In Christ: Transformed to a New Identity (Part 3) But God Ephesians 2:4-7 I want to talk a little bit about gamechangers.

Transcription

1 In Christ: Transformed to a New Identity (Part 3) But God Ephesians 2:4-7 I want to talk a little bit about gamechangers. What exactly is a gamechanger? an event, idea, or procedure that effects a significant shift in the current manner of doing or thinking about something. Essentially it changes the rules of how the game is played kind of like the forward pass in football. Let s look at a few: Gutenberg printing press not the first to print books; Chinese monks had been doing it for 600 years. But Gutenberg s unique combination of movable type and mechanized delivery of ink from type to paper revolutionized printing, making it faster and more affordable. This helped usher in the modern period of human history, helping with the development of the Renaissance, the Reformation, The Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific revolution. It helped spread learning to the masses and perhaps most important, from our perspective, put the Bible into the hands of every Christian. Gutenberg s printing press was a gamechanger. Henry Ford s 1912 Model T again, not the first gas powered vehicle. But it s mass production made cars affordable to ordinary Americans. This affected where we can live, work, trade, visit, etc. Though public transit is pushed in the cities (or bicycles here in Boulder), most of us can hardly imagine life without a car. Henry Ford s Model T was a gamechanger. Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983) more than a foot long, weighing in at more than 2 pounds, price tag just shy of $4000; the first commercially available cell phone that could operate untethered from an external power source. These have evolved to the point where all of us are carrying around a micro-personal computer in our pocket or purse and without them we don t know where

2 to go when or what to think. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, in all its beauty, was a gamechanger. That brings us to the first words of Ephesians 2:4 the ultimate gamechanger in the history of mankind. But God These simple words are some of the most beautiful in history. We talked last week about our desperate situation, being DEAD in our trespasses and sins, and that Recognizing that without Christ we had no HOPE, no VALUE and no LIFE puts us in a perfect position to respond to God s transforming grace. Paul wrote, And you were dead in the trespasses and sin 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, and then his next words change EVERYTHING But God! These two words wreak havoc on the status quo throughout Scripture. Here are a few examples: Genesis 7:24-8:1 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days But God remembered Noah. Romans 5:7-8 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Acts 13:28-30 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb But God raised him from the dead. And so with those two words, we see that As we dig in to the next four verses of Ephesians 2, let s put on our Sherlock Holmes hats and look for the Who? What? And Why? Of this passage. Who?

3 Remember that verses 1-10 form a single sentence and, as such, has a single primary subject which comes to light here in verse 4 But God. We want this to be about us, don t we? I was dead in my sins, but God made me alive by grace I am saved. But if we read it, we recognize this section is all about God, not us. We were dead in our sins BUT GOD made us alive. If we look carefully, we can see that this passage tells us more about the One who made us alive, contrasting the richness of His character with the desperation of ours. According to verse 4 he is (1) rich in mercy. We know mercy, when it comes to God, means He does not give us what we deserve which according to v.3 was His wrath. We might think of mercy as having compassion on someone who has undeservedly suffered some calamity like thousands of hurricane or earthquake victims in the past few weeks. But in our case, the calamity was COMPLETELY deserved, because of our sin. Yet God demonstrates His mercy to us, not because of anything in us that deserves it but because it is His nature. He is rich or wealthy in mercy. Moving on in verse 4 we see that God (2) is great in love. And He loves us with that great love. We know from our discussion in chapter 1 that the kind of love God exhibits is the love that always seeks the highest good in the recipient. And because He loves us with that great love, He pours out the riches of His mercy upon us. Jumping down to verse 7, we discover that not only is God rich in mercy but He also has (3) immeasurable riches of grace. Our quick and easy definition of grace is: when God gives us what we do NOT deserve; or God s Riches At Christ s Expense. And then, also in v.7, we see one last gem of His character in His (4) kindness. In Romans 2:4, Paul talked about the riches of God s kindness and reminds us that His kindness leads us to repentance. So the WHO of this passage is a God who is RICH in mercy, grace, and kindness and GREAT in love. It is out of the overflowing abundance of His nature and character that He has acted on our behalf. He s a gamechanger. God enters into our desperate situation and wreaks havoc on the status quo of our lives.

4 Let s take a look next at WHAT this amazing God did. WHAT? We find the what in the three main verbs of this excessively long sentence. What God did for us is so remarkable that Paul had to make up all three of these verbs to help us understand the significance of our being together with Christ and the impact that makes on our identity basically combining together with with three other verbs to help us understand that God: 1) Made us alive together with Christ; 2) Raise us up together with Christ; 3) Seated us together with Christ in the heavenly places. 1) Made us alive together 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 " God came to us in our dead state and made us alive. We think of the story of Lazarus in John 11 when Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life. Remember what we said about Lazarus? He wasn t just dead, he was good and dead. Right? Kind of like us in our sin dead and completely unable to respond. Jesus was standing at the mouth of the tomb calling out to Lazarus. Unless He had put life back into Lazarus body, Lazarus would have stayed right where he was good and dead. In the same way, God puts life into our dead soul so that we can respond to His call on our lives. It is important to note that God did not just make us alive in ourselves but together with Christ. If God had just made us alive and left us on our own, we would have been dead again within minutes. But He made us alive together with Christ so that we can experience true and eternal life. What does this mean to us? James Montgomery Boice says, We were unconscious of God, inactive in God's service, and morally. Now we are alive to God, working for God and growing in practical righteousness. 2) Raised us up together with Christ Being raised up here should not be seen as an association with Christ s resurrection (we get that from Romans 6) but more with His ascension and

