Episode 133 - You Don't Live Here Anymore - TheTruth Will Set You Free Part 4

We are born with a fatal spiritual problem. And that problem  doesn’t just leave us sick and in need of a little medical care. Nor are we given a little island of grace in us that’s good and can help draw us to God. Neither of these beliefs are backed up by Scripture. What Scripture does say is that, "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. " How can we have already been raised up with Christ and are seated with him in the heavenly places when we are still here on earth?? Join us as we delve into this and the rest of Ephesians chapter 2.

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Transcript

Episode 133 - You Don’t Live Here Anymore

          Welcome back! In the last episode we laid out the truths about the doctrine of election, starting with Paul’s description of the fallen state of mankind, which is the root of all of man’s troubles. Our problem can’t be fixed by a pill (not saying that medicine is bad – it’s not), it can’t be fixed by legislating morality, it can’t be fixed through education, looking inward, or anything else. Our problem is a spiritual problem – every human being since Adam and Eve (except for Jesus) is born separated from God by sin.

          It’s a spiritual problem that doesn’t just leave us sick and in need of a little medical care. Nor do we have a little island of grace in us that’s good and can help draw us to God, and we aren’t born in a morally neutral position where we can choose to be either morally good or morally bad, as if in some way we could by sheer will be pleasing to God. If any of these things were true, we might be able to do what Catholic mystic Richard Rohr does when he wants to draw closer to God. In his words, he doesn’t need Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross to know God! To draw closer to God, he believes in suffering by learning to be more humble. His answer is to pray for one humiliation a day that “doesn’t even have to [be]major [humbling].” Mr. Rohr calls himself a Christian, but that’s not Christianity. We will never have our broken relationship with God fixed that way.

          We certainly won’t. That’s false religion. Just as false as Buddhism or Hinduism or Mormonism or any of the rest. As Paul definitively told us in the first five verses of Ephesians chapter two, the problem that all humanity has is that our inborn sin nature makes us hostile to God, at enmity with him, and leaves us so enslaved to sin that we are spiritually dead. And since that’s what the Bible teaches in Scripture after Scripture, there is no way any of those other answers are any kind of TRUE answer at all. Dead men need to be brought back to life. And for God’s elect that’s exactly what He does for us.

          In today’s text you’ll see that Paul expands on the idea that our salvation is a monergistic work (the work of one) – God. Why does God do all of the work of salvation Himself and not leave some of it up to us?  Because He is sovereign and it satisfied His good will and pleasure to elect a remnant of people by His own sovereign choice. He did it for His glory – something that God never shares with anyone else! But this isn’t just a cold, glory-hungry God that elected us to salvation to get glory. Our God loved us before the foundation of the world, a love that’s so great that He rescued us when we were His enemies.

          Let’s start today by reading Ephesians 2:6-10 “ButGod, 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.  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.”

          Not only have we been saved by grace, verse 6 says God has, “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” This verse about being raised with Christ and seated with Him isn’t easy to understand, so let’s look at some more verses that tell us the same thing. Colossians 3:1-4 from the Amplified version makes this a little clearer. It says, “Therefore if you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, sharing in His resurrection from the dead], keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value]. For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” And this is echoed in Colossians 2:12-13, 20 and Romans 6:4-5, 9-11. 

          There are three things we see in this one verse, and the verbs are all past tense. That means they are realities for us right now, even though they aren’t fully realized realities yet. First, we’ve been raised with Christ. How does that work, when our physical bodies are still on earth? Well, what Paul is talking about here is that we’ve been raised from death to life, just like Jesus was. We were dead, now we’re alive. And this new life we’ve been given is a changed life. We’ve been born-again, made new creatures, as the Colossians 3 verse we just read says. That Colossians passage goes on to tell us what our new life should look like – a life that is seeking the things that are above. We should be people who are heavenly minded. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Jesus says this to his disciples after telling them not to worry about what they’re going to wear or what they’re going to eat. Those are things the Gentiles (meaning the unsaved) go after.

          This doesn’t mean that we don’t have to go to work. It’s doesn’t mean that if we stay home and pray all day or “work for Jesus” all day, He’ll just bring the money in to pay our bills, and buy us clothes and food. It means that we’re not supposed to get caught up in the things that the world chases after, and certainly not supposed to be anxious about those things. It also doesn’t mean that if we’re serving the Lord with our lives that we won’t experience problems in life. Jesus doesn’t promise us a rose garden. In fact, sometimes our new life creates more problems for us than our old life did. 

