How can you and I live confidently when life is so unsettled?
Paul, in writing to his friends at Ephesus, reminds us of how we can live with great confidence, even though our world is unsure and unsettled.
To those in Christ in Ephesus – I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
In Ephesians 1 Paul sets up the letter by introducing himself to his readers (Eph 1:1–2), reminds them of the spiritual blessings they have in Christ (Eph 1:3–14), and offers a prayer (Eph 1:15–23).
Everything Paul writes in Eph 2 is meant to serve a single purpose: to remind the Christians at Ephesus of the reality of the gospel of salvation (Eph 1:13) and its life-changing work among them. Brown, D. R. (2013).
Ephesians 2:13 (NLT) 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
Remember how last week I suggested that one of the difficulties we have in understanding the doctrines around Eph 1 is because of a distorted image of God – have a very politically correct image of God – Luke 15 warm cuddly father – mate sitting around the camp fire.
God of love much more palatable than a God of justice or God of wrath, a God to whom we are accountable.
If you thought that was tough, Ephesians 2 doesn’t get any easier, only it is not centred around our understanding of God but our understanding of humanity outside of God.
Two of the most hopeful words in Scripture.
How can you and I live confidently when life is so unsettled?
How can you and I live?
Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV) “And you…” linked with previous verses] And you were dead in the trespasses (paraptōmasin, “false steps”) and sins (hamartia is, “acts of missing the mark”), 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of humanity.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Louden Wainwright III released album in 1973 titled ‘Dead Skunk’. Think roadkill. What are some of the characteristics of something that is dead?
No life. No relationship. No communication. Separated.
To rephrase the words of C. S. Lewis, we are essentially not nice people who need only to clean up our acts a bit, we are rebels who need to lay down our arms. Paul in the initial verses of Ephesians 2 paints a dramatic picture of what it means to not be “in Christ”…