grace. In every Greek city there were xenoi ( G3581) and their life was not easy. This application consists of two parts. Do you not hear the noise of the infernal bellows when "the children of disobedience: swear, and use unclean language? Ephesians 2:5- :. Ah! It will be as much as he can do to pull off his grave-clothes, to get rid of his old habits; perhaps to his death he will have to be rending off bit after bit of the cerements in which he has been wrapped. And you hath he quickened - The words hath he quickened, or made to live, are supplied, but not improperly, by our translators. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. Everywhere Christ Jesus Himself is intermixed with every portion. Jesus has something to do about each of them. There was counsel, but besides there was intrinsic glory altogether independent of any plans of conferred honour. This is the beginning of another extended sentence in the Greek (2:1-10). Ah, such were some of us; but we are cleansed! On the other hand, for the Gentile history was going nowhere. Il expose et esclarcit ce quil avoit dit ci-dessus. 41. The earth is their sphere; it is there that Israel looks to be blessed, and the Gentiles somewhat farther off, but all in the ordered blessing of the Most High God. One might distrust a mystery, if it centred in the church. It creeps along, pleased to make any kind of progress; and when it gets up on its little feet, it moves from one chair to another, trembling at every step it takes, and presently, down it goes. The first place where Christ is seen is in the grave whence God according to the mightiest action of His almighty power raised Him up. They were chosen in time. The law or "mark" in this context is the righteous will of God. In these days of dividing walls of race and class and creed we must shake the earth anew with the message of the all-inclusive Christ, in whom there is neither bond nor free, Jew nor Greek, Scythian nor barbarian, but all are one.". Besides, as we have seen, the church is the dwelling-place of God through the Holy Ghost's presence here below. I know it on the best authority, and the truest, too. ], THE CHRISTLESS LIFE AND THE GRACE OF GOD ( Ephesians 2:1-10 ). The Call to Worship: As followers of Jesus Christ, living in this world - which some seek to control, but which others view with despair - we declare with joy and trust: Our world belongs to God! I must come to my third point; for our time flies. But there is love after a divine sort in the new nature, which is said to be light, because this is the necessity of the new nature. That is what God says about us, you may come closer than others, but we have all come short of the glory of God. New to this blog? Scripturally-based resources for worship planners and leaders. In what sense were the people of Israel different from other peoples? ~ survey response The first thing is to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." Knowledge of standing and a, state answering to Christ's love, are the basis of a walk worthy of our calling. That reality will lead to despair, therefore you cannot face reality. So should our walk be. As we look at the course of this world, as we look at the way things are going, as we look at the latest rock stars, the latest idols, they have become quite obvious of the bondage and the chains, and of the cruelty, and of the evil by which they are inspired.In Copenhagen we saw these posters all over town. To forgive another's wrongs is not enough for a Christian. That is the way we are to God. Before they close in fight, Diomede wishes to know the lineage of Glaucus, and Glaucus replies: "Why enquirest thou of my generation? The Marks Of The Christless Life ( Ephesians 2:1-3 Continued). (ii) It is life lived under the dictates of the prince of the air. Everything else in Ephesians 2:1-7 is of subordinate importance. Of all the creatures that live and breathe, man is the only one on earth that became a living soul by the breath of the Lord God, who, as it is written, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. There was in fact at the Persian royal court an official called the prosagogeus whose function was to introduce people who desired an audience with the king. ", Do you think this devotedness too much? Thus we have a new nature which hates sin, and the Holy Ghost which gives power for that which is good. Note the difference: the young maiden's new life was given to her secretly. Suppose a motorist by careless driving kills a child. There is a change somewhere;" and that change is from death to life, from darkness into God's marvellous light. Such is the measure, if measure it can be called, of the grace wherein we stand. At the same time there is no exclusion of Gentile believers, but the reverse. But when presented to him, he knows all that it was meet for him to know then. Even now, though plainly made known in this epistle and elsewhere, how few Christians there are who rest in it as their assured portion! HOMER: Jethro, if you had two big luxurious houses like those ones in the Beverly Hills and I was livin yonder under the bridge without no home, would you give me one of your big luxurious houses? In any Christless society there can be nothing but middle walls of partition. Let the earth be glad! When the father sees the son, he can see the haughty spirit has been replaced by humility (Luke 15:20; Matthew 6:8). 