Ephesians 2:11-22

“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. 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. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 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.”

After describing in great detail how the Ephesians were “dead in their trespasses”, a spiritual condition which left them “having no hope and without God in the world”, and expounding magnificently the rich and overflowing blessings that are theirs in Christ, Paul now shows how these very blessings are all that is needed to do away with hostility and division which would have otherwise been quite natural and expected of the mix of people who had become the Ephesian church.

The Jews of that time obeyed God’s command to them to be separate from the pagans (Gentiles) around them, but they did so with a haughty and superior attitude which cannot have been pleasing to God. The Bible doesn’t say much about how the Gentiles regarded their Jewish neighbors, but being the object of racial discrimination is never a path to good interpersonal relationships. In Ephesus, these two peoples who had lived separate lives, barely tolerating one another, found themselves suddenly thrown together in a new relationship, as fellow disciples of Christ and fellow worshipers in the same church.

At first, it’s tempting to think “What has all this got to do with me? This hostility between Jews and Gentiles was 2,000 years ago. That’s old news.” And if we look at this passage as limited to Jews and Gentiles, you’d be right. But, it is not so limited. Far from it!

Discrimination, division and dissent is still very much a part of the modern world. If you think racial discrimination is a thing of the past, as I once did, take a look at this book by Emmanuel Acho. Every four years, political division is fanned into a raging fire yet again in an effort to win political office. Between elections, the various news services continue to fan the flames in their effort to sell newspapers or televised ads. Before you dismiss these issues as no problem for you, think what your reaction would be if a family of another race or another ethnicity moved in next door. How do you relate to church members in election season (or out of it) who have differing political beliefs?

Paul explains to the Ephesians, and through them to you and I, that these things are not, indeed cannot be, a source of division to those who are in Christ! “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Cor 5:17) My question to myself, my application of this passage to my own life, is simply “How am I doing with this? How well do I set aside temporal divisions to celebrate unity in Christ?”

What’s your application?

Ephesians 2:4-7

“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 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.”

Take a moment to look back at the sorrow state in which we started: spiritually dead, going our own way and doing our own thing, with nothing to redeem or commend us, and no desire even for the spirit of God, no desire to be united with God.

But God …

Hallelujah! Praise Him forever! But God stepped in to save us, even when we didn’t realize we needed saving. Paul wrote in Romans 5:8: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even while we were dead in our trespasses (v. 5)

Why would God do that for us? Paul answers that very question in verse 4: God is “rich in mercy”, and because of His “great love” for us. Paul writes more of God’s mercy in Titus 3:4-5: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”

Not only is God merciful, but He loves us! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Let’s take a look at what God has done for us because of His rich mercy and great love.

1. He has “made us alive together with Christ” … spiritually alive, although at the end of the age, we will be resurrected and made physically alive also. Note that we are made alive with Christ: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)</p>

2. He has “raised us up with him”, that is another way Paul is saying that God has made us alive together with Christ. In Paul’s day, they didn’t have laser printers with bold text and italics. Paul frequently emphasized his point by repeating it. Paul want us to know that our being (spiritually) raised up with Christ is a really big deal!

3. He has “seated us with him in the heavenly places” … your renewed spirit has a seat in the throne room … next to Jesus! God doesn’t look with disfavor upon the sinner, nor does he grudgingly chip out just a tiny bit of grace; He is overjoyed to save! Flip back to chapter 1 verses 7 and 8a: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us”

4. He has done all this in preparation for a magnificent future plan He has for us: “in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us”.

How shall we apply this? We have seen how our sin has completely and hopelessly cut of off from God, and how God, motivated by nothing but kindness, grace and love, stepped into human history in the form of Jesus to save us from ourselves, and has heaped rich spiritual blessings upon us already, only so that He can cover us with more spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms to come! I’ll borrow a phrase from Peter, and simply ask, in view of God’s rich mercy and abundant blessings, “what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness”?

Ephesians 2:1-3

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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.”

In this second chapter of Paul’s letter to Ephesus, he first explains the miraculous transformation which has taken place in the hearts of believers in Christ Jesus, then explains how that transformation serves as a basis for unity within our mutual faith. Any transformation involves a pre-change state (verses 1-3) and a post-change state (verses 4-10). For the moment, we will examine only our spiritual state prior to God’s transformation of our souls, i.e., where we came from, lest this devotional become too long.

