The book of Ephesians is the apostle Paul’s most beautiful and balanced presentation of the truth of the gospel (chapters 1-3) and the application of the gospel (chapters 4-6).
The order is important. The work God has done comes first. Our response comes second. We do not labor to live worthy, holy, loving, truthful and wise lives in order to be saved, but because we are saved. This is what makes the Christian gospel different from the message of every other religion.
Religion demands that you do certain tasks in the hope that, if you do enough, you will qualify for heaven (or paradise or nirvana or whatever) by the end of your life. It is an exhausting uphill climb and you can never be sure you have done enough. Different religions provide different lists of what you must do. But the common reality in religion is that YOU must do those things, do them well enough, long enough and sincerely enough to be saved.
Christianity is totally different. Yes, the Christian is called to live differently – to pursue holiness, to walk in love, to serve others – but the motivation is not to earn salvation but in response to the salvation God has already given us as a gift. The Christian works because we are saved.
Religion is driven by fear. Christianity is fueled by gratitude. Religion is haunted by guilt and the sense that you can never do enough. Christianity is filled with peace and joy because the work Jesus did was enough!
Ephesians calls us to know the gospel, believe the gospel and apply the gospel.
Aren’t you tired of climbing the ladder of religion? Christianity is not a ladder with a long list of requirements you must perform. Christianity is the Rocketship Jesus. He came to us to bring us to heaven precisely because we could not be good enough to pay for our sin and work our way to Him. Just as God provided Noah’s ark as the means of salvation in ancient times, so He has provided Jesus as the means of salvation for all people in all times.
Once you begin to understand this Good News it changes everything in your life. You begin to feel the grace and power of God lifting you up. Read Ephesians 1 and feel the truth that in Christ, you are loved. God chose you and adopted you to become His own child. This had nothing to do with how wonderful you are – it has everything to do with how gracious God is. Read Ephesians 2 and remember how God changed your life. When you were dead in sin and enslaved to your own desires God saved you. He called your name and drew you to Jesus so Jesus could lift you out of your sin and raise you up into His righteousness and an eternal position in the heavenly places. Read Ephesians 3 and experience the wonder of the infinite love of Jesus – “how wide and long and high and deep is his love that surpasses knowledge.”
When you experience that love, you will be filled “to the measure of all the fullness of God.” If you missed the Anderson Edition of the Oakwood Gathering, check that out and be reminded that God is the overflowing fountain of life! When we come to Jesus in humble faith – when we believe and experience the gospel of all God has done for us – that is when we experience revival and the filling of the Spirit.
Check out the two short videos here. The first invites us to consider what is going on in our hearts – to expose the sin and idolatry that is in there, coming to Jesus as the river of life to cleanse us from our sin and increasingly fill us with Himself. The other reminds us that the doorway to this kind of awakening is brokenness. “It is painful, it is humiliating, but it is the only way.”
The gospel is “the power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16). This is not just the way we are forgiven and saved, it is the way we are sanctified, it is the power that enables us to grow toward maturity in Christ. The gospel is what opens the door to heaven and what transforms us so we can enjoy the holiness of heaven.
Know the gospel. Believe the gospel. Be increasingly transformed by the gospel. This is the path to peace, joy, power and fruitfulness!
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:17-19, NIV