11Therefore, remember that formerly(X) 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)(Y) 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners(Z) to the covenants of the promise,(AA) without hope(AB) and without God in the world. The Lord is just in all ways, Faithful in all things. They would put a hoop on a pole, and each man would take his quiver of arrows and shoot his arrows through the hoop one at a time. So, too, has our modern world. How dies the wise man as a fool, this too is empty, it doesn't satisfy. Isaiah 59:1-2. And what then is the truth as it is in Jesus? (ii) He reconciled both to God. Here he prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus, not simply to the God that had raised up the Christ from the dead, and was glorifying Him on high. As our children grow older, do we come nearer to them, or do they drift away until conversation is often difficult and we and they are practically strangers? '', "whoever is without wisdom, lo, he is , "as a dead man";''. I would like to just commit to You." Could the apostle say that to you, and to me? 17He came and preached peace(AL) to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. The Holy Ghost gives us the certainty and joyful assurance of our place as saints; the Holy Ghost at the same time gives us the foretaste of the bright inheritance of God that lies beyond. And therefore only an act of free forgiveness of the grace of God can put us back into the right relationship with him. III. Some kind of life, I acknowledge, does remain in us, while we are still at a distance from Christ; for unbelief does not altogether destroy the outward senses, or the will, or the other faculties of the soul. But the Gentiles had no such hope. You that now commune with God at the mercy-seat, you that are now his favoured children, and have received power to become the sons of God, you were once heirs of wrath: "By nature the children of wrath, even as others." Following the crowd, following the course of the world. Hence in the latter we find, not exactly choosing, but predestinating us: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.". With a terrible activity of spiritual death; 3. It is the word used of bringing a sacrifice to God; it is the word used of bringing men into the presence of God that they may be consecrated to his service; it is the word used for introducing a speaker or an ambassador into a national assembly; and above all it is the word used for introducing a person into the presence of a king. All were dead alike. This literally means a slip or a fall. Of old they had forfeited every claim according to the law, and were spared and kept in God's mercy and faithfulness. This is the nature that is given to the believer now. The second was the case of the widow's son , who was on his bier, about to be carried to his tomb; and Jesus raised him up to life by saying, "Young man, I say unto thee, arise." They are clearly identified in each blog post. We are by nature bond-slaves to sin and Satan. Scripturally-based resources for worship planners and leaders. Beloved, we make many mistakes, and we shall continue to do so. Living God, thank you for re-working us to become more like Jesus. Man by his very nature cannot bring perfection to God; and so, if ever man is to win his way to God, it must always be God who gives and man who takes. What is the other?" When we started being sweet and kind, and you know, generous and good, and when we started just living such a perfect life, God said, "My, isn't that lovely? Oh, the thrill of joy that has sometimes gone through our spirits! Hallelujah! All men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath: God is angry with the wicked every day. In the sense that their only king was God. yea, impossible? The Greek could say: "We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, "I rejoice and disport me on my youth; long enough beneath the, earth shall I lie, bereft of life, voiceless as a stone, and shall, leave the sunlight which I loved; good man though I am, then. How did Christ destroy them? Hence we have those gifts alone which are the expression of the grace of Christ toward the saints that He loves, for ministerial work, for the building up of His body. They draw their inspiration from another fount, from a desire to walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. He means far more than sexual sins. It is not here deliverance, let it be ever so complete; it is not the knowledge of our position in Christ as inEphesians 1:1-23; Ephesians 1:1-23; but rather the converse Christ dwelling in us by faith, and the heart entering into the positive excellency of the Son, the only adequate object of the Father's own delight. The last the most corrupt, the most desperately abominable, may yet be quickened; and he may join in exclaiming, "And I have been quickened, though I was dead in trespasses and sins." (iii) In the end sin kills the will. All rights reserved worldwide. "There is none righteous, no not one." 14. Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; There is no longer the division between Jews and Gentiles. If but two acted accordingly, they ought to be and would be an expression of the unity of the Spirit. Who wants to see you enriched in all things in Christ.Now on the other hand, Jesus said concerning Satan, "That he is come to rob and to kill and to destroy." But now fromEphesians 2:11; Ephesians 2:11 the apostle enters into particulars, and shows that the bringing down from God's own heights of these glorious counsels and making them thus manifest in man here below, completely sets aside the Jewish system, or rather supposes the setting aside of all Jewish elements. Let us take a crude and imperfect analogy. Lastly, "one God and Father of all." For the mass subsequently brought in were Gentiles, and the gospel of salvation they forthwith received, without going through the intermediate steps that the others knew. Such an one is the openly profligate, to whom we give wide quarters, lest we touch him. