Ephesians Part 3

Ephesians 2:1–10 dismantles every false foundation of identity and security. Yet this section is not ultimately about condemnation, it is about divine intervention. The same Lord who redeemed Israel from Egypt has now acted decisively in Messiah to bring life out of death for all who trust in Him. Give a listen. 

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Welcome to the Messiah in Life podcast, hosted by Bishop Justin D. Elwell of Restoration Fellowship International and Messiah Congregation, recorded at our congregational home in Washington Mills, New York. In this study through Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, we invite you to rediscover the beauty of God's covenant purposes revealed in Messiah Jesus. Together, we will explore the theological and covenantal foundations of Paul's letter. It's called Unity, Holiness, Redemption, and Covenant Identity for both Jew and Gentile in Messiah. This is more than a theological study. It is an invitation to see the story of Scripture as one unified testimony of the Lord's faithfulness from Israel to the nations all brought together in Messiah. Thank you for joining us as we seek to live Messiah in everyday life. And now to Bishop Justin. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, we will read to verse 10. And you, so he's transitioning. 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, underline, 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. 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, this is an important clause in the verse, and seated us with him in heavenly places, in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages we might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards 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 the results of work, 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. This is God's word. When we look at the opening of chapter two, of course, we are thinking back to chapter one in the transition, the exaltation, the doxology that we that he opens this letter with praise and glorification of the Lord, he speaks of Father, Son, and Spirit, and how uh we were delivered, how we were saved, what the Lord did in order to save us. And now he turns our his attention to the condition of both Jews and Gentiles. Chapter two is perhaps one of the most important chapters in all of the epistles, um, particularly in this epistle as well. But how Jews and Gentiles were delivered. So this um is not just about individual salvation. We talked about this a little bit this morning in the men's group, but we are a corporate body in Messiah, Jews, Gentiles brought together. We talked about how in different ages past it was not before, let's say, the Babylonian exile that there were none righteous. There weren't any believers in Israel living among the Jewish people. That's not the case. But because of the nature of covenant, when he sent into exile, he didn't just send the unrighteous, the disbeliever, the disobedient into exile. He sent everyone into exile. We've become much too individualistic, imagining ourselves individually. Now, our salvation individually obviously is important, but we are part of a corporate body. We are born again into the corporate body of Messiah. And because of that, that changes how we view each other and how we view uh salvation uh in general. So we've been liberated from the dominion of death, from corruption, from uh the corruption of the present age. And he speaks of the Prince of the power of the air. We'll get to that in just a moment. The hostile spiritual forces that are at work among the nations, among the world, the enslavement of uh humanity apart from the Lord's covenant uh life. So again, he's writing to a mixed congregation, those who were Jews, those who were Gentiles, and he speaks to them in a language that would be familiar, but not necessarily have the same definition. I just wrote an article, uh, it's up on the Restoration Fellowship International website about sacred language, the renewal of sacred language. We've lost that in the modern church. We uh let's say in the last 50 or 60 years, with the advent of the seeker-friendly model, we have removed the dignity of the language that is associated with faith, even in English, replaced it with language that is softer, language that is more, let's say, psychologically appealing to the uh the sensibilities of this age. And because of that, we've lost the weight of the language that's able to carry the weightiness of the Lord and the weightiness of holiness and sanctity and set apartness and so on. So we need to recover that. We recover that language not for the sake of language itself, but that we have a better handling and understanding of biblical faith. If we lose that language, we begin to lose the connection with how the Bible speaks in itself. The apostles gave us in faith a language that is specific to this group of people who have been called out and into Messiah. From that, you know, we have koinonia, we have Eucharist, you know, uh fellowship and communion. We have language that is specific for the ecclesia of those who have been called out. So we need to ensure that we are holding on to that language. And of course, we have shared language with the Hebrew Bible, uh, Kadosh or Kidoshim, holy and holy ones, which again is important for understanding your identity in the Lord, and particularly in covenant. So Paul is beginning this deeply covenantal argument, who we are in the Lord and in covenant with him. He's not contrasting Judaism with Christianity. That wouldn't be the appropriate paradigm to look at this through. Rather, he's revealing that both Jews and Gentiles stand in need of redemption or the Lord's redeeming through the Messiah. When we look at verse one, and you were, he comes from this beautiful uh doxological statement speaking about how Messiah has rescued us and raised us up uh in him and seated at the right hand of the Father, and so on. And then he parallels that we're seated in him. You were dead in your trespasses and sin, and that's important. So we have been, he identifies where we have come from, death. Now, this isn't physical death, this is a