There’s an old story about a little boy who came home one day and asked his mother where he came from. His mother sat down with him and explained the whole birds-and-bees story, giving him an age-appropriate overview of conception and birth. When she finished, she asked him if he understood. He answered “Yes, I think I understand. My friend Tommy said he came from Chicago, and I just wanted to know where I came from.”

As Christians, it’s vital to have a true understanding of where we came from, so that we can appreciate the miraculous transformation God has wrought in our hearts, and respond to Him appropriately.

Paul begins by saying that we were “dead in the trespasses and sins”. Note that we weren’t just desperately ill, lying on death beds waiting for the doctor to arrive. We weren’t just drowning, with one hand reaching above the waves for the last time. We were fully dead and in the grave. We were dead bodies at the bottom of the sea. Not physically … we were still quite alive physically and active in our self-serving temporal lives … but we had no more spiritual capacity to reach out to God than a dead man has to reach out to the physician. We were “following the course of this world”, going with the flow. We most likely didn’t realize it at the time, but we were “following the prince of the power of the air” … Satan, the Deceiver, the Father of Lies. He is “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”. Interesting phrase, “sons of disobedience”. Anybody who’s had a 3-year-old boy want to argue with that one? I thought not!

“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.” It sounds pretty bad when Paul writes it like that! However, Paul is simply saying that we were following our natural inclinations, our inborn instincts. We were simply following the crowd, doing as the Romans do while in Rome. And THAT was the problem! The rest of the world was enjoying a leisurely stroll down the lane, enjoying the scent of lilac in the air and the sunshine on our faces, right off the edge of the cliff!! And we were just part of the crowd.

Gotta take a sneak peek ahead to verse 4: "But God … ". Perhaps the most hopeful words in the Bible! Tune in soon for the rest of the story!

Ephesians 1:1-10

Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians with a rich discourse on the blessings which come to disciples of Christ Jesus. As we will see later, these bountiful blessings give believers an excellent motivation to be unified and to display an obedience to Christ which will draw others to Him.

As a brief aside, it would be easy to be side-tracked in this first chapter with Paul’s references to predestination (“he chose us in him before the foundation of the world”, v. 4). That’s an excellent topic of study, and in any such topical study, these verses will form a solid foundation. If you really want to dig in to such a study, I respectfully suggest Dr. Norman Geisler’s excellent book “Chosen But Free”.

I’ll leave that discussion for another time and perhaps another forum. For the present discussion, I want to focus on Paul’s enumeration of the blessings in Christ which are the Ephesians’ by God’s grace, and which are our blessings also:

“saints” (v. 1) Paul refers to the Ephesians as having been “set apart” by God for His holy purpose. We’ll circle back to this one in verse 4.

We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (v. 3); God holds nothing back, He blesses us fully and completely, with spiritual blessings. God’s blessings are not temporal, not material. They’re not temporary; they won’t be consigned to fire at the end of the age. God’s spiritual blessings are eternal.

Where are these spiritual blessings found? “In the heavenly places” (v. 3). God has not promised us material blessings beyond our most basic needs. Our spiritual blessings are in heaven, safe with God. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (v. 4). What a blessing and encouragement, to know that God chose to have a relationship with us as individuals before we were even born! You were chosen, and you were loved by the Mighty Creator of all things, before you were even here!

“… that we should be holy and blameless” (v. 4). God’s choosing us for relationship with Him means that He chose us also to stand before Him as His own holy and blameless children, all sins forgiven and forgotten.

“predestined us for adoption to himself as sons” (v. 5) Not only have we been chosen in His holy plan laid out before time began, not only are we chosen to be holy and blameless, but we are also adopted into God’s holy family as sons of the Eternal God! Words simply fail me to describe the magnificence and significance of such blessing!

“In him we have redemption through his blood” (v. 7) A blood sacrifice is always required as a penalty for sin. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” (Leviticus 17:11). The people of the Old Testament made animal blood sacrifices as atonement for their sins; for you and I, the sacrifice has already been given, the blood of God’s Only Son.

In Christ Jesus, we also have “forgiveness of our trespasses” (v. 7). Who among us doesn’t long for forgiveness! Think of the feeling you get when you know you’ve wronged a friend, then hear the blessed words “I forgive you.” So long as we recognize our trespasses, and the significance of our sins with regard to our eternal state, we need to be forgiven by God, perhaps more than we need food, water, or air!

God is not stingy with His blessings! He give us “the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us” (v. 7-8). His grace is truly our richest blessing, and He pours out His grace upon us most generously and freely. God’s storehouse of blessing is unlimited!