          I’ve heard a few people just this past week say that they’re struggling as new Christians because their old friends and even their family don’t want much at all, if anything to do with them. And I’ve also heard a few new Christians say the opposite is true — their old friends want to hang out with them, but they want them to plunge back into sinful behavior if they do. So, they’ve got a choice to make. And it’s not an easy one! And the outsiders can’t understand why someone doesn’t want to plunge into the sinful depths of depravity anymore once they’ve been raised to life. They don’t understand it because they can’t understand it. It’s foolishness to them. 

          Not only that, Hebrew 12:7 says, It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” Obviously, that goes for God’s daughters too. He’s perfecting our faith by doing it, refining us like gold. But it’s not easy. And let’s not forget to mention our enemy, Satan (and his demons). He didn’t have a care in the world about us when we were running headlong into sin with the world. But we’re on his radar now. And he is a formidable enemy, which we’ll talk more about in a later episode in this series. Yes, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to say no to sin and Satan, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy.

No it doesn’t! So we’re raised to new life and the second thing we see from verse six is we’re not just raised with Christ, we’re seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. We’ll get to the heavenly realms in a moment. But first we have to talk about the fact that Jesus is seated, and we are too. Jesus finished His salvific work here on earth, ascended back to Heaven and took a seat – something that the priests serving at the Temple were never able to do. Temple work was never finished. Someone had to be on it at all times, according to Hebrews 10:11 which says, “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” Jesus is seated because the work is done. We are seated with Him because our work is done. He did it for us – ALL of it. There is no work we could possibly do to add to it and none we HAVE to do to earn (or to keep) our salvation. We’re already seated in heaven. We wouldn’t be if there if there was more we had to do here on earth.

          When you understand this passage and think about those who try to add some type of works to salvation that is already earned by Christ, you understand why Paul rails against those who teach this heresy to others! He was passionate about it. So much so that he tells the Galatian believers who were starting to believe they needed to be circumcised to be saved, “if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:2-4) Those are pretty strong words for anyone who teaches a salvation of Christ + something else. It’s heresy to teach that!

          Christ came to set us free from being slaves to sin, but we also have freedom from trying to save ourselves. That’s part of the bondage the world is under. The unbelievers know about God – both from nature and from their conscience. The live under condemnation, and whether they act like it or not, at least to some degree they feel it. And they’re searching. They search in other religions, they search within themselves, they’re chasing one new experience after another. They’re doing everything they can to stay healthy. They’re doing everything they can to stay alive because they know death is coming. Whether they realize it or not, in some way they’re either trying to save themselves or their doing things to avoid thinking about needing to. It’s an empty, hollow place to be.

Freedom in Christ is the only real freedom there is. We’re seated with Him in heaven because the work was finished by Him for us. And it’s complete. We’ve already been brought from death to life. The nanosecond a Christian dies they’re with Jesus in Heaven. There’s no worry about it. Philippians 1:21 says, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” We enjoy doing Christ’s work while we’re alive on earth, or we enjoy the fullness of being where He is. That is why we can rest. It’s a win-win for us.

There’s one more aspect to verse 6 that’s an already reality for us. God has raised us up … and seated us … in the heavenly places. Our bodies are here on earth, but this is not our home. Christians don’t have a dual citizenship. Our permanent home is with Christ. In Philippians 3:17-21 Paul says, “Join one another in following my example, brothers, and carefully observe those who walk according to the pattern we set for you. For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.” 

Our home is in Heaven, we’re to think of ourselves as sojourners and aliens here on earth and live like it. This doesn’t mean that we can’t be patriotic – loving our country and wanting the best for it. It just means that we think bigger. We are eternally minded knowing that we are just here for a little while before going to our permanent home in heaven. The heavenly realm is the unseen world of spiritual reality. We know from Chapter 1 verse 3 that’s God has already “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that’s in the heavenly places.” We know from 1:20-21 that it’s where Jesus is ruling and reigning “far above” all rule and authority and power. We also know it’s where the Church wages spiritual warfare. 