spiritual death. It's a separation from the Lord. So we were separated from the Lord, and that separation is uh ultimately death unless we are um redeemed, unless we are reconciled. Trespasses and sins, why not just sin? Why not just sin? Because trespasses speak to a particular type of betrayal. So it's a betrayal, either a betrayal of the Lord or a betrayal of our neighbor. We're to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself. So when trust the language of trespasses is introduced, it's showing that there's a fundamental um breach in the relationship that we are to have, not only with the Lord, but with others. So that is a betrayal that has a specific type of reconciliation process in the Torah given through trespass offerings. Sin, of course, is to miss the mark. Uh comes from that root to meaning to miss the mark. While Torah comes from a root meaning to be on the mark or to hit the mark as an archery. Both are kind of archery, or actually, both are archery and hunting references. If you were not taught properly and you were hunting for food and you took a shot at the uh the deer with your bow and arrow, you know, you could tell who who were off the mark because they were generally a little leaner, right? They were a little skinnier, a little thin in the skin, as uh Jerry Reed would say. Anyway, that's a weird reference. But we just we just follow it, we just go where the thought takes us here. Um so we were dead in our trespasses in sins. Now, Paul begins with uh the he's specifically speaking to, and the reason he's doing that is because of what we'll talk about in uh next week. Not next week, two weeks. Next week is prayer this uh two weeks. He's speaking about where Gentiles were, separated, isolated, apart from God, in death, and that spiritual uh alienation, separation, covenant exile, covenant death. Um, so Jewish thought, life is inseparable from communion with the Lord. So if you are not in communion with the Lord, you are seen to be in death because the Lord is the source of life. Yes? So sin and rebellion lead toward lead us to uh death, exile, and Paul's language echoes that here. So what's happening is not only is he explaining where or how Gentiles were positioned before the Lord, but he's explaining most uh importantly that both Jews and Gentiles are in need of divine mercy. Everyone needs the mercy of the Lord. It does not matter who you were born under or with or from what from what ethnic group or what have you, everyone is in need of divine mercy. So uh going to verse two, in which you once walked. See, he puts this in past tense. So they have been born again. He is leading them to understand who they are in the Messiah, following the course of this world, the course, the social convention, how everyone else does it. You're following that stream, which of course is uh to walk contrary to the Lord. Following the prince of the power of the air. Now, this is understood not just as an atmospheric reference here, um, but it is the spiritual influences that are in that level of um of spirituality. So the prince of the power of the air is obviously the devil, and how the devil influences and infiltrates governments, societies, nations, and so on. So there is a very historically, there's a very well-developed theological picture of the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, and how those are those battles are being waged in the spirit, we might say. The rabbis tell us that everything that happens in the natural originates in the spiritual. So when we see discord, discontent, wars, rumors of wars, it's all because it comes from the spiritual into the natural. So there are spiritual battles that are happening that influence uh us here on planet earth, that pit those who are of the Lord against those who are of the kingdom of darkness. So you're following that influence, you're following that that um course, as he says, the course of the world. And then he says this the spirit, so he does identify this with the spirit, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. And we'll I'll amplify that in just a moment. But who are now at work in the sons of disobedience, so hostile spiritual powers working within the present age. He'll talk about this in chapter six, where he is referencing um Arca, excuse me, Archae Exusia, cosmokratoras, principalities and powers and rulers of the present darkness. Uh, it's one of my favorite Greek um expressions or verses. So the phrase Prince of the power of the air again relates to spiritual uh satanic authority exercising power over the lower spiritual levels, which would be in um flesh and this creation here. So it's corrupting and it's leading the nations astray, right? So to understand this, uh it we see this is consistent. What Paul is teaching here is consistent with uh fairly typical Second Temple Judaism era theology. And we see this most specifically in the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Qumran community, because they had a very sharp distinction. They saw themselves as the children of light, and those who were in Jerusalem as the children of darkness. So if you you were uh you considered yourself a righteous Jew living in Jerusalem, worshiping in the temple, the whole temple was corrupt. You were a child of darkness, not a child of the light. And so they had a very developed picture of themselves, an idea of themselves, which did influence. We see they considered themselves to be the way, they were the way. And of course, we see that the early sect of Jewish believers were just called the way. And then Paul and Peter pick up on that children of darkness, children of light, motif, messiah references that as well. He he makes a few what many scholars consider to be kind of rebukes of the Essenes in a few places in the Gospels, which are interesting to see if you understand the language that he's using. So there is this portrayal of humanity uh divided between the dominion of light, the dominion of darkness, children of light, children of darkness. And so this is how the spiritual, the how the spiritual um reality is manifest here in the natural reality. So you have those who are born again in covenant relationship with the