“making known to us the mystery of his will”: In these last times, God has made known to us much more of his eternal plan than was known during Old Testament times. As a father, I love sharing knowledge with my children and grandchildren. Exercising whatever meager wisdom I can come up with, I try to do so in an age-appropriate way. Likewise, God shares knowledge with His creation, at the times and to the extent we are ready to receive it. There is much yet that we don’t fully understand, but that may well be simply because God knows we’re not yet ready to receive it.

Finally, God works His divine plan “to unite all things in him”. Don’t we all long for unity, and feel disturbed and out of sorts when there is strife and disunity in our family, or home, or our community? There is an urge within each of us to fix such conflict when we perceive it. Having been made in God’s image, we long for unity, as He plans to create unity once again.

In consideration of all these blessings, and so many more, how will you respond to a God who loves you so much? “So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”. (Colossians 1:10)

Galatians 6:7-8

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

Don’t you hate it … in a way … when the same message keeps coming back to you over and over and over again? Makes me think God has decided I really need this message! That’s what has happened this week. Please allow me to share with you what God has been sharing with me.

In today’s scripture, Paul reminds Timothy, and God reminds all of us, that we will reap, in our spiritual lives, what we sow. If our minds are focused on temporal pleasures, if our efforts are aimed at gratifying ourselves, that’s what we’ll get, and we’ll be all the emptier for it. It’s been said that a man all wrapped up in himself makes a very small package, and that’s what Paul is saying here.

On the other hand, if our minds are focused on eternal matters, and our efforts are aimed at fulfilling God’s desires instead of our own, our lives and our hearts will be filled to overflowing, and we reap blessings we could not have imagined.

In Luke chapter 5, a leper came to Jesus and begged Him “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Just as the leper’s body was so full of corruption that no one would come near him, our own minds and hearts are full of the corruption of sin. Leprosy is eventually fatal to the body and ends temporal life, but sin is fatal to our eternal soul, and destroys eternal life.

Jesus responded to the leper, reaching out to him and saying “I will; be clean.” Likewise, Jesus reaches out to each of us and says the same. As always, Jesus is willing to make us clean. But, consider also that the story started as this leper came to Jesus! He believed that Jesus could heal him (“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”), he named Jesus as his Lord, and he sought out Jesus to ask for healing. While Jesus remains willing to make us clean, we, like the leper, need to recognize that we need to be healed, to believe that Jesus can heal us of our sin, and that He is willing and waiting to do so, if only we seek Him out and ask.

2 Timothy 2:21: “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” Not only do we need healing from our sin problem for our own sake, but there are so many things God has prepared for us to do in His kingdom, if only we will allow ourselves to be cleansed by Jesus and made ready to do His good works. If our faith is weak, and our daily living is questionable, we are not fit for service. We really cannot clean ourselves up, but He can’t either, unless and until we submit ourselves to His will!

Finally, in Jonah chapter 4, we find our wayward prophet parked on the hillside outside of Nineveh, waiting for the fireworks show to begin. He was angry with God (see verses 1-2) because he feared God would relent from the destruction of Nineveh, and accept the repentance of the people there. While God wanted the people of Nineveh to repent, Jonah wanted them to burn! We tend to read this story without realizing how much Jonah is like us! The fundamental sin problem is that we don’t want the same things God wants!

So that has become my daily prayer, that I will learn to want what God wants, and to abhor what God abhors. There’s an old hymn I love, which speaks my prayer:

> Change my heart, O God,
Make it ever true;
Change my heart, O God,
May I be like you.

Will you join me in that prayer?

Galatians 6:2-3

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

How many times have I heard verse 2 taken totally out of context, and applied strictly to bearing one another’s physical burdens, where the concluding application was “give more to the church.”! Not that it is a totally wrong application, but it is critically limited. We must read scripture in context!

Going back to the previous verse, we’re talking about a fellow believer caught up in a transgression. I don’t believe Paul changed his course of discussion quite so abruptly from one sentence to the next. We must meditate through these verses within the context of restoring such an erring believer to faithful obedience.

So, what does “bear one another’s burden” mean in this context? I’ll take some ideas from a real-life situation, without getting into identifying specific details. First of all, it means engaging in Spirit-led meaningful ways with the wayward believer, even when most others are turning away from him. No one was ever supported or corrected by shunning him/her at his/her depth of despair and sorrow!

