The Resurrection Life is A Saved Life
August 29, 2015
In the first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians we have had the privilege of learning about all that God saved us for: He saved us for a life with Him, a life of freedom and purpose, a life of security, a life of knowing Him, a life of hope and of power. But now we are reminded of what God’s grace saved us from, and the first thing we were saved from is this:
1. We were saved from life without God
Transgressions: False steps from the right path
We choose not to follow His path but seek to blaze our own apart from Him. In this way, going our own way, we separate ourselves from life with God. We turn our back to Him, ignore Him, and alienate ourselves from any relationship with Him. We are disobedient rebels who know the right path but refuse to take it.
Sins: Failing to measure up to God’s Standards
We all short of the way God intended for us to live: like Him. We chase after other gods, other idols that we look to for joy and meaning in our lives. We covet what is not ours. We don’t love our neighbors as we should. We fail to always honor our parents. We commit adultery in thought and deed. We deceive one another. We hate and even condemn others, murdering them with our hearts if not by other means. But the truth is that God never intended us to live this way, but we fall short again and again. This falling short – our failures to live up to God’s perfect standards is what the Bible calls sin.
2. We were saved from a life without Meaning
Without God in our lives we were left to follow the demands of this world, the deceptions of the evil one, and the desires of our flesh.
The demands of this world: The world seeks to influence our minds, our affections, our thinking and our living to seek after lesser joys then what are found in God and from God, offering us things, status and life that can never truly satisfy.
The deceptions of the evil one: He is commonly known today as the devil, or Satan, the tempter, the destroyer or the deceiver. He continues to work to today to deceive people into thinking it is ok to disobey God and live for self. He is the force that influences the world to ignore and disregard God.
The desires of our flesh: When the appetite for food becomes gluttony, for sleep becomes sloth and for sex becomes lust, our natural desires have been perverted into sinful desires. This also includes the wrong desires of the mind, such as intellectual pride, false ambition, greed, malicious and hateful thoughts.
3. We were saved from a life without Hope
Think about the logical conclusion to the powers that seek to lead us astray. Our sin caused us to turn away from God and choose a life that let our own selfish and sinful desires lead us. How does that leave us with God? Are their ramifications to our rebellion?
Look now at OUR PLIGHT apart from the mercy of God. Paul writes the conclusion to a life that disregards God and goes its own way. He says, “Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”
God’s Wrath: God’s personal, righteous, constant hostility to evil, his settled refusal to compromise with it, and His resolve instead to condemn it.
4. We were saved by God’s amazing Grace
We were saved from death, from deception and from destruction, by God!
But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:5