Lord who are children of light. And so this is kind of the dynamic. So how does the spiritual authority um function? Well, who is influence? How is it influencing uh people, places, players, nations, and so on? But Paul doesn't get into the sectarian sort of view of the uh the scenes, he doesn't really dig too deeply into that, but there is kind of this broader worldview that is at play. Humanity is um entangled, right, in spiritual corruption. The natural man is is caught up in this uh corrupt condition, the children of uh the sons of disobedience, because as we as he said, you were dead in your trespasses, you were in betrayal, you were betraying the living God, and you were in sin because you, as Paul says in Romans, we've all uh fallen short of the glory of God. And so the nations exist under hostile authorities, the hostile powers. So the rabbis say that for every nation there are um there's a guardian angel for that nation, to you lack of better language. So you have a guardian angel for the nation. In Israel, it's understood that Michael is the angel that's protecting Israel, which plays uh an incredible picture in Revelation. Um, so every every nation has these um Malachim that are associated with them, that are protecting them. And you have the spiritual forces that are uh warring, raging against. And that's why we have such hostility in so many places. So we have deliverance that's required, right? Deliverance that is needed, divine intervention, and that is where, of course, Messiah um was born into, like he he um, as John says so beautifully, he intended in flesh, he tabernacled among us, so he became um man. And so this is that direct, I can't move too far from the microphone, that direct intervention of the Lord into the flow of human history. Verse three, 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. Again, he is helping them to understand not only who Gentiles were, but also who Jewish believers were. Okay, we were all in this condition, pursuing the lusts of the flesh, the passions of the body, the desires. Now, it's not just sexual appetites, it's anything. It's anything that would have a control or an influence over you that takes you away from the will of the Lord. And so when he is speaking about speaking about this, um we all once lived in the passions, so the desires of the flesh, that which the flesh craves, what it yearns for. So rather than us yearning for the Lord, right, we're going after what is most appealing to us, and that influences what we do, how we do it, when we do it, why we do it. It directs everything about us. And now that we've been born again, that the desires of the flesh, the lusts of the flesh. Now, again, as Paul will uh talk about, or talk Paul talks about in Galatians, there is that battle between the natural man that is in decay and the spirit man, uh, the renewed man, and the desires of the flesh that want, right? It wants what it wants, it desires what it wants. Not only does it want things, not only does it want its passions to be uh you know tended to, it desires that um every every inclination and every appetite is taken care of, right? Um, and that runs, of course, contrary to the spirit of the living God indwelling us. And so that's when we know we we experience, I've said this so many times, spiritual warfare, the greatest spiritual warfare battleground is right in here, it's inside of us, it's that battle between who we are in the Lord and the natural man that is still, you know, twitching, right? He's still alive. And I don't, you know, I say this half in jest but half uh in truth, that resurrection power still flows through the body, right? Through the body of Christ. The issue is that we're directing that resurrection power most often to resurrect our old man. Where do we see that come up when we have you know fits of rage, fits of anger that are not righteous, when we desire justice, uh every right, uh every wrong to be righted to our favor. Um, and when, you know, heaven forbid, we see Step out of the will of God, and we begin to satisfy the appetites of the flesh. So, in that we remember that through Adamic corruptions, through the fall, this is the nature that we've inherited. It's the nature that is in our flesh. It's in the nature of who we are, who we're developed to be, who our ancestors have uh led us to be through culture, through uh society, social structures, and so on. So we have to be mindful of the influence that not just this generation has had, but every generation has had, and how that directs the steps of the unregenerate, right? So we don't think it's bad. I mean, you think talk to most people, I'm reason, I'm a reasonably good person. I mean, you know, I'm I'm pretty good. I don't know why I wouldn't go to heaven if there's a God he should let me in, because you know, I'm I'm decent. But we we know that uh that's simply not the case. Um so children of wrath, we're seeing this children of wrath. What does this mean? It's simply an expression uh dating to the the the first century that are those who are destined for judgment, they're destined for judgment. Now, contrary to a Calvinistic approach to this theology, Paul does not make the argument that some were born to be judged and damned. I don't I think that speaks contrary to the mercy of God. So he is simply stating what the end of the natural man would be. If you continue in your trespasses, your betrayal of the Lord, and in your sins, you will find that you are a son of destruction, who is heading to, who is going to judgment. So it again, it doesn't mean that the Lord created people only to be destroyed. It describes humanity living uh or standing under the consequence of rebellion and alienation and alienation from the Lord. So Paul is beginning to dismantle boasting. He's dismantling boasting. And what can any of us boast? Well, I was born to this family, I was born to that family, I was born here, I was born there, our bank account says this, yours says that. We lived on that street, you lived across the tracks. Paul is dismantling any source of boasting that any of us could have. There is absolutely nothing in the natural man by which we can boast. So he's beginning to dismantle