Like we’ve mentioned already in this series and many other times, the fact that we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, is what gives us our power persevere, to not sin, to hold fast to our confession until the end, no matter what trials or what kind of persecution comes. That’s our spiritual warfare! It’s not fighting on the last day with a sword! (Sorry people who make those memes that show that!) If we did not have that power from above as a reality now, we COULD NOT DO IT. We would fail miserably. And when we do sin, He also gives us power to confidently come to God in repentance with faith that we WILL be forgiven. 

          We’re told in verse seven why God has done all this for His elect, “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” These riches of his grace are lavished on believers according to Ephesians 1:8. God’s grace to us will never run out. He’s going to keep showering His Church with all of the wonders of the undeserved favor He’s given us because of His kindness, for a purpose: to showcase His glory.

We covered the immense subject of the doctrine of election in the last episode. It’s important to grasp that our salvation is God’s work alone. We cannot take any of the glory for it. We want to reiterate that our earthly “decision” is important. The two don’t negate each other. God’s electing and our human responsibility of  “deciding” aren’t in competition with one another, even though it’s totally true that we wouldn’t have decided if God hadn’t first regenerated our hearts. But because that’s the way it is, He gets all the glory for our salvation. Isaiah 42:8 says, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other,” – a verse that follows on the heels of seven verses talking about God’s work of redemption. Getting back to why God does it, We’ll delve into this more in Chapter 3, but God’s redemption of us shows the world – both this world and the heavenly realms -  His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His love, His omnipotence, His faithfulness – and we could probably come up with more of God’s attributes that are “showcased” in our salvation FOR HIS GLORY. That’s our purpose in life – to glorify God. He’s showing everyone everywhere just how glorious He is by saving us. 

          In Romans 9 Paul lays out the same argument. Talking about Jacob and Esau and then about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, Romans 9:19-24 says, “One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” God shows His glory through His mercy and kindness to undeserving sinners like us. God shows His glory through His patience with the wicked, and He’ll show His glory through his attributes of justice and righteousness when they are dealt with. 

            They echo God showing His glory to Moses in Exodus 33. Not only did God show Moses light so brilliant his face shown from it even after he came down from the mountain. According to Exodus 34:5-8, God proclaimed His glory, saying “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.

          We’ve been given so great a salvation to show the world how great and glorious God is. When we glorify God, we get something too – we experience joy because we get God as our inheritance!  New England Puritan, Jonathan Edwards got this. He says: “The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God Himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls…. The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.”

          That’s the point of Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” It’s not our earthly desires He’s talking about in this verse (although He may give you those too sometimes). It’s Himself. He gives us Himself – all those attributes that He IS (light, love, mercy, kindness, and all the rest) – if we delight in Him.

          Let’s wrap this section up with Ephesians 2:8-10. “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.” Our works don’t save us in any way, shape or form, but God created us to do good works! And, not only that, He prepared them in advance for us to walk in them. Does that sound like a God Who is in heaven wringing His hands, hoping that we will pick Him, hoping that someone will respond to the altar call, hoping for us to say “yes” to his “invitation” …. Absolutely not! 

          Because that’s not how it is. Israel wasn’t plan A that failed so that the Gentile church was given a chance with Jesus dying on the cross as plan B. The plan from before the foundation of the world was God choosing a remnant to save, Jesus securing their salvation, and the Holy Spirit applying the work of that salvation to them. Let’s continue reading verses 11-12. “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” An overarching theme of Ephesians is that Christ has not only reconciled all of creation to Himself, He has also reconciled people from every tribe tongue and nation to Himself AND EACH OTHER in the Church. 

          Gentile believers were uncircumcised – their actual bodily foreskin flesh was still intact. They were derisively called “uncircumcised” by the Jews, who according to the law, had all of their male babies circumcised at 8 days old. If you think back to the Old Testament, all males (even adults) who came under the covenant with the Israelites, had to be circumcised, showing that they were part of God’s set apart people. The Jews (what is called “the circumcision”) looked down on the Gentiles because they were outside the covenant of God. If a Jew married a Gentile, they were considered dead by their friends and family. Jews wouldn’t help a Gentile mother giving birth because it was helping bring another Gentile into the world. That’s how bad the division was. Jews were called “the circumcision” but notice that Paul follows those words in verse 11 with these words, “which is made in the flesh by hands—”

          He’s reminding the Ephesian church that human circumcision of the flesh, “made by hands” means nothing in regard to salvation. TRUE circumcision is circumcision of the heart. That was true not only in New Testament times, but in the Old Testament times, as we see in Jeremiah 4:4, which says “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.” That echoes Deuteronomy 10:16, Colossians 2:11 and other Scripture. Human works of any kind have no saving power. Salvation was always and still is about having a heart regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and either looking forward having faith in God’s promise or looking back to the promise being fulfilled in Jesus’ death. Like we said, this flies totally in the face of dispensational Bible teaching, with God having different “dispensations” and plans throughout history. 

