Healing Rays of Righteousness

I once heard about a minister who was attending a conference and decided to take a bus to the beach on a free afternoon.  Soon a strange-looking lady boarded the bus and sat next to him, cooing, “Cross my hand with a dollar, and I’ll tell you your past, present, and future.”  He eyed her for a moment and then he cooed in response, “That won’t be necessary.  I have a little book in my pocket that tells me my past, present, and future.” 

“You have it in a book?” she replied, not really believing him.  “Yes, and it is absolutely infallible.  Let me read it to you.”  Then he read Ephesians 2:1-10.  The lady quickly got up from her seat and ran down the aisle of the bus shouting, “I picked the wrong man!”

For many people, knowing about their physical and material future is so needful that they spend thousands of hours and dollars on reading horoscopes and listening to fortune tellers.

For me, this anxiety about my future is answered in reviewing and remembering my spiritual journey with God.  One way to really appreciate what has happened to us spiritually, is to look back to what we were, and in doing so, we begin to understand what God has called us out of and what future is ours in Jesus Christ.

Read Ephesians 2:1-10

The opening words of this chapter tell us that we were dead in transgressions and sins.  We did what we thought was right, but found it was constantly getting us into difficulty and destroying us – and we never knew why.  We were victimized by the desires of the body and the mind, and, as Paul says, “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (v.3).

From God’s perspective, we were spiritually dead in our past life because of our willful disobedience to his commandments that was evidenced in our thoughts, conversations, and deeds.  God doesn’t say sick or asleep, he says dead, in need of life.  Dead means to be powerless and rotting.  In God’s sight, we were powerless to change our behavior and rotting in sin.  As a result, we could expect nothing from God but His wrath.

There is a paradox here:  We were spiritually dead, yet alive and active against God.  We served the world, the devil, and our fleshly desires.  Because we didn’t live to please God, we set ourselves up for God’s wrath.  “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

That was our past life of sinful separation from God, but “hear ye, hear ye” the good news of our present life in Christ.  “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.” (Vv.4-5). 

Oh, what wonderful and amazing words these are.  We were “made alive” – resurrected to a new life of eternal relationship with God. This is our present life as a Christian.  We could not work for it.  We did not deserve it.  We have not earned it.  And yet, God gifted eternal salvation to us who believe, because Jesus willingly and lovingly paid for it on the cross.  And now we share in his glorious and wonderful resurrection life.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!”  But what exactly is grace?  According to Paul, it is God’s unmerited love acting on our behalf through Jesus Christ to rescue us from eternal death.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Rom. 6:23).

The exclusive agent of grace is Jesus Christ.  Behind God’s grace is Calvary’s cross and Easter’s empty tomb.  Jesus came to earth and took our sin upon himself, suffered and died as a condemned criminal in our place, so that we could be made eternally alive and new.  Why?  Because he loved us!

We have been re-created, born again, made alive and new in Jesus Christ to serve God. We, who were dead are now alive, not by good works but for good works.  God’s intention is to restore us to our original purpose as doers of good.   We are God’s workmanship, God’s masterpiece in this present world of sin and death.  This is our present reality and mission in life.

But there is more.  Both our present reality and continuing future is pictured in the good news that God “made us alive with Christ – … And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Vv.5-7).

Please read that paragraph again, slowly and thoughtfully, letting the awesome truth of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ penetrate deeply into your mind, heart and soul.

We have been raised and seated with Christ “in the heavenly realms” and even now share in a measure of Christ’s authority.  From this position of closeness and glory we are called to imitate God in seeing those near us who are enslaved by the powers of evil, and to love them as God has loved us, thereby participating with Christ in God’s process of salvation.

Thank you, Jesus!