this and point us to the grace that we've received in the Messiah. We'll get to that in just a moment. So Gentiles cannot boast in worldly wisdom or culture. Well, look at our Greek culture. It is so advanced, sophisticated, our philosophies are so much better than your uh biblical God. You can't boast in that. We can't boast as Americans, we can't boast in our ethnicities. So Jews can't boast in natural birth either. Well, I was born in the covenant uh of Abraham, therefore, no, that's where we have this dual covenant theology that springs up. And unfortunately, there are people who still subscribe to that, believing that it is favorable, but it's not biblical. It's not biblical, and it's a disservice to the Jewish people. Okay, so all everyone is in need of God's mercy. Everyone needs the grace of God. Um, everyone stands in need of it. No one has advanced or achieved some merit that the Lord will say, you know what? I when it comes to you, I am going to give you a reprieve because you're so cool. You're so good, and I'm so happy that I made you. You get a pass. Trust me, I never got a pass on. So this prepares the way for again this uh radical declaration of grace that follows. And we're holding on to that. Remember, he has already glorified in that in chapter one in that doxological statement, where he is explaining in the most beautiful prose who the Lord is, who the Father, Son, and Spirit is, how they are working, what Messiah has done for us. And now he's saying he's taken you from the depths of this, where you were dead, separated eternally from the Lord in trespasses and sin. And now you have been made alive in Messiah. You're now alive in Messiah. You're alive really for the first time because you've come into the glorious presence of the Lord. We're just so conditioned, and one of the one of the most um probably uh probably the most common things that you run into in ministry is trying to help people understand who they are in the Messiah so they do not see themselves as war woeful, miserable sinners for the rest of their life. Yes, we acknowledge we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Absolutely true, but that is not our continuing identity. We don't continue in that identity, but we don't forget it either. We remember what the Lord has delivered us from. That becomes our testimony. We use our testimony uh as we share the gospel with others that they would hear the good news and the the prevenient grace that is going before them as the Holy Spirit is wooing them to the Son, uh to the Father through the Son. Uh, when we we think of that, you know, that mess that you live through, that mess that you were delivered from, my goodness, how the Lord uses that to speak to someone else who's in desperate need. Think about the the the incredible uh privilege it is. So when we have that, those moments where we're like, I'm not gonna share my, I'm not gonna share. I don't want people to know who I am, who I was, what I did, where I came from. Heaven forbid they should know the real me. Right? That is more common than you think. It really is. Because people are worried about, I don't, you know what? I have absolutely not a rip of concern whether or not you judge me. Don't care. Because it's not eternal. You might think, oh, what a hideous creature he was. Glory to God. So were you. So we all understand each other. Amen. Amen. We we get it. We we were all hideous. Well, you know, what is it that I say about the gospel so often? The gospel says so beautiful, so clear, crystal clear. Yes, you were bad. Everybody can acknowledge that. I was bad. No, no, you were far worse. As bad as you thought you were, you were far worse. But then the gospel also tells us that we are loved far more than we can imagine. So there it stands in this tension. We recognize that yes, we were that bad, but glory to God, he loves us more than more than we can fathom. I can talk about the incarnation, I can talk about the messiah, and I have you know, in a professional vocation for 22 years, I can speak to that note, and I still, I still cannot approach understanding the full depth of it. I still can't. It's it's still amazing. Dare I even say amazing grace. Uh four through six. But God, remember, but God, some butts are bigger than others. This is big. 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 Messiah. By grace you have been saved. See, he's taking us to eight and nine and ten, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Messiah Jesus. As I've said, you know, I've said this so many times, and I don't think people always quite get it. We're bilocational. So we are both here present and we are seated or enthroned in heavenly places with Messiah because we're in him. So, how do we approach the throne of grace? We approach it by being in him. We don't have to climb a ladder, we don't have to figure out it's our wonderful neighbor over here. We don't have to figure out how to ascend to the heavens. I don't know what this is an aid of, but apparently I'm ascending. So we don't have to ascend, we we don't have to ascend to the heavens in order to uh beseech and enter boldly in. We're there in Messiah. That again goes to identity, who we are in him, right? So it's a very important uh point for us to always keep in mind. So humanity's condition is not resolved by self-improvement. I'm okay, you're okay. Do you know how devastating that was to theology in the 70s? That changed immensely. It changed immensely the approach to theology within the pulpit. I'm okay, you're okay. Well, I got to answer this somehow. I can't be up here preaching sin in the popular culture saying, I'm okay, you're okay. This is you're not okay, and I know for certain I'm not okay. And that shifted how pastors across denominations shared the gospel. We then it became a self-improvement. Just get a little bit better. No, self-improvement is not the renewal that we go through by the grace of the Lord through the Holy Spirit is the entire reworking of who we are. It's the confor, it's conforming us to the image of the Son of God, as Paul says in Romans 8 29. We're not getting better. We're not, we're being conformed to him. So we will change because of