Intro to Eph. 2:1-10

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/11/2018 10:43 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Eph. 2:1-10

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 1:1-10

            Message of the verses:  “1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2  in which you formerly 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. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

    4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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 ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as 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 so that we would walk in them.”

            I have just finished listening to a sermon by John MacArthur from Ephesians 2:1-10, and in that sermon he gives a short introduction to verses 1-10, but also gives a brief review of what was looked at in chapter one.  I am going to quote from that sermon at this time.

“There is a lot of confusion about what it means to be a Christian. What it means to have Christ. What it means to be born again. But if you'll look with me at Ephesians 2:1 to 10 it ought to eliminate any doubt and any question. Because it's here. Now remember that the book of Ephesians is concerned with what it means to be in Christ. What it means to be one with Jesus Christ. What it means to be a part of His body, the church of which He is the head. What it means to have been master planned into the body from before the world began. We saw in chapter 1 through verse 14 that Paul presents the master plan of God in eternity past. Then in verses 15 to 23 he prays that we would understand it, that we would really get a grip on the meaning of being in Christ. What it means to be a part of God's eternal plan. What it means to have been elected, redeemed and granted an inheritance forever with God. We've talked about the tremendous wonders of our position. All that we have in having Christ is in chapter 1.Now Paul moves from eternity past in chapter l into time in chapter 2. In chapter 2 we find the Apostle Paul describing the very process of salvation, the very act of salvation, the very miracle of salvation that drew us into realizing this eternal plan. The plan is in 1, how you get in it is in chapter 2.”

            I hope that this little quote will be a help as we now begin to look at the introduction to these ten verses.  I heard a story about a young man who was Muslin who listened to the gospel message, and afterwards the man wanted to come to know Jesus Christ as his Savior and so he prayed with the pastor who was happy to hear his prayer.  Afterwards the man said that he was happy to have done this, but did not want to give up his Muslin faith, he just wanted to add another.  He did not understand what it means to be born-again.  As stated in the quote above Paul explains what it means to be born again in these first ten verses of Ephesians.  He goes back in time to show the believers in Ephesus what they had done when they accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their lives.

            It is usually my pattern to quote the last paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary in order for us to see the outline that we will be following as we go through the verses from each section.

            “In the first ten verses Paul presents the past, present, and future of the Christian:  what he was (vv. 1-3), what he is (vv. 4-6, 8-9), and what he will be (v. 7, 10).  Within this framework he gives six aspect of salvation:  It is from sin (vv. 1-3), by love (v. 4), into life (v. 5), with a purpose (vv. 6-7), through faith (vv. 8-9), and unto good works (v. 10).  The first aspect is in the past, the next four aspects (except for the second part of ‘purpose,’ v.7) pertain to the present, and the last aspect (including v. 7) is in the future.”   It sounds a bit confusing, but we will do our best to make it understandable.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that this set of verses will be very good to study in order to review what the meaning of salvation is all about.  Perhaps some of this will not be a review but truths that I have not thought about.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to make things very clear to me as I study these aspects of salvation.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The younger” (Genesis 48:13-20).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who shall be made the footstool of Christ?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/11/2018 11:17 AM