“Bear one another’s burden” means taking on some of the emotional impact of the sin and the resulting consequences; hurting alongside the one who’s hurting. There are many appropriate times for dispassionate thought and discourse, but there are also appropriate times to “weep with those who weep” as Paul wrote to the Romans. (12:15). Speaking of context, this is the section of scripture in which Paul begins “Let love be genuine”, and goes on to give many practical applications of genuine love.

“Bear one another’s burden” means being generous with your time, spending time to listen to a brother or sister pour out his/her heart, working through what has led to the present distress. Take time to meet for breakfast, lunch, or coffee, without being in a rush to get on with your day.

“Bear one another’s burden” may very likely mean being transparent about your own struggles! No one wants to unburden themselves, to air out all the dirty laundry, to someone who puts on the false front of perfection or a lack of their own challenges and struggles. They need to know that you can relate, not just intellectually but at a heart level, to their own struggles.

“Bear one another’s burden” will occasionally mean picking up the tab. Meeting for a meal and picking up the check is another way of saying “I love you enough to sacrifice for you.” Let the burden of spiritual recovery become a bit lighter just because you were involved in a generously sacrificial way.

Another way to give yourself a heart check, to validate the genuiness of your love, is to evaluate how your feelings about yourself change when you’ve truly made a difference in another’s life. “If anyone thinks he is something …” Do you find yourself thinking “That friend is very blessed to have me in their life!”? If so, your love may be much less genuine than you thought it was.

Don’t “deceive yourself”! Compared to Jesus Christ, you are nothing! I am nothing! “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6, NIV) We must cultivate a constant spirit of humility, taking Christ Jesus as our pattern and our yardstick. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)

What lessons shall we take from these verses? Here’s mine:

I will pray for God to continue to prepare me for use in His service, as He chooses.
I will pray for God to bring me together with people whom I may serve in His name, gently bearing their burdens as my own, whatever those burdens may be.
I will pray for humility to resist the temptation to become the hero of the story, always pointing people back to Christ Jesus, and His sacrificial love of us all.

What will you be praying for?

Galatians 6:1

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

There’s so much in chapter 6, I think I could write a book! We’ll confine ourselves at the moment to this one verse which, by itself, has quite a lot to say to us.

“if anyone is caught up in a transgression” Paul assumes here that we know one another well enough, that we are sufficiently integrated into each other’s lives, to know about such a transgression. I wonder how difficult a bar that is to cross in today’s world? I would expect my wife to know much about my weaknesses, and perhaps my children if they still lived with me, but friends? Do we, in this “modern” world have such close friends that we would know about a transgression in their lives?

I believe the lesson for me here is that I do need to be more transparent in my daily life with my closest friends, so God can use that to bring openness from some of them into my life. Not necessarily those whom I would have chosen to have such an open relationship, but those whom our Sovereign Lord would choose for me. I need these relationships with Christian brothers in my life; we all do. And yet, today’s world tends to discourage and make such relationships difficult. I need to be more intentional in creating and sustaining relationships.

“you who are spiritual” Not all of us have been appointed by God to be the ones to intervene when we perceive sin in someone’s life! It’s so easy to fall into the trap of taking a confrontation in the direction of “you didn’t follow the rules”, or “you let us down”, or even worse, “you let me down”! One whose heart has been transformed by the Spirit (see 5:22-23) won’t go there, but will rather approach a friend with compassion and a genuine desire to help, support and uplift, without judgement.

Lesson: when I perceive sin in a brother’s life, I must first examine myself. Am I being judgemental, or genuinely concerned for their spiritual condition? Am I the one whom God has prepared and positioned to step in and speak up? Am I motivated by the desire to be a spiritual “hero”, or by genuine and humble compassion?

“restore him in a spirit of gentleness” The attitute with which I approach a brother in sin makes all the difference. In most cases, that person needs no judgement … they’ve al ready judged themselves; they know they’re coming up short! They need compassion, kindness, encouragement, and a gentle re-direction back to the words of the Scripture. They don’t need my advice; they need God’s advice. They may only need a voice they can hear with their ears to speak God’s Word to them.

“Keep watch on yourself” We usually read this as “don’t fall into the temptation to join in the same sin”, and that’s certainly a good admonition, but I believe there’s more to gain in this phrase. I also need to keep watch on myself to never forget that our roles could so easily have been reversed. I may have been the one in need of restoration. If my efforts at restoration are successful, I need to watch that I never take pride in what I have done; it’s all God’s doing, not mine, and I should be thankful that He found me worthy to be used for His good purpose.