that. Our responses will change. Why? Because we're now imitating the Messiah, we're following him, we're being discipled, and then we are discipling, and so on, and so forth. So we have to keep that in mind. So it's not self-improvement, it's it's not because you have the proper ethnicity, it's not because you have the proper a proper religious achievement. I was baptized in this particular church on that particular day by that particular person, therefore, I have a far better pedigree than all of you. It has no bearing whatsoever. As wonderful as it all might be, as wonderful as it might be, it has no bearing on eternity. Salvation is God's initiative. You didn't seek him, you didn't find him, you didn't choose him. He chose you. You responded. You did not choose me, I chose you. So no matter how you see yourself, this is why I say this, and I and I know I get in trouble from time to time. But when it comes to what your feelings say about you and what scripture says about you, your feelings don't matter. It's what he says about you. No one can love me, then you're spitting in the face of the Lord. He has loved us with a great love. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Why? Because we love him because he first loved us. Everything in our life is by the initiative of the Father. He is reaching out to you. You didn't reach out to him, you didn't know. You can't tell dead people anything, right? I have walked up to more caskets than I know. Hey, you dead in there? No, I'm not I'm not quite there yet. Maybe that's just the days I didn't take my pills, but um, you dead men aren't thinking. It is the initiative of the Father that's reaching out to us and that regenerates us. So this is the Lord's initiative. The language here is is covenantal, it's it's biblical, it's so beautiful. Mercy and loving kindness, chesed. Chesed does not translate neatly into the English language. It's very, it's a very complicated word to translate. Loving kindness is probably the best. I mean, it kind of captures the weight of it. Ahava, love, again, ahava is it is it's it's it's it's a care and an interaction with the fullness, uh, with our full selves together. We use our whole self to care, tend to love uh everyone else. So when it says love your neighbor as yourself, well, here's the thing it can't be based on whether or not we love ourselves. Because judging by the amount of pastoral counseling I still do, there's not a lot of love to be extended. It's the care that you give. We get up, we feed ourselves, we dress our, we dress ourselves, praise the Lord. It's the care that we give. We don't think about it as care because we think about it as a living. But if you don't have that, if you got up this morning and you had breakfast, glory to God, you are far more wealthy than the majority of the world. It's a simple statistic. So imagine if you did not have that, but someone came along and provided that to you for no other reason, for the sake of love. That's a hava. So so then we have this language from life to uh from uh from death to life. Paul is describing every everything in terms of resurrection. We're made alive with Messiah, we're raised with him, we're seated in heavenly places. This is all the language of resurrection. Now, uh, resurrection is is a simple like Shabbat. You know, we come together and we Shabbat. What does that mean? It means we sit down and rest. It's all we're Shabbating, we're sitting. There's nothing mysterious or deeply theological about sit down. How do I Shabbat? Sit down. Well, you know, if we take it in a legalistic sense, then everybody whoever sits down is a legalist because they sit down and Shabbat. You Shabbat, you sit down. But what do you do? When you sit down, this is the beauty of Shabbat. When you sit down to rest in him, you need to rise in him. That's that's kumad, that's rising, that's resurrection. So we both rest in him and we rise in him every Shabbat. So we rest and we resurrect. That's the beauty of Shabbat. We experience that refreshing of the inner man, the inward man at that point is absolutely beautiful. So the resurrection language is here, but the enthronement language is here. Seated with him in the heavenly places in Messiah. There we are. So that in the what the coming ages he might show the immeasurable, immeasurable, immiserable. I'm not sure where I got that word from, immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us. And I I can't imagine how much more of his kindness he can reveal to us in in the Lord and Messiah. It's beautiful. So here we have exile reversed. When you're dead in trespasses and sin, you're in exile. You're dead, you're away from him. Death is overcome. Death is overcome. You know, I say this all the time. I quote this um from Moody. Uh so if if I do your funeral, I'm saying this, whether you want me to or not, you can't complain because you're dead. So glory to God. Well, not only rephrase, permission to rephrase. You've graduated, so you're not there. Death may be the king of terrors. This is what Moody said. But Jesus is the king of kings, king of kings. There's no doubt about it. I mean, you know, you know, death is a fearful thing. But Jesus is a king of any king, all kings, every king. So God dwelling again with his people. That's what is uh the striking language here is again, this is where we see Emmanuel embedded in this theology. That remember, Emmanuel, God with us, God in us, God among us. It kind of has that uh triune connotation. So here he is. Not only is he dwelling among us, but we're dwelling in him, as he is dwelling in us. Because why? We're his body. That's who you are. You're the beautiful bride of Christ, you're the body of Christ, all of that imagery wrapped together. So I can't, you have to get that into your heart and soul. Otherwise, the prince of the power of the air will always have some means of laying out a snare, of putting out his bait in order to entice you to not believe that and to uh react to it. Oh, God really hates me, he doesn't love me. I read that scripture wrong, he hates me because he so hates me, right? No, again, our feeling when it comes to theological uh revelation from the word does not trump