Why Spend a Year Studying the Old Testament?

There are so many reasons to spend not only a year, but a lifetime studying the Old Testament in great detail. I had always read the Old Testament in my reading plan every year, but had never studied as deeply or intensely as I had the New Testament. However, during my year of “required” study I became convicted of several reasons I should have been studying the Old Testament harder all along. First, the Old Testament accounts for approximately two-thirds of our Bibles. That is a significant portion of the way in which God has chosen to speak to us through His word. The reason that is important is because 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” This passage gives me enough reason all by itself to believe that I had been drastically missing something by not studying the Old Testament as carefully as I had the New Testament. All Scripture is literally breathed out by God. God breathed this word out for the benefit of being taught, being reproved, being corrected, and being trained in righteousness. These are vital things that must happen if we are to people who are competent to do any good work. My desire is to be a man listening to God’s very word and being changed at the heart level to have the type of faith that moves to good works.
I think this happens as we become more and more like Christ. As we see Christ clearly, we are changed more and more into the same image from one degree of glory to the next (2 Cor. 3). We run the race by throwing off every sin that burdens and entangles, and we do this by looking to Jesus, the Author and Originator of faith. His faith becomes our faith, we throw off sin and conform to His image by looking at Him and to Him in all things (Hebrews 12). So, many people see the Old Testament as merely a section of the Bible that teaches moral lessons. But, oh how I have encountered Jesus in the Old Testament. I love the Old Testament more today not because I simply studied it and saw moral triumph and failures but because I have seen and met with Christ.
Jesus testifies of this very thing himself. In Luke 24:27 Jesus is talking to some disciples and it says this, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” So, Jesus himself used the Old Testament to reveal himself to His disciples. So many of the Jews in Jesus day had studied the Old Testament their entire lives and knew the Scriptures well. Yet, they had managed to miss the entire message, and thus when Jesus came, they missed the very Messiah they had been longing and waiting for. Instead, they killed Him. Oh, how crucial it is to see Jesus in the Old Testament! Jesus said this to some such people of the Pharisees in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” The Pharisees knew the Old Testament Scriptures probably better than any of us could hope to know them in our lives, yet, they did not know them at all because they missed the message of the Messiah. I began to see the utmost importance it is for me personally to understand the Old Testament from this perspective this year, and also for me to be able to someday preach faithfully the message of Jesus from the Old Testament. Jesus himself calls me to do so!
Yes, in the Old Testament there is some “mystery (Eph. 1)” involved. However, Jesus is there. It would be especially unfaithful for those of us living in a time where we have the full canon of Scripture to help us see so clearly where Christ is in the Old Testament. O, how I have seen Him so clearly and how that has advanced my love and appreciation for Him being the fulfillment in the New Testament of all prophesied and proclaimed in the Old. O, how it has increased my great belief in the unity, clarity, sufficiency, and authority of the Scriptures.
I have seen Jesus anticipated crushing the Serpents head (Gen. 3). I have seen Jesus prophesied as the Son of Man (Dan.7). I have seen Him as the fulfillment of the picture of a kinsman redeemer (Ruth). I have seen Him as the only one able to be Shepherd all of life’s trouble and vanity (Eccl.12). I have seen Him as the Suffering Servant (Isa. 52-53). I have seen Him as the ultimate Sacrifice, Priest, and Temple (Leviticus). I have seen Him as the ultimate life giving bread from heaven for those in a complete spiritual wilderness (Ex. 16). I have seen Him as the one who ultimately removes all of the covenant curses and is Himself the ultimate covenant blessing (Deuteronomy). The beauty of all of these is that they are so clearly connected to Jesus in the New Testament. They are not merely inferences being drawn on shaky ground, but rock solid anticipations of the ultimate Savior of the World, through whom all things are headed up (Eph. 1). The whole Bible and the whole history of the world are centered on Jesus. I have been so blessed, challenged, and sanctified to see Him so clearly this year in the Old Testament and that has even enhanced my love and devotion for Him in the New Testament. It has given me a full and glorious vision of the Messiah who came to take away the sins of the world, ransom a people to Himself, destroy the Devil and all evil, and who will ultimately usher in a completely redeemed creation (Revelation). I praise God for the opportunity to study the Old Testament so intensely for a year, because I have seen Jesus

Ephesians 6:10-20 “Take up the Armor of God”

1. What is the main point of this passage?

Paul says “Finally”. Paul has one more point he really wants to drive home. Paul has two main sections in this passage. The first section is an admonition and a warning. The second section is a description of how to carry out the admonition in light of the warning.

Paul first tells the people to become strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. This has implications of its own. We are to be strong in the Lord and in His strength. This neccessarily implies that we cannot rely on any of our