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Note, too, that in the case of this maiden, whom we have introduced to you, the daughter of Jairus, she is yet caressed ; she has only been dead a moment or two, and the mother still presses her cheek with kisses. "Among whom we all had our manner of living, or our lifestyles in times past." A corpse is insensible. [4] The full thought would seem to be "all kinds of sin.". Oh, do not so! He rules the universe from His heavenly throne The Jews who believe are taken out of their former place, as much as the Gentiles, who had no place. But, as things now are. The tendency is ever to set aside what is personal for that which is corporate. Contextually, the writer is stating that the Gentiles were spiritually dead to God because of their own "trespasses and sins.". It can never rise above its human source. What has all the confusion of men to do with the glorious reality that God has established His unity, of which we all form part by the power of His Spirit? And the reason is simple; so inadequate is the creature, so untrustworthy is the first Adam, that one might well be certain the true meaning of the Bible was lost to him who judged otherwise. You may search it through and through to find a single flattering word to unregenerate man; but you will search in vain. Now, as a dad, do you think that suddenly I would think, "All right, I have got this kid now where I want him. It isn't just our talking, it is our whole manner of life. It involved the keeping of the law. There are all kinds of architecture; but the building is a unity because through it all it has been used for the worship of God and for meeting with Jesus Christ. If you had been raised from the dead, and had come out of your tomb, you would not go about London streets with your shroud on. God has decreed that he will have a holy people. The meaning of "the flesh" will vary from person to person. The very truth which, learnt and enjoyed in the Holy Ghost, conduces to all lowliness and meekness, as it calls for mutual forbearance in love, flesh would abuse to all pride and vain-gloriousness, to high-minded contempt of others, and bitter self-confidence. [4] W. G. Blaikie, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. This engineer was soundly converted. In the lives of so many there is a kind of tragic process. When the Rabbis spoke about accepting a convert into Judaism, they said that he had been brought near. Satan's purpose for you is your destruction, and so as he is guiding the course of the world, it is a destruction derby. God made known His choice, not when the creature was to be proved, but when it had failed to the uttermost; but the choice itself was decided on by God Himself before the creature came into being. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Alas! When the Psalmist sang: "I will extol thee, my God and king" ( Psalms 145:1) he meant it literally. Oh how happy is the man. I have been born again by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ. So the flow of the world, you just flowed with it. So in Ephesians 5:1-33 he says, "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Anything short of this is not the true Christian measure. He hath "quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together." Israel entered into a covenant with God by the sprinkling of the blood. Thus far the apostle has described the misery of a natural state in Ephesians 2:1-3, which we shall find him pursuing again in some following ones. Also he counted on their loving desire to know his affairs as well as to have their hearts comforted through Tychicus. for you, that you should lack the root of the matter. As spiritual death is nothing else than the alienation of the soul from God, we are all born as dead men, and we live as dead men, until we are made partakers of the life of Christ, agreeably to the words of our Lord, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25). That paradox has two arms. It is a pleasant thing to hear an honest confession; they are dead to dead men. The next verse shows that this is not forgotten, for account is taken of the fact, and it is provided for. May God save you now, ere you shall come to that consummation for which hell so sighs, and which heaven can alone avert. Ay, but those salt tears are tears of barrenness. Thus we have at last the church developed in its two main characters. When the life begins to come to him, he feels as he never felt before; sin that was pleasant becomes a horror to him. Whatever could contribute to it, whatever fell in according to it, everything that God Himself could do to bind us up with Christ, sharing with us all that is glorious in Christ His own Son, even to His holy nature and relationship with the Father, as far as this could be conferred on a creature, is no more than God had in His heart yea, is what God has given us now, and will display in heavenly Places ere long. That man who came down but was found alone to the end of His earthly course would now be alone no more; He would have a new and suited body, believing Jews and Gentiles fellow-heirs and of the same body. That awareness of God, that communion with God, or that fellowship and oneness that God intended that man should have with God. Far be it from us just to know that He loves us through the word of God, as a security to us, like a dry parchment deed of gift that we quietly keep in a strong box. Death In Life ( Ephesians 2:1-3 Continued). He has forgiven you in Christ; and you are called to do the same. When young people are converted who have not yet acquired evil habits; when they are saved before they become obnoxious in the eyes of the world, the command is, " Give them meat ." It was just that kind of news that Jesus brought. This gives a very peculiar character to our blessedness. You who have been quickened will understand what I say. Even today, he continually seeks to be worshipped. No God? In this epistle we have the unfolding