his forever word. Forever, this word is settled. Yes? Yes, I'll agree with myself. But the beautiful thing here that Paul does, and it's so subtle, is that he includes Gentiles in this eternal plan. And remember, at this time it was like, you know, the Goim can't be redeemed. How can you, how can you, how, how can a no Gois can't be in relationship with the Lord? How would that, you know, how can a how can a Gentile be saved? And as I've said before, um, in the first century, that was the matter at hand. That was the theological question. How are Gentiles saved? The theological question today before the church is how are Jews saved? That is the question that's remarkable. I mean, it just shows you how much time, you know, this position has changed. But that is the question before the church today. And unfortunately, too many well-meaning people, I think, I hope I pray, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, have not considered the full revelation of scripture. Or they've read it from such a denominational with such a denominational lens that they failed to see how the Lord is still working among the Jewish people. When you come out with a statement, God is done with the Jews, and that is your thesis for your program, my ears are already turned off. You've got nothing new to say. Because you're ignoring the revelation of scripture. So, uh, where are we here? Um, verse 7, I think I've just read it. So, in the coming ages, he says, Grace is not an afterthought in scripture. Grace is not an afterthought. And he isn't inventing, and I think this is uh a disposition that some people have, is that he that Paul invented the idea of grace in opposition to Judaism or the religion of the Jews in the first century, the religion of Israel. But he's revealing the fullness of grace, bless you, um, already embedded within God's covenant dealings with Israel. So Exodus itself is grace. Well, this past uh this past weekend was Shavuot, Feast of Weeks, Pentecost. Um, we did here as so many congregations, we read the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments begin with grace. That is a statement of grace. I am the Lord who brought you out. That's the first commandment. And it's announcing the grace. And after that, he says, he tells us how to follow him. I have delivered you by grace, you didn't earn it, you didn't merit it. I love you because um because of my love for the fathers. Um, as Paul says in Romans 11, and unfortunately, it I think many translations get this a little bit uh wrong. Um, for your sake, they are hated for the gospel. But for the sake of the sake of the fathers, they are beloved. No, they're estranged. There's an estrangement that is happening. What's an estrangement? A husband and wife are having some difficulties and they're separated for a period. That's what Paul is directing us to understand is that, and why were why is there this estrangement? Well, obviously, sin has entered the camp. However, it's also for your benefit that the gospel would go to the nations until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. And why is there a hardness in part? It's not the same hardness that came over the heart of Pharaoh. It is a callus. Or more of a scab. Don't pick the scab. Why? What's the scab doing? There's healing under that, right? So a scab has come upon the hearts of the Jews. Why? Because there's healing that's happening. And that scab, that hardness that's there is protecting the developing tissue, the healing that's happening. So they're not broken off and tossed aside, as in Calvin's view. Not on a Calvin kick today, I promise. They're bent and broken. You know, I praise the Lord that when my left knee gave out and was bone on bone, and that's how I lived for four or five months. I thank the Lord that my um orthopedic surgeon didn't come in and just amputate it. Well, it's broken, so let's cut it off. That wouldn't be very nice. It was bad enough what they did to it to heal it. You look over and you're like, why is there a bandsaw in here? I don't know. Anyway, uh, you break your arm. I'll cut it off. No, uh Paul is using medicinal language, he's using medical terminology here. Um so there's an act of grace that happens. The giving of the Torah is an act of grace. How do you know how to please what pleases the Lord, but he tells us? So at Sinai, the covenant, actually, the covenant Sinai, which we have the covenant righteousness that the Lord made with Abraham, right? Uh, and then we have a covenant of discipleship, which is how I kind of phrase the Sionetic covenant. It teaches us how to walk with the Lord. So even that, it doesn't begin with command, it begins with identity. If you don't know who you are in the Lord, if you don't know who you are in Messiah, how can you be directed? You can't. He says, This, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. He's identifying who he is. He is saying, the one that led you, that's me. Did you deserve it? No. So in Paul's day, of course, the prevailing Jewish attitude uh among, let's say, um faithful cultural Jews was that they were saved by grace within covenant. But the tension is um who could inherit it? That was the tension. Who could inherit it? How do you in how do I inherit eternal life? It's not an inheritance. Yeah. You receive an inheritance in it, but not uh you're not inheriting it. So Paul now declares that this grace extends beyond natural descent. So let's move to these famous uh verses, and I'll try to speed this up a little bit. I'm a little behind. For by grace you have been saved through faith. So Paul is not opposing the grace of the Torah, the grace that comes uh revealed in the Torah. Um, but he is uh, and it's not it's not legalism. What man does with it can be legalistic. What man can do with the New Testament is also can be legalistic if you're not careful. So he's opposing confidence rooted in status, right? He talks, you know, we we we say beautifully that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. Now, that triad of dyads all exist. All of them. But none of them give you advantage before the Lord. And that's the point. It doesn't, you know, because we all know that Jews are are the only ones