Going Back to the Root of it All
Still Brewing
☕ Justified in CHRIST and continually being sanctified - we are still brewing! ☕
"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
- Ephesians 4:1-3
The first thing to immediately jump out to me was that this chapter starts with "I therefore," so I wanted to check the section before to see what it's there for.
As I started tracing back, each section was beginning with "for this reason" or "therefore" (vv. 3:14, 3:1, and 2:11) until I landed upon vv. 2:1. Though I only have a note on the first part, this whole section is just so overwhelming and impactful that I want to put it all here.
"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 flesh 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 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. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, 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." - Ephesians 2:1-10
"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins … 4 But GOD, being rich in mercy,”
I just found this so impactful and beautiful. That everything we do must trace back to the gospel. We could not do anything, we were dead. But GOD did everything, and now we live through CHRIST.
It was a humbling reminder on everything we do in this life, and everything we learn about CHRIST: it all must trace back to the gospel lest we go astray and focus on the wrong things. All these "therefores" point back to JESUS as the focus.
Going back to Ephesians 4:1-3, I just love verses like these because they humble me, but also very much excite me because there is always growth to happen. There’s never a stopping point until our race on earth here is complete and we are with CHRIST for all eternity.
It brings me so much excitement because as long as I am here on earth, JESUS will keep working on me. Time in HIS Word will always bring fruition in my life even if I do not see it right away. JESUS is the only anchor in our lives and the only one who can and will always bring forth joy if we let HIM. How exciting is this all!
Oh JESUS, help me to always keep growing in YOU.
Sabina, you’re killing me! There’s so much here I don’t know what to focus on! This passage is one of the most important passages in all of Scripture. It definitely describes Regeneration and the necessity of it. I think many Christians believe that they came to believe on their own. They conjured up their faith. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Living Bible paraphrase’s Ephesians 2:8 : Because of His kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ.And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God. Sabina, thank you for your insightful commentary on this passage.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for always reading and writing such encouraging comments!!💗 What an overwhelming gift we have been given of belief and trust in GOD!! 💗
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