          In verse twelve, Paul’s reminding them that Gentiles were once separated from Christ and the covenants. Except for a few exceptions, the Gentiles weren’t part of ancient Israel, or the Abrahamic, Mosaic or Davidic covenants God made with them. Salvation “is from the Jews,” according to John 4:22. The whole Old Testament taught about salvation through a Jewish Messiah that was coming. The Gentiles were effectively without hope; they were “far off.”. But leaving them there wasn’t God’s ultimate plan. They are often referenced in the OT as being part of the plan of salvation.

          It wasn’t! I’ll continue reading Ephesians 2:13-16, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” People were divided into two groups – Jew and Gentile (or Jews and Greeks as it says some places). The wall of hostility that Christ broke down is at least illustrated by the wall between the inner and outer courts of the Temple; but The Mosaic Law in many ways was the dividing wall because it set Israel apart from the other nations.

          Jesus has fulfilled the whole Law. Not only by willingly going to the cross, taking the penalty we owed because of our sin (something we call Christ’s passive obedience). But there’s more. Christ also fulfilled the whole Law by living in the perfect, full obedience to every dot and tittle required by the Law (something we call His active obedience). Both are imputed to us. We’ve used the phrase for justification (being made right with God) “just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned.” And that is a way to memorize what justification means, except that it’s not telling the whole picture. Just being cleaned up from the sin we’ve got doesn’t totally cut it. God requires not only an absence of sin; He requires we possess righteousness. If we belong to Christ, we’re not only cleaned up, we’re given Christ’s spotless robe of righteousness, as if it were our very own.

          It’s that perfect fulfillment of the Law that Christ provides for us that gives us peace with God and unites the Jews and the other nations. Now, through Jesus there is one new group of people – the Church – comprised of both Jews and Gentiles. Alluding to Isaiah 57:19, peace is now proclaimed to “you who were far away” and to “those who were near.” Both Jew and Gentile believers have access to God the Father through the Holy Spirit because of what Jesus has done for us.

          Every benefit we’ve covered in this last section of chapter two from verse 11 on – Gentiles being brought near, the wall of hostility coming down, being reconciled to God, having peace between us and Him and peace being made possible between all believers of every nation, and having access to the Father through the Spirit – all of it is ours only because of God’s electing love bringing us such a great salvation. 

          Ephesians 2:19-22 ends the chapter, telling us, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

          Paul is telling Jews and Gentiles they are no longer strangers with each other. It didn’t matter whose country they were in – these believers weren’t aliens to each other anymore no matter where they roamed. They’re all citizens of heaven, and members of the household of God. They’re brothers and sisters. It’s the same for us today. We brothers and sisters who are citizens of the kingdom ruled by the King of Kings. And it’s the peace brought by Jesus that allows us to live that way 

 Our foundation is the Word – the truth of God spoken by the prophets and then by the Apostles. Rose, I’m sure you see the resemblance of these last few verses with another book of the Bible.

          Chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation talk about these very things. The Bride of Christ is the Church. She’s the dwelling place of God, the New Jerusalem. And she’s built just like these last verses say, with Christ as the Cornerstone – the one stone in the building that assures stability and perfection.

          What does it mean to us? There are no new foundations being laid. There are no new prophets or Apostles, regardless of what people call themselves today. No one is proclaiming any new Revelation that’s of God. The Cannon of Scripture is closed. Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32 Proverbs 30:6 and Revelation 22:18-19 give us dire warnings not to add from it or take away from it. Believers need to know the Word, grow to maturity in it, following sound doctrine and guarding it, making sure it stays unadulterated by false teaching. 

          And that’s a good place to end today. Don’t forget to check out our website proverbs910ministries.com and if you like what you’re hearing, leave a review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening on! Have a blessed day!