who could be saved. Gentiles, forget about it. We all know that you'd rather be a free man than a slave, and because you're a free man, you can be saved. We all know that women sit down, shut up in the church house, uh, and and men will be saved. Put that down. So again, not trusting in natural descent or natural uh position, it's not going to give you an advantage here. So grace, the issue here isn't as he's looking at it. Let me read this again. For by grace you have been saved through faith. The issue is not grace versus obedience, the issue is grace versus boasting, so that no one can boast. Otherwise, what would we do? Because I did this, have done that, I'm here, I'm there, my father was this, my he's removing any point of boast. No one can boast. So there's no advantage, there's no inherited merit, there's no position that you could have in the natural that will assure you of eternal life apart from Messiah. So the covenant was not, uh excuse me, the covenant was always initiated by grace, even in the garden, even after the after the sin. The Lord in his mercy, what did he do to Adam and Eve? He covered them, he clothed them. Something died in eternity, something died in the garden in order that they would be clothed. And of course, we see that as the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. So the when we look at who uh the Aramaic Peshitta gives us a beautiful picture of Genesis 3, where it says, the word of the Lord walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, the Ruachhayam. And I've talked about that many times. So what do they say? Remember, John says in chapter one of his gospel, the word became flesh. And duat among us, sorry, you know, 114. For the in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. So he's pointing us back to the garden and the understanding of what the word is. He's not talking about logos in terms of Greek philosophy, he's talking about the word, the memorate of who walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. It should be spirit of the day. Ruach Hayom is spirit of the day. So it doesn't matter if you're having a good day or a bad day. Where's the Lord? He's walking with you. Yeah, amen. I'll agree with myself once again. Um, so here we have the Messiah walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, who also, so we have this the second Adam or the final Adam who is covering the first Adam in order that he would not die. Talk about a matrix moment, right? Kind of a crazy picture if you can understand it. So Paul is radically uh recentering identity on Messiah. That it's Messiah, uh, where we find our identity rooted, not natural descent alone, but supernatural rebirth in Messiah Yeshua. So this is why uh Gentiles, as we'll get into next uh uh two weeks from now, um will now fully be able to participate in the promises of God, not as a result of works, but by the grace that has been given. And the grace, you know, faith is a gift. Faith comes from him. You did not originate your faith, you could not muster up enough faith to believe him. It was a gift from him. So he glorifies himself through every aspect of our renewal from the very beginning right through the end. We can't boast on anything. I believed more and I know Christ more than you do, right? Amen. Hallelujah. Awful quiet in here. He gave me a greater deposit than he gave you. Why are you shaking your head? You're supposed to agree with everything I say. Hallelujah. So this is the the uh the way he is introducing us to what we'll consider the second part of the chapter in a couple weeks. So Paul's concern is covenantal arrogance. We could be arrogant, say, ah, I'm so special. I was I was daddy's favorite. No. I was born to the right parents, I was born in the right nation, I was born at the right time. No, he's removing any place where we could boast in anything other than him. So if we boast at all, let us boast in him. Look what the Lord has done, look what he has done in my life, your life, our lives. Look what he will do. Again, it's not anything really um in any way, shape, or form to be uh concerned with us. So uh the belief that the this arrogance that could spring up is the belief, of course, that one possesses standing before the Lord through status or achievement rather than divine mercy. Why are we here? Because of his mercy. That's it. Uh for we're all his workmanship. Lord, I think you needed more time with me, right? Uh I we were talking in the men's group this morning about mirrors, how unkind they are. Mirrors are definitely unkind because I'm I'm still 35 years old, and I'm still in the best shape of my life. Now I'm just a shape. Up here, apparently, I don't know. Uh, where his workmanship. So, what is he talking about? It's something crafted, and it's something intentional, and it's something beautiful. Do you see what he is doing and how he is saying where you came from is not a mistake? Who you are is not a mistake. Who I am forming you to be is not a mistake. I mean, do we see the beauty of this? So he is, you know, as the potter is intentionally forming you and he's doing so, and he sees you as beautiful. Because think of how ugly we think ourselves. And I'm not talking about the appearance, you know, not everybody can look as as good as I do at 35. But the the just because of our awareness of our guilt and our shame, how we see ourselves, that can create such a distance between ourselves and the Lord. Lord, look away, I'm ugly, I'm hideous. Uh, you know, I don't deserve to be in your presence. I'm too ugly, I'm too shameful, I'm too and he's wiping that away. That we are his workmanship. The Lord made us, he's recreated us, he's renewed us. So the faithful and messiah are not just forgiven, we're recreated. Created a messiah for good works to do those things that he did, he created for us to do beforehand, before we were born again. He was already thinking of you before you were born again, and he has already laid out what he desires you to do. Now don't come up and ask me what it is because I don't know. He doesn't give me that download. But he has created, and most of the time, you know what? You want to know what? You want a big secret, you want a big