Click For Audio Version
Picture of the Coliseum in Ephesus, which was the largest in the world until recent times. It held 50,000.
Unity In Jesus – Ephesians 2
In Our Inheritance – Ephesians 1, we explored a little of the history of Ephesus and the development of the early Church. We hope that if you have not read or listened to the first lesson, you will.
Last week, my cover photo was of the ruins of the temple of Diana. Today’s photo is of the ruins of the great amphitheater in Ephesus. It could seat 50,000.
Today, we shall look at Unity in Jesus and His followers, in other words, the Church.
Paul always went to the Jews in each city first, although Jesus had called him to be an Apostle to the Gentiles.
In the first six verses, Paul speaks boldly about their spiritual resurrection.
The first verse of chapter 2 tells us that God had made them alive. Those who accepted Paul’s teaching and accepted Jesus as their Savior were just like us.
Their spiritual resurrection was due to their acceptance of what God had done for them. They were dead in their trespasses and sins and were walking in disobedience to God’s Law.
Look around you, and you can easily see that we are facing the same dilemma of wickedness in our country today. Our false gods are very different from theirs. We make gods out of political parties, racial groups, false doctrines, and many other ideas and physical things.
Listen to what Paul says in the first three verses, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others”.
This is where they were.
They walked according to the world and the prince of power of the air, Satan. That spirit still works in the sons of disobedience today. Lusts of the flesh and the desires of the flesh and mind controlled them in the past as now.
They had earned God’s wrath.
What about us today? We either walk in the light or in the darkness. There is no halfway.
Sixty years ago, one of my professors told us that people could be divided as follows. 10% of the people were really good, and 10% are totally bad. The other 80% are somewhere between good and bad.
Today’s statistics show it is about the same. However, the world’s idea about what is bad has changed drastically.
God’s Laws about good and evil have not changed.
We, like the Ephesians, are all guilty of sin and have earned God’s wrath.
It is only by God’s grace that we have any hope of salvation.
Let’s read the next few verses.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Because of our sins, we were dead, but now we are alive together with Christ.
God has not only saved us through Christ Jesus, but He has also given us a promise. He will raise us and allow us to sit with Jesus in heavenly places.
How wonderful is that?
Let’s make sure we understand.
We are not saved because we deserve anything from God. As Romans 3:23 says, “we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory”. Romans 6:23 tells us, “the wage of sin is death.”
Those of us who accept God’s gift of Salvation through Jesus do so by God’s Grace. Our works cannot save us. We cannot be good enough or do enough good to warrant our eternal home with Jesus.
We can only sit with Jesus in heavenly places by turning our lives over to Him, so “ 7 that in the ages to come He (God) might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:7 NKJV
Let us look closely at the next three verses.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
First, it is by God’s Grace that you are saved. Salvation is only by faith. There is nothing you can do to gain salvation. It is the gift of God. Even your faith to believe in and accept Jesus as the Son of God is given to you.
Second, you cannot be saved by your works. Is there anything you can do to remove your sins? Men have tried many different ways to make themselves right with God. They tried good works, beating themselves, making sacrifices, going on long fasts, and various other methods. None of them works.
Our good works can not and will not save us eternally.
And third, Paul tells us in the 10th verse what part works play in our walk with God. Let us read it again. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Works do play an important part in our walk with God. We are God’s workmanship in Christ Jesus. He created us to do good works.
What good works?
The good works God created beforehand.
Take a moment. Think about what Paul tells us through the Holy Spirit.
God has a plan for us that He prepared for us to fulfill before we ever knew Him. God knows each of us individually, and He has a plan for each of us.
Will you seek His plan for you? Know this: His plan is the one that is best for you. It is the only plan that will give you peace and joy. His plan for you may be full of hardships and even death, but He will be with you all the way.
We, like the Ephesians, are brought near by the Blood of Jesus.
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Remember, God made a covenant with Abraham to create a people which we now call Israel. They were and are His chosen people.
Most of us are Gentiles by birth. We, like the Ephesians, were not a part of God’s chosen people in the flesh. Until Jesus came, the Gentile people did not share in the covenants of promise and were without hope and without God.
In the 13th verse, Paul says, 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
By the blood of Jesus, we have been grafted into the family of God.
Christ has made both Jew and Gentile one in Him.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Jesus brought peace to both Jew and Gentile by breaking down the wall of sin between them and God with His sacrifice. The Jew was bound by the law of commandments, which they couldn’t keep. The Gentile, on the other hand, was without God’s Law and separated from God.
So Jesus made one new man out of the two. He made us the same, whether we were Jew or Gentile. All of us who accept Jesus as our Lord are one in Him and are part of the same Heavenly family.
Jesus reconciled us through the Cross and His shed blood.
It is through Jesus that we now have access, by one Spirit, to the Father.
Paul sums it up in verses 19-22.
The church is built on the solid foundation of the teachings of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. The Holy Spirit has guided them to write down all we need to know about this Holy dwelling place of which we are a part.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Now, we are one man, not Jew or Gentile. Through Jesus Christ, we are all one in Him.
We are now one body, His Holy Church.
Both Jew and Gentile have access through one Spirit.
One man, one body, and one Spirit with Jesus.