There's Within My Heart a Melody / Luther B. Bridgers
There's within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low:
Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still,
In all of life's ebb and flow.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Sweetest name I know,
Fills my every longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.
So, I got up, wrote down the lyrics to the song, and then I had my quiet time with the Lord at his feet where I heard from him what he wanted to teach me today. I prayed, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” and then I read Ephesians 2:
Made Alive in Christ
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do…
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
My Understanding: As I prayerfully read through this passage of scripture before the Lord, it was brought to my attention that this chapter could be divided into three distinct sections:
• Where we were before Christ, i.e. when we were outside of faith in Jesus Christ
• What Jesus Christ/God the Father did for us to reconcile us to Himself
• Where we are now because of what Jesus did so that we could have faith in Him
This letter to the Ephesians is addressed to the saints who are also the faithful in Christ Jesus. A saint is a “holy one” who is called to belong to Christ and is made holy by faith in what Jesus Christ did for us when he died on the cross for our sins so that we could be free from sin and could live holy lives. Faithful means loyal, devoted, trustworthy, dependable, reliable, dedicated, committed, constant and true. So, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is to the saints, i.e. to the holy ones, made holy by faith in Jesus Christ, who are called to belong to Christ Jesus; to the faithful, trustworthy, constant and true in Christ Jesus. It is to these faithful saints in Christ Jesus, thus, that he is speaking when he tells them where they were outside of Christ, what Jesus Christ did for them, and where they are now in Christ Jesus.
Where we were before Christ, i.e. when we were outside of faith in Jesus Christ
We were dead in our transgressions and sins. A transgression is a crime or any act that violates a law, command, or moral code [Encarta dictionary]. Sin is “any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God” [Easton's Bible dictionary]. So, this is speaking not only in terms of actually committing an act of violation against God’s laws, but it is also speaking of the lack of conformity unto the law of God. So, this is both positional, i.e. we are born into sin, and it is commissionable, i.e. it involves the committing of acts of rebellion against the law of God – that law, which can be summed up in “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” And, the reason we are dead is that sin separates us from God and from his righteousness, and “dead” means eternally separated from God and incapable of true righteousness.
When we were outside of faith in Jesus Christ, we used to live in disobedience to God, when we followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of darkness, who is the spirit who works in the disobedient. The world being spoken of here is not the physical world of trees, flowers and animals, but rather this is speaking of the world in terms of human sinful nature, i.e. worldliness, i.e. following after the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The ways of the world include lying, adultery, lust, stealing, cheating, hating, murdering, gossiping, gluttony, slandering, etc. Many of us would not think of doing these things ourselves, and yet we might accept these sins in the form of entertainment into our homes and laugh at the very things God weeps over. We are not only to not partake in the things of the world, but we are not to take pleasure in those who do these things, either.
What Jesus Christ/God the Father did for us to reconcile us to Himself
Because of God’s great love for us and his richness in mercy toward us, he made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. Ok, this is a verse that could be easily misinterpreted and misunderstood if not understood within the right context. The NASB translates this text as “made us alive together with Christ” and the Greek-English literal translation is “quicken together with.” It is by grace we have been saved. When Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, he took upon himself all our sin (the sins of the whole world), he buried them with himself in death, yet he rose triumphantly over them when he rose from the dead in conquering death, hell, Satan and sin. When he did this, we were still dead in our sin, even though some of us were not even yet born, but when we were born, we were born into sin, yet what he did for us on the cross still remained and still remains.
When we come to Jesus Christ in faith (by grace we are saved through faith), we do so only because God the Father first of all drew us to Christ. I believe that even the faith to believe in Jesus Christ is a gift of God, and that we cannot even muster up faith from within our own selves. God gives us the ability to respond to his call and to his work of salvation, accomplished in his death, burial and resurrection, in faith. When we come to him in faith, we thus are united with him in his death, burial and resurrection through our death to sin and our resurrection to new life in Jesus Christ, but this is not something we can generate from our own flesh. This is not through our own works of self-righteousness. This is something that was done by Jesus on the cross and in his resurrection, and is accomplished in the lives of those who come to him in faith as we say “Yes” to Jesus, and we yield our lives to him and to the working of his will and his salvation in our lives in complete surrender. We cannot be good enough. We cannot earn our way into good graces with God or our way to heaven. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit working within us can we be transformed and made new in Christ Jesus.
Yet, works are not totally absent from this work of salvation in our lives. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Workmanship is “the skill or craft of a worker or artisan; the product or result of the skill of a worker or artisan (artist)” (Encarta). Psalm 139:13-16 says this:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
God is the one who knit us together in the wombs of our mothers. We were fearfully and wonderfully made by him and his works are wonderful – “God don’t make junk!” And, he didn’t make us with no plan in mind for us, either. He has a plan, a calling and a mission for each and every one of us. He has things he wants us to do, too. Yet, these works are not works of the flesh, nor are they generated in the thoughts or the will of man, nor are they accomplished in the strength and power of man. These are spiritual works done in the Spirit of God, in his power and strength, and under his leadership and direction, and they are the outgrowth of a life that has been washed in the blood of the Lamb, has been made alive with Christ, and has been raised up with him to the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Where we are now because of what Jesus did so that we could have faith in Him
We are now no longer foreigners and aliens from God, but we are fellow citizens with God’s people, the faithful saints of God. We are members of God’s household, i.e. we are part of his family, and it is a HUGE family at that! We, God’s household, his church, his body, are built (shaped, molded, constructed, assembled) on the foundation (basis, groundwork) of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as our chief cornerstone - keystone, basis, foundation, fundamental to and “the first stone laid at a corner where two walls begin and form the first part of a new building” (Encarta). The church is built upon Jesus Christ. He is our firm foundation upon which our lives are developed, mature, and grow in HIM as the head of all things, including the head of the church, his body. In Christ, we, his church, are being made holy and made a temple fit for his dwelling. We have access to the Father, by his grace, and we are being transformed into Christ’s likeness, free from the penalty and the control of sin and bondage to living to please our flesh natures, so that we now can live freely as slaves of Christ and as slaves of his righteousness. Amen! Thank you, Jesus!
Your Grace Still Amazes Me \ Phillips, Craig And Dean
Your grace still amazes me
Your love is still a mystery
Each day I fall on my knees
Your grace still amazes me
‘Cause Your grace still amazes me
Full Lyrics: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/phillips-craig-and-dean/your-grace-still-amazes-me.html
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