theological secret? Most of the time, you won't have any idea what it is until you've after done it, you've already done it. Isn't that helpful? I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know how I'm supposed to do it. Well, just get busy. Be about your father's business. You'll find out that you're doing it. Raise your children, go to work, be faithful. He'll give you plenty of opportunity to exercise faith every single day. Get up, get moving. So the the pattern is beautiful. Redemption first, then covenant living. It's not covenant living and then redemption, it's redemption. He makes you his own first, and then he sets you about his business. Why? Why? It's heaven forbid we think we have to merit it, earn it. I've achieved enough credits that God loves me now. No, that doesn't work that way. So Israel was redeemed from Egypt before it received the Torah. Yes? Believers are redeemed in Messiah and then called to works of righteousness. Because now it's not our righteousness we're trying we're trying or attempting to achieve, we're walking in the righteousness of our Messiah. And the Lord sees us as, of course, he sees him. So good works, good works are not the cause of salvation. I think that's elementary, but we never we have to never forget that. We cannot forget that. Otherwise, we slip into legalism, works-based salvation or a works-based perspective that I have to continually um achieve in order to be loved. That's very human, isn't it? Maybe if I just did a little bit more, you'd still love me. And I'm I hate to say it, but the body still does that. What have you done for me lately is not just a pop song. It's not. I hate to say it. It's it's a song that the that the natural man of the you know, the regenerate in Christ sometimes sing. Oh, that's all well and good, but what have you done for me lately? Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah. Don't act like you don't know what I'm doing. Hey, you showed up. So the I'm gonna wrap this up. Um and the fruit, the fruit of a transformed life is shaped by the Spirit of God, amen. And that's the thing. Again, this is caused by him, it's not caused by you. So just a little reflection before I get into the conclusion Paul is dismantling false foundation, a false perspective of how we view ourselves. So, from a messianic perspective, we would say the nations were trapped under spiritual corruption and alienation. The Prince of the Power of the Air. And that's still operative today. Please don't think that this is just an antiquated idea. Matters of the spirit are not taught enough in the body of Christ. They're not. So Israel herself cannot boast in natural descent. All redemption flows from the mercy and grace of the Lord and Messiah. So this passage one through ten is not ultimately about uh condemnation, but about divine intervention. But this is who you were. It's not who you are. You're now renewed in Messiah, seated with him in heavenly places. That's who you are. And that matters not with how you feel about it. You need to trust him. You need to trust Script. That's why we get together, because when I forget, you can give me a punch on the shoulder. Smart up, kiddo. Right? Now make sure you warn me before you do that, otherwise punch bug. Anyway, I'm sorry. So the same Lord who redeemed from who redeemed Israel from Egypt now has acted decisively in Messiah to bring out to bring life out of death for those who trust in him. So grace is not an abandonment, and this is important. Grace that that we receive in Messiah is not an abandonment of Israel's story. The Lord is not done with the Jewish people or the state of Israel. It's not, but it's bringing about the deepest purpose of Israel bringing up being a light to the nations, and about the purpose, the ultimate purpose. The, as he called Abraham, Abraham, uh, Isaac, Jacob became sons, who became tribes, who became a nation. For what purpose? The reconciliation of humanity. That because Abraham was called directly after Genesis 11, where we see the judgment upon the tower generation. The tower generation were separated into nations, and now by the calling of one man and by the act of one man, Messiah, he will redeem the nations, bring them together. So it's a reversal of that judgment. So what do we see? Paul speaks into a world at this time that is shaped by spiritual oppression, ethnic division, human boasting, fear of hostile powers. And in that world, he proclaims Messiah reigns above every power. That grace triumphs over judgment, and life is offered to both Jews and Gentiles alike. So salvation is not inherited through flesh, nor earned through human striving. It's not it's received through the gracious initiative of the Lord. He is as much as you yearn for him, he yearns for you more. Think about that. As much as you desire to pray and talk to the Lord, he wants to talk to you more. As a parent, if you have a if you have children that live away from you, what do you love to see? Their name come up on the phone, they want to talk to you. That's true. That's what your heart desires more than anything. So you yearn to talk to the Lord more? Pick up the phone. Start talking. He's gonna be listening. He might tell you to settle down, settle down and be still for a while and let him talk back, but that's okay too. So he raises the dead, he creates one renewed people and Messiah for the praise of his glory and the witness of the kingdom of God on earth. So the movement from death to grace prepares Paul's for Paul's next argument. And I would say verses 11 through 22, I've probably spent the bulk of my theological reflection on. So the next class is gonna be hours upon hours upon hours upon hours. Um those who were once far off are not are now brought near together in Messiah. So those who were far off and those who were near. Near does not mean in. Yes, near to those who were near, those who are far off. It's a beautiful, beautiful theological um reflection that we'll have with that. All right, so for the sake of the podcast, we will stop. Amen. Thank you for studying with us, and until our next episode, may the Lord bless and keep you all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.