August 6, 2001
Lessons for August 19
FAMILY BIBLE STUDY:
Christ has won the battle and peace is the result
___Ephesians 2:11-22
___By Bobby Dagnel
___First Baptist Church, Nederland
___In response to the question of how much he knew about God, George Beverly Shea replied, "I don't know much, but what I do know has changed my life."
___What he knew and what had changed him were the redemptive purposes of God as revealed through the person of Jesus Christ. In all of life there is no more important knowledge than the understanding of how one is reconciled to God. Nowhere are thedynamics of reconciliation and redemption made more understandable than in this week's focal passage, Ephesians 2:11-22.
___In this section of the Ephesian letter, Paul reminds the readers of what they once were--"separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world" (v. 12). To be separate from Christ, without hope and without God, is one of the most frightening and tragic portraits in all of Scripture. The person who finds himself or herself in this state has nothing for which to live.
___In verse 1, Paul describes unreconciled humanity as being dead in transgressions and sins. What Christ offers humanity is not social reformation but eternal transformation. Ours isn't a sick world needing to get well but a dead world needing to be resurrected. As Paul explains, our former, unregenerate state is nothing more than a living death.
___Do you remember those days? When you were dead in your transgressions and sins? When you were alienated from God? When you were without Christ? When you were without hope? In verses 11 and 12, Paul tells us to remember what we once were.
___In our spiritual journey, it is a healthy thing occasionally to remember and reflect upon our days before conversion. Remembering what we were gives us a greater appreciation for what God has done and what we have become. This is the very transition the apostle makes in verse 13. "But now," he writes, "in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." With this the focus turns from what we were to what Christ has done.
___"The blood of Christ" points to his sacrificial death on the cross for our sins, by which he reconciled us to God and to one another. "In Christ Jesus" highlights our personal union with Christ through the life of faith. The first is the historical event of the cross. The second is the conversion experience of the individual. Paul utilizes both expressions to describe the process by which we who "once were far away have been brought near."
___As a result of what Christ has done, he is the peacemaker between God and us (v. 14). Peace has been procured on our behalf but we must respond in faith and trust.
___On March 19, 1974, Japanese Army officer Lt. Hiroo Onoda walked out of the jungle on the island of Lubang, just south of Manila Bay, and surrendered. The war between the Philippines and Japan ended on Aug. 15, 1945. For nearly three decades, Hiroo refused to believe the reports of peace he heard on the radio and read about in Japanese newspapers left on the beach for him. He thought it was a ploy to lure him into a trap. He refused to surrender and continued his one-man war for 29 years. The war ended, but Onoda received no benefit from the peace. To benefit, he had to believe peace had been secured and personally accept it by walking away from his life of resistance.
___Hiroo's situation on the island of Lubang is comparable to the life of so many lost sinners today. Peace with God is available because Christ has won the war, but it will not mean peace for the individual until he or she gives up the life of resistance and surrenders to him.
___In the final section of our text, verses 19-22, Paul turns his attention to the consequence of what Christ has done--what we have become as a result of his redemptive work. We are now "fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household" (v. 19).
___We fail to comprehend and take for granted the unique relationship we have with one another as fellow believers. With the level of strife and conflict in our world today, you would think the community of faith would cling all the more to this great spiritual kinship we have as brothers and sisters in Christ. Tragically, however, the contentions of the world often lead to contentious attitudes in the church. So much so that some churches are more like a courthouse than God's house.
___As a pastor, it grieves my soul deeply to hear one member speak evil of another. If we spent as much energy speaking against evil as we did speaking against the saints, the influence of the church would be immeasurable.
___Frederick the Great said, "The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog." While it is sometimes a challenge, part of our distinctiveness as the body of Christ is the love that we have for one another. "By this," Jesus said, "shall all men know that you are my disciples."
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