And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— 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 mankind. Eph. 2:1-3 ESV
Before any of us believed in
Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, we were dead in our sins,
without God, without hope, going nowhere, having no real purpose, wandering,
doing what we want, and coming up short of attaining God’s divine approval. We
walked (lived, conducted our lives) according to (in agreement with) our flesh,
giving in to our sinful cravings.
THIS should describe where we
WERE. THIS should NOT describe where we ARE. If it does, then we need to repent
of our sins, humble ourselves before God, and turn (or return) to follow (obey)
Jesus Christ with our lives.
Making it Practical
THIS, too, should NOT now
describe us: You get up in the morning, get yourself ready, go to work, or work
at home, but without even (or barely) acknowledging God, and without spending
time with him in his Word, listening to him speak his words to your heart, in
order to hear what he has for you for the day, with the purpose and intent in
mind to obey him.
You go about your day,
operating in the flesh, thinking worldly, fleshly, and perhaps even lustful
thoughts, and acting accordingly. No one would single you out as a model
Christian, for they can see your lifestyle doesn’t match your profession of
faith.
Continuing on with that
thought… Then, you come home, or you are home, and all you can think about is
eating and watching your favorite TV shows or movies, or getting on Facebook or
Twitter, or playing your favorite games, or surfing the internet, or getting on
pornography, or chatting with a “love interest,” when you are married to
someone else.
Granted, you have responsibilities,
too, which you fulfill, but you are consumed largely with self, and with what
is pleasing to your flesh, and God is really not important to your life, in the
scheme of things, although you may profess that he is.
Then, before you go to bed,
you spend your time watching TV, getting on the internet, and on social media, or
playing games, or viewing porn, or chatting with a secret love interest, but
again, God is not even on your radar, or if he is, it is for the purpose to
perform religious exercises, perhaps to give the appearance that you are
following him, when truly you are not.
Then, you go to sleep for the
night, get up the next morning, and the worldly and fleshly cycle continues
until Sunday. So, you go to a church service, and you may even be an elder or a
deacon or a small group leader or a Bible teacher, or even the pastor. And, you
raise your hands in praise to God during a worship service, and you put on the
religious mask, but then as soon as church is over, it is back to business as
usual.
Again, if this is what
describes your life, or if you relate in some way, maybe not to these specific
illustrations, but to being driven largely by your flesh, then you need to bow
before God, humble yourself, repent of your sins, and turn (or return) to
follow (obey) Jesus Christ with your life from now on.
Made Alive with Christ
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Eph. 2:4-7 ESV
For, you see, Jesus Christ
did not give up his life for us on that cross merely to forgive our sins, to
free us from punishment, and to give us the hope of heaven when we leave this
earth. He died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; that we
might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave his life up for us (1
Pet. 2:24; 2 Co. 5:15).
He died on that cross so that
we would no longer be dead in our trespasses, but not just positionally, but
practically, too. For, if we walk according to the flesh, we will DIE in our
sins, not live with Christ for eternity, no matter what we profess to believe
or to practice. For Jesus gave his life up for us to deliver us from these
bodies of sin and to give us NEW lives in Christ Jesus, no longer sold as
slaves to sin, but now sold out to God as servants of his righteousness (Rom.
6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 4:17-24; Lu. 9:23-25).
God’s grace to us is not a free
license to continue in sin, following after the lusts of our flesh, without
guilt, and without remorse. His grace to us is for the purpose to deliver us
out of bondage (addiction) to sin, and to free us to walk in his holiness,
godliness, purity and righteousness. His grace, which brings us salvation, in
fact, instructs (commands) us to say “NO!” to ungodliness and worldly (fleshly)
passions (lusts), and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we
await Christ’s return.
Saved by Grace
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Eph. 2:8-10 ESV
For by God’s grace (his
kindness; his favor) we have been saved, both from the punishment of sin
(eternal damnation), and from slavery (addiction) to sin. By grace we have been
saved through faith, which is divine persuasion. In other words, even the faith
to believe is not of ourselves, but it is a gift of God, lest we should boast
in ourselves.
We cannot even come to faith
in Jesus Christ unless the Father first draws us to Christ. In this drawing us
to Christ he divinely persuades us as to God’s righteousness and holiness, his
purity, his justice, and as to his mercy. He persuades us, too, as to what he
did for us in dying on the cross for our sins, and of our need to humble
ourselves before him, to repent of our sins, and to turn to him to walk with
him in obedience, in surrender to his will for us.
All this is the working of
the Holy Spirit in our lives in moving our hearts to respond to God’s salvation,
so that we now say “No” to our old lives of living for sin and self, and so we
say “Yes” to walking, by faith, according to the Spirit, and empowered by the
Spirit, in Christ’s righteousness and holiness. We cannot do any of this apart
from God, in our own flesh. Our entire transformation from that of dead in sin
to alive in God is the working of God in our lives, yet we must yield to God,
and submit to his will, and we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and do what
God and his Word say.
When we believe in Jesus
Christ, through divine persuasion, thus we are crucified with Christ in death
to sin, and we are raised with Christ to newness of life, created to be like
God in true righteousness and holiness. The old has gone. The new has come. We
are a new creation in Christ Jesus, and since we are his creation, we were also
created to do good works, but not the works of the flesh to earn our salvation,
but works of the Spirit, which are evidence that we have true salvation in
Christ. And, by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit of God we are to walk in
these, in doing what God and his Word say, living godly and holy lives,
pleasing to God, and no longer living (in practice) to please our sinful flesh.
Have Thine Own Way, Lord
Adelaide A. Pollard / George C.
Stebbins
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just
now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!
Sunday, January 21, 2018,
4:51 p.m. – Thank you, Jesus, for this teaching from your Word. May we take
this truth to heart and apply it to our lives.
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