A worthy life
06-01-2019
Series: Scripture: Ephesians 1:1-14
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THE LAST TIME:
We looked at the Christian’s adoption in Christ. That this adoption is a spiritual blessing from God.
TODAY:
We will see that it was important for the Ephesian church to understand that their adopted identity happened through FORGIVENESS.
Therefore, our focus will be on Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
Paul says:
V4. They were CHOSEN in Christ.
V5. They were adopted in Christ.
V7. They were forgiven in Jesus Christ.
The above statements are the WHAT God has done statements. And what did God do? He forgave them.
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Then in chapter 2:1, we see WHY God did WHAT He did. Pauls says:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
In chapter 2 verses 5 and 8. We see HOW God did WHAT he did.
Paul says, it is by grace you have been saved.
And For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Paul did all this to point out their new lives and identities in Christ.
We see this in chapter 2, how Paul differentiates between their past and present lives.
V11. Remember that formerly you…
V12. Remember that at that time you…
V13. But now in Christ Jesus…
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In chapter 3:
Paul says that, he has been mandated by God, especially to them as Gentiles, to explain the gospel in these terms. That is,
THE WHAT – They were forgiven.
THE WHY – They were forgiven because they were sinners.
THE HOW – They were forgiven as sinners by the grace of God.
In chapter 4:1
Paul urges them to a live a life worthy of the calling. It says,
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
The reason was:
There were tension and division between some Jewish Christians and the Gentile ones. And if it was true that God by his grace forgave their sin. Then bitterness, rage and anger were marks of an unworthy life. Because the worthy life of the Christian is one of forgiveness.
This is why Paul writes in Ephesians 4:31-32.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
In other words, in the Christian’s heart should be no hint of unforgiveness. Because what makes them Christian is that they have been forgiven.
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Turn back to chapter 1:7. I want to talk to you about A WORTHY LIFE.
Paul praises God for the forgiveness of sin/trespasses.
This forgiveness: Paul says is God’s act of redemption, hence verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father”. So technically, for Paul, God’s redemptive act in the world – is God’s act of forgiveness of the worlds, that is, the world’s sin.
And the question is how God’s forgiveness happens.
Paul says in verse 7: “Through his blood”, that is, through the death of Jesus Christ. So it’s not simply that God redeems by forgiving in a vacuum. Forgiveness is not an end in itself. There is a means by which forgiveness happens. So ultimately, forgiveness as redemption is through Jesus Christ.
Paul says in verse 3. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
V4. For he chose us in him.
V5. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ
V6. in the One he loves.
V7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Therefore, true forgiveness is not:
- Driving out filthy spirits.
- Swimming in some Indian river and eating a thousand mushrooms.
- Some spiritual cleansing technique.
- Sitting in a confession box with a man, repeating your sins.
- Appeasing the ancestors.
Forgiveness is the recognition, acceptance and believe that Jesus died for sin – your sin.
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In chapter 2:1-2, Paul explains to the Ephesian church why forgiveness as redemption was necessary.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
And that the result of being forgiven was that God gave them new life in Jesus.
Look at Ephesians 2:4-5
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
This means that God’s act of forgiveness is not making:
- A tolerant person more tolerant.
- A nice person nicer.
- A good person better.
God’s act of forgiveness is making a dead sinner alive to Christ.
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In Mark 2:
It says that, Jesus went to Capernaum to preach the word to them. A crowd of people became so desperate they lowered a paralytic through the roof.
V5 says. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son your sins are forgiven.
Verse 6 says, Some of the scribes questioned it in their hearts, and said, “He is blaspheming, only God can forgive sin”.
As we can see, they were missing the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, and the source of forgiveness.
Interestingly, Jesus responds to them saying, “What is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or take your mat and walk”.
The point is, both are easy. But for the sake of this sermon, Jesus forgives sin easily.
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Our problem is that we are deeply sinful and self-righteous.
- We speak of forgiveness as if it is our clever idea.
- The invention of the thinkers of antiquity.
- The profound suggestion of a late therapist.
- Something innate to human nature; best witnessed in new nursing mothers.
- This explains our indifference, carelessness, and ignorance of it. We enjoy receiving forgiveness, but we refuse to give it. Parents don’t want to forgive their children, children – parent, friends one another, and ex-spouses are not forgiven.’
- We like forgiveness, but without the Forgiver.
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We do not know that the moral standard that forgiveness is attached to – is the 2nd Person of the Trinity – Jesus Christ.
Think about it this way:
By what moral standard does someone forgive you?
It cannot be a moral standard of their own, because that would just be the person’s own standards, which is relative and meaningless. Because someone else have other moral standards which requires forgiveness if broken. So forgiveness become meaningless if it is a requirement to live up to man-made moral standards.
However, if the moral standards by which a person forgives is the perfect moral standard of the second Person of the Triune God, Then a person forgive based on moral standards higher than themselves, As to say, they forgive because Jesus forgives.
Forgiveness is in Jesus Christ alone and it comes in the form of new life. It is the pulse of the Christian life.
David says in Psalm 32:1-4
Blessed is the one
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
my strength was sapped.
- So to be forgiven is to be alive in Jesus and for Jesus.
- Forgiveness is heavenly life itself
- Forgiveness is spiritual oxygen
- Forgiveness is vitality to the soul
- Forgiveness is divine energy.
- Forgiveness is the blind man saying to the pharisees – All I know is, once I was blind but now I see.
- Forgiveness is the Samaritan woman saying – Come with me, I have found the Messiah – he gives living water.
- Forgiveness is Peter saying – Lord, where shall we go because you have the words of eternal life.
- Forgiveness is – when you were broken and written off, but then Jesus came and picked you up.
- Forgiveness is you thinking you have it all sorted out – living by a righteousness of your own – But God gave you the righteousness of Christ.
- Forgiveness is you rejecting God for years, but still he showed you mercy.
Paul says in Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
In other words, the forgiveness of Jesus was bloody.
Paul continues this thought in Ephesians 2:13
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Brought near – In two ways:
- Brought near (by blood), to other Jewish Christians. Ephesians 2:15 “One new humanity”.
- Brought near (by blood), to God, as the Jewish Christians were near to God. Ephesians 2:16 “And in one body to reconcile both of them to God”.
So Paul was saying that, not only was the forgiveness that came through Christ bloody. But the bloody forgiveness that came through Christ accomplished nearness.
Look at Ephesians 2:14, and see who Paul accredits this nearness to
“For he (Jesus Christ) himself is our peace”.
In other words, forgiveness is not only new life in Jesus. Forgiveness is also peace in Jesus.
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In Matthew 18:21-22
“Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, I forgive him? As many as seven time? Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times’.
The question is not:
How many times must someone forgive ME, but how many times must I, as a Christian, forgive.