Starting April 19 and running through June we will study the book of Ephesians and learn to apply the Gospel to every part of our lives. Click here for a list of sermon titles and the Bible text for each week.
On Sundays at 9:30 a.m. there will be an open Zoom discussion focusing on the first half of Ephesians. Email us to get the Zoom info.
Notice the beautiful symmetry in the structure of Ephesians. Three chapters present the glorious Gospel truth of what God has done for us in Christ. The next three chapters apply that truth with five “Therefore, live” exhortations. Download a detailed overview handout here.
The order is important. The commands come after the Gospel promises. Before telling us what we must do, first Paul describes – in wonderful detail – all that God has done for us in Christ. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not of yourselves – not by works – so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
If this order were reversed, it would be a religion describing what we must do to earn God’s love, salvation and connection into His family. All religions operate that way – presenting what you must do to earn God’s favor and your spot in paradise. They are like ladders, just with different styles and emphases – some more spiritual, others more moral.
The trouble with religion is that you can never know when you have done enough; when your ladder is tall enough. You live with the lingering fear that you haven’t worked quite hard enough, you haven’t given enough, you haven’t prayed enough, you haven’t served enough. And, of course, that’s true – you haven’t. Every religious ladder is leaning on a cloud. None of them can actually save you because nothing we do could ever wash away our sins and earn us a spot in God’s perfect heaven.
This is why Jesus came. Not to help us make bigger and better ladders, but to give us a rocket ship. Jesus is the only way to heaven and a relationship with God. The only way anyone can get right with God is through the work Jesus did on the cross. When you call on Jesus to save you – professing your faith in His sacrificial death for you and in His victorious resurrection – you get on board the rocket ship of salvation. Here is another way to picture it:
Religion is an exhausting uphill climb – it’s all about what you must do in the hopes that in the end it will be enough to save you. You can never be sure it’s enough, so religion is driven by fear and threat. “You better do more, give more, pray more… or else!”
Christianity is totally different. It is not about what you must do to be saved. It is all about what Jesus has done to save you. He did all the work. You get all the benefit. That’s what grace is all about. Salvation is not a 50/50 transaction where God does His part and we do our part. Salvation is 100% the gift of God. It is all grace. That’s why we say we are saved “by grace alone through faith alone.” It is 100% grace received by a simple act of faith. We just say “Yes,” to Jesus – getting on board the rocket ship of His saving work.
And in that single moment of saying “yes,” to Jesus – all that is His becomes yours. You move from being dead in sin (Eph. 2:1) to being alive in Christ, raised up and seated with him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:4-6). Your position before God changes completely because your nature has changed completely. You were defined by your sin – covered in it and controlled by it. But at the moment you came to Jesus in humble faith He washed away all of your sin and set you free from its power. In that single, life-changing moment, you were brought into the infinite life of the Son of God – bound into an eternal relationship with God through Him.
To change the image one more time – you stepped into the fountain of life where you will live forever and ever. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Eph. 3:17-19, NIV
This is the Gospel promise for all followers of Jesus: the overflowing life. How do we experience this life that Paul later commands us to pursue (Eph. 5:18)? We simply pray that God will help us know the love of Christ – really know it in a deep and personal way. That’s it. It’s not harder or more complicated than that. It’s about 1) understanding the gospel, 2) believing the gospel so that you begin to 3) experience the wonder of the love of Christ expressed in the gospel.
And this is the good news: through faith in Jesus sinners are transformed into saints who not only have access to the limitless love of God – we are immersed in it and becoming increasingly defined by it. We have been brought into the fountain of life and are just beginning to realize what that means. Lewis said it best:
“Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of good infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near a fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity p. 153
So this is what we will do for the next several weeks: we will feed on the gospel, being filled up by God’s grace, power, joy and purpose – and allow the grace of God to overflow into every part of our lives.
- How can you lovingly serve and forgive people who have harmed you? Only as you experience the forgiveness of the One who served you all the way to the cross.
- How can you keep your mind focused on what is good and right and holy? Only as you understand and believe that the Holy One has changed you on the inside and is literally making you more and more holy, like Him.
- How can you live in full devotion to God, not holding anything back? Only as you taste and see the grace of Jesus who held nothing back and gave everything on the cross to save you.
- How can you always respect your husband who does not always deserve your respect? Only as you realize the dignity and value God has filled you with when all you deserved was judgment and condemnation.
- How can you sacrificially love and serve your wife when you don’t feel any affection for her? Only as you experience the grace of Jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice for you, when you had done nothing but ignore Him and serve yourself.
- How can you lovingly raise your kids when they are driving you crazy? Only as you come to know the unconditional love of your Father in heaven who never gives up on you.
- How can you press on at work, joyfully doing tasks you lost interest in a long time ago? Only as you remember the work Jesus did for you as He carried His cross to Golgotha. Only as you believe the Gospel truth that God designed you on purpose and prepared specific work for you to do to bless His creation and reflect His glory as only you can.
In other words – apply the Gospel. Believe the truth of all God has done for you in Christ. You don’t have to earn His favor. You already have it – completely. The work is finished. The payment has been made. Your salvation is completed. You are no longer in sin, you are in Christ. And in Christ, you are loved, alive, free, powerful and purposeful. You are eternally united with God – immersed in His never-ending overflow of life, joy, peace and goodness.
Your job is not to work and work until you earn God’s favor. That is the false pathway of religion. Your job is to know and experience the favor of God you already have in Christ, and fueled by gratitude and joy to let His grace and life increasingly flow through you to others. As we get wet from the overflowing life of God, the people around us should begin to feel that spray and be drawn themselves into the Fountain.
God is not just for Sunday. The Gospel is not something we hear about one day of the week. Step into the fountain every day – every moment of the day – and learn what it means to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).
Bring God into the rest of the week.
For more on revival, filling and new life in Christ, click here.