5 exaltation described at the end of chapter 1. Paul speaks of an action which is completed, so he s talking not about our future physical resurrection but our current spiritual and positional being raised up with Christ. Boice describes it this way: in being raised from the dead with X, we have been given a new disposition, but in ascending with Him, we have been given a new environment; In other words, we are not operating in a completely different sphere. Which leads us to the last verb 3) Seated us together with Christ in the heavenly places This new location, new sphere, puts us in a position to derive every spiritual benefit God has in store for us as believers (described at the beginning of chapter 1). Being seated together with Christ in the heavenly realms gives the believer a heavenly status with heavenly power to overcome the power of sin and death. Boice reminds us of the position of Christ, described in Ephesians 1:20 that God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at God s right hand in the heavenly places. If we are together with Christ, that is our position as well. We reign with Him. These three actions, being made alive, raised and seated in the heavenlies together with Christ are gamechangers. They completely change the rules of the game for us. God enters into our desperate situation and wreaks havoc on the status quo of our lives. That brings us to the WHY? Why would God pour out His mercy, grace, love and kindness on people like us who were dead in our sins and by nature children of His wrath? It doesn t make much sense, does it? Have you ever had someone do something and you were left scratching your head because you have no idea why they just did what they did? I remember walking into school one day my freshman year of High School and this senior pushed me against the wall with his arm to my throat and said, You re a real smart aleck (not his actual word), and we don t put up with smart alecks around here. I walked away befuddled. I didn t really ever remember even

6 speaking to this guy before, so I wasn t sure how I had been a smart aleck towards him or why he had felt the need to impress on me that my behavior was unacceptable. If we think about it, God s actions also leave us a bit befuddled but in a good way. It seems too good to be true and we know from experience that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. Except in this case it isn t. Why would God make us alive, raise us up and seat us in the heavenly realms together with Christ? Verse 7 gives us the answer. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He did it to put His wealth of grace on display for all to see. Not in a show-offey kind of way God doesn t need that but so that all of creation will see and know and understand it. In other words, so that the glory of God might be known by every living creature to the ends of the earth. You see, it really is all about Him. We are the beneficiaries and yes, it does say in verse 5 it was because of His great love for us, but ultimately this unlikely transaction of life for death was not about us. It was all about God and the wealth of His character in mercy, grace, love and kindness. That s why He entered into our desperate situation and wreaked havoc on our status quo. That s why He saved us rescuing us from sin and wrath and death. And aren t we glad He did. It s a gamechanger. God enters into our desperate situation and wreaks havoc on the status quo of our lives. Since we have on our sleuthing caps, let s ask one more question of this passage: SO WHAT? As we begin to come to grips with this new identity into which God is transforming us in Christ Jesus, what difference does it make in our lives? First, let s look at some WRONG responses: 1) PRIDE knowing us as well as we do, we know that it will be tempting for us to think, Wow! Look at me! God saved me by His grace and by His mercy made me alive and raised me up and seated me at His right hand together with Christ. I must be something special. It s too bad those lowly sinners aren t as

7 special as me. Remember, what we have, as we will see next week, is a gift from God and is for the purpose of proclaiming HIS glory. Without Him, we re still dead. 2) ESCAPISM In other words, even though positionally God has transported us to the heavenly realms we must still live physically in the world. In Philippians, Paul said that he would much rather depart this world and get on with eternity in heaven. But he knew he still had work to do here on earth. You ve heard of people who are so heavenly-minded that they are no earthly good? Don t let that be you. 3) PERFECTIONISM There are some who obviously have been paying no attention to my life and think that this passage means it is possible for believers to live completely without sin. While Paul does seem to be optimistic that believers can live godly lives, he was fully aware that we are still works in progress, in the process of being sanctified a work that will continue until we see Jesus face to face. Okay, so we know how NOT to respond to these great truths. How SHOULD we respond? One author I read said, This passage screams, GET A LIFE! Understanding our newly transformed identity helps us to know who we are which, in turn, determines HOW WE LIVE. The life we live in Christ come with great: 1) HONOR to be seated at a table we have no business being seated at is a true honor. We should treat it with the respect and dignity it deserves. 2) PRIVILEGE Boice paints the picture of sitting at the right hand of the Father, the Sovereign God of the universe, and from time to time He leans over and whispers in our ear as He would a confidant giving us a slight preview of what He is going to do next. 3) SECURITY Jesus said NO ONE can snatch us out of the Father s hand. Once He has made us alive, who can make us dead again. 4) RESPONSIBILITY as recipients of His grace and mercy, we are now His ambassadors in the world. We function as His hands, feet, and mouth, making known His mercy, grace, love and kindness extending His glory to the ends of the earth.

8 But God He is truly the ultimate gamechanger. God enters into our desperate situation and wreaks havoc on the status quo of our lives.