Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas. In season 1, Pastor Jim is leading us in a study of Ephesians. Today’s passage is Ephesians 2:11-18.
Chapters 1-3 indicatives/what Christ has done
Chapters 4-6 imperatives/what it means to follow Christ
Before coming to faith we were… 5 things:
- Separated from Christ.
- Not counted among God’s people
- Strangers to God’s covenant promises.
- Without hope
- Without God in the world.
In contrast, “But now in Christ…” these 5 things are now true of us:
- Have been “brought near” by the blood of Christ/Jesus.
- Christ Himself is our peace. Phil. 4:7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- Christ breaks down the barrier walls of division between us and others
- Christ puts enmity to death
- Christ nullifies or sets aside the requirements of the law in the sense that Christ has fulfilled all the demands of God’s laws and then as the ultimate High Priest offered Himself as the ultimate sacrificial Lamb of God, to reconcile repenting sinners (whether Jew or Gentile), whether religious or irreligious, Christ has dealt with the Law on our behalf!
2 Corinthians 5:21 He (God the Father) made Him (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Christ).
“There is no peace like peace with God. It is peace with God as an objective fact which is the foundation of the peace of God as a subjective experience.”
– John Stott The Messenger and God: Studies in Romans 1-5
In spite of all her faults and imperfections, one of the most attractive things about the body of Christ aka the church, is the beauty of its unity and diversity. The heavenly vision throughout the book of Revelation is that worship flows from every tribe, tongue, nation and people group because they are united as one “in Christ!”
“What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together not because they form a natural collocation, but because they have all been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In this light we are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.”
– D. A. Carson