of the grace of God in all its fulness, not merely the application of His righteousness to man's need on His part, but God from out of Himself, and for Himself, as the adequate motive and object before Him, even His own glory. (iv) The Gentiles were strangers from the covenants on which the promises were based. Heres a call to worship based on Ephesians 2: 11-22. And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins. The object of the apostle is to show the great power which God had evinced toward the people Ephesians 1:19; and to show that this was put forth in connection with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and his exaltation to the right hand of God in heaven; see the notes at Romans 6:4-11; compare Colossians 2:12-13; Colossians 3:1. suspicious of anyone who didnt look like us. It simply affirms a fact - that in relation to real spiritual life they were, in consequence of sin, like a dead man in regard to the objects which are around him. What is the effect of this life upon us? I mean, that they like the amusements of the world; they like to put on their shroud sometimes just for a treat. Perhaps you can scarcely, in the moment I can afford you, appropriate the idea to yourselves. That which was easy to him becomes a bed of thorns. They are clearly identified in each blog post. God commended His love towards us even that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. There can be peace only in Jesus Christ. It is an absolutely new thing; and this new purpose is "according to the good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him; in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory," etc. The evil spirit has been driven out, and he no more works in us. 44. Not so Lazarus; the Jews came to weep at his tomb. Through Jesus there is a place for all men in the family of God. The legions of apostate angels are as one power united under one chief; and therefore what is called the powers of darkness elsewhere is here spoken of in the singular number. Their lust is one which can only be perpetrated at midnight; a deed which can only be done when shrouded by the astonished curtains of darkness. Even though trained by godly parents, though well instructed in the gospel scheme, though saturated with the piety that surrounded us, we were dead, as dead as the harlot of the street, as dead as the thief in the jail. Even Christ was tempted. But this was not enough. The loss of fellowship with a holy God. It sees no beauty in the landscape; hears not the voice of a friend; looks not upon the glorious sun and stars; and is unaffected by the running stream and the rolling ocean. He has raised us from the dead. He can never put things right with her by serving a term of imprisonment and paying a fine. Have we reached the goal of service to others that we might have reached? And all of those that get down and put their face in the water, send them home. "There are three outstanding schools of moral pathology traceable throughout the centuries. we know too well) saving faith necessarily, but the faith of Christendom; and accordingly "one baptism" is its mark, because thus they are put on or take the ground of professing the one Lord and one faith. Everybody is going. We are by nature drudges to the flesh, and to our corrupt affections, Ephesians 2:3; Ephesians 2:3. Amen. It was revealed by Paul alone. Do you think that when you finally come and say, "Father, I do realize You have been good to me, You have done so much for me. It will be observed that the desire is not merely that they might be enlightened as to the special glory of their standing, but that their hearts might be filled with the love of Christ, and this too as a present thing filling them to overflowing, though surely not to cease in the ages to come. In nowise: even now He has abounded toward them "in all wisdom and prudence." Please note: If you use material from this blog, please be careful to credit the original author and source. Can I belong just for who I am? We know what God wants us to do; God has prepared long beforehand the kind of life He wants us to live, and has told us about it in his book and through his son. Both the xenos ( G3581) and the paroikos ( G3941) were always on the fringe. Whereas we were once dead to God (Ephesians 2:1-3), we are now alive in God (Ephesians 2:4-10). Israel was supremely the covenant people. (iii) Through Jesus both Jew and Gentile have the right of access to God. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. God has called you to be His child. I remember the first week of that new life, and how, on the second Sabbath, I went to the place where I had heard the gospel to my soul's salvation, thinking that I would attend there. or our anger gets the better of us and we lash out. Where have we gone astray? They had seen creation, and sung at the sight. You remember when you began to pray; would you like to have your first prayer printed? They both mean the same thing; he missed the mark. He goes farther, and says, "Be filled with the Spirit." NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. He is the God of Jesus; He is the Father of Jesus. We cannot wear what we used to wear. Besides, there is love, the activity, as well as, the moral qualities, of His being. For it is by grace appropriated by faith that you have been saved. He Himself is the measure of the walk of the new man, and the manifestation of it is Christ Himself. That is not worship which consists in doing as Hodge did, when he said, "I like Sunday, for then I can go to church, and put my legs up, and think of nothing at all." Let this then rest in His hands. No God? Whenever a man realizes that he has sinned, he is oppressed with the feeling that he dare not approach God. 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