I wonder what Paul will have to teach me in verse 2?

Galatians 5:16-26

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (v. 16)

We do not depend upon our own ability to obey God’s laws for our salvation, but that does not mean we can just go out and do whatever we want to do! “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh”. (v. 13) We present obedient, Christ-centered lives as our spiritual sacrifice to worship our Savior. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)

But how can we do that? As Jesus said, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:38) Our Christ-centered spirit wants to honor Christ with obedient, sinless living, but our weak sinful flesh keeps pulling us off the track and into a multitude of temptations!

Paul gives us an answer here, with his advice to the Galatians. Live by the Spirit. Paul writes here “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (v. 18) In the Galatians case, there were actually two laws from which they had been freed: the Law of Moses, and the law of the flesh. Like the Galatians, we too are freed from slavery to the demands of the flesh if we are led by the Holy Spirit.

Paul describes the ultimate victory in Christ: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (v. 24) Have you “crucified the flesh”? Have I?

We can strive towards this goal each and every day, by filling our hearts with joy in Christ, filling our time with prayer, and filling our minds with God’s Word.

Galatians 5:1-15

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

There is, I believe, a dual message here. To understand Paul’s message to us, we must first understand his message to the Galatians.

“… if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” (v. 2) Paul is urging the Galatian Christians to eschew the false gospel of the Judaeizing teachers, that one must first become a faithful Jew before one can become a Christian. Their despicable purpose in this false teaching is betrayed in 4:17: “They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.” These teachers did not want to lose their self-importance.

Paul’s point is that, if one’s faith is in their own righteousness, their own ability to keep the Old Law and the traditions of the elders, then their faith is misplaced and Christ’s sacrifice for their sins will be of no benefit. If, however, their faith is in Christ alone, then they are saved by grace, obtained through faith.

This brings us to Paul’s message to us today. In the 21st century, we’re not having a significant problem with false teachers trying to resurrect the Jewish faith within the Christian churches. We do, however, often have equally false teachers who burden us with the doctrine of salvation by obedience.

It goes like this: Yes, God’s grace is necessary for salvation, but His grace is shown in that God has set forth a plan by which we can be saved. That plan, they teach, is that we must accept Christ by whatever is the prescribed method in our particular church (it was baptism in the church of my youth), and then maintain our salvation by obedience to the “laws” of the New Testament. These “laws” were primarily laws of abstinence … don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t swim in the same pool with the opposite gender, don’t have sex, don’t enjoy it if you do, etc. Strangely enough, many of these New Testament laws couldn’t actually be found in the New Testament, but we were taught to trust the elders that such laws were there in spirit if not in word.

Others focus less on obedience, but work endlessly to rack up good works, to pad their resume for Heaven’s entrance exam. Make no mistake, God expects that we will work for Him, especially to bring as many to Heaven with us as we can, but we don’t earn anything by our good works.

Brothers and sisters, we simply cannot earn our way into Heaven!! Our salvation is a gift, and it cannot be otherwise. “… the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus”. (Romans 6:23)

Do this: Thank God for the free gift of His saving grace. Tell anyone who will listen what joy His boundless love and mercy has brought to you. If they choose to ask how they can have that same joy … tell them!

Galatians 4:1-11

“So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (v. 7)

In this section of Galatians 4, Paul contrasts the status of slaves to that of sons and heirs. Slaves simply are what they are, and have no hope of becoming otherwise, at least on their own. Sons, however, when the appropriate time comes, become heirs, and inherit both the father’s wealth and his privileges.

Paul asks the Galatians, having become sons of God and heirs of His great promises, why they would want to turn back to their former slavery?

Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34) Paul’s question applies to us as well. Having been enslaved to sin and freed from that slavery by God’s grace through Jesus Christ, why would we ever turn back to it?

It happens, though. Usually not permanently, but how often we temporarily turn aside from following Jesus for the fleeting enticement of sin. Why?

I believe that, in part, the problem is that we don’t really understand the full cost of our sins, because we didn’t pay that cost. Jesus paid it for us, and spared us from spiritual death and eternal separation from the Father.

Part of the problem may be that we don’t fully understand the magnitude and magnifigance of our inheritance. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee[d] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” (Eph 1:13-14)

The next time we’re tempted to turn aside for a moment, let’s pause to thank Jesus for paying the price of our sins for us, and to thank God for sealing us with His Holy Spirit, marking us as His possession and guaranteeing our full inheritance when we see Him in Heaven.