Ephesians 2: Grasp this

“I pray that you may have power to grasp…” (3:16)

This chapter hold out almost every aspect of the believer’s experience of meeting God through Jesus Christ by faith in the gospel. Paul will pray in the next chapter that the believer’s have power to grasp all these dimensions of Christ’s love. The truths are as follows:

· We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We had submitted ourselves to the kingdom of this world, were submitting ourselves to its rules in thought and in deed; and were therefore enemies of God and objects of his wrath.

· Jesus himself takes the wrath instead of us (1:7) God who was rich in mercy made us, who have faith in Jesus, alive. We bring nothing to the table. If we did, we could boast.

· God has given us a new heavenly identity and a new heavenly destiny (5-7). This changes everything.

· Out of our new heavenly identity and on our way to our heavenly destiny, God has already prepared good works for us to do (10). We are his workmanship. He has made us to be a new creation that would do his work in remaking this world.

· The blood of Christ is the effective end of any hostility that can be held between any races. If Jesus can die and show grace to reunite enemies to his father, there is a solution for every racial problem. In that day, it was the divide between Jews and Gentiles (11-18).

· All people can now pray to the father—a royal priesthood- through the Spirit (18).

· Believers are throughout the world being made into a new living temple stretching to every culture in every place through every time in order to demonstrate a living body of people who would bring the rightful praise to God the Father and Jesus the Christ. Each person who is united to Christ by faith is a piece of the wall of this temple that stretches throughout the world and is united and held together by the very Spirit of God. This temple can never be defiled because is cleansed by the once and for all blood of Jesus Christ and kept holy by the Holy Spirit who dwells there (19-22).

Oh, for strength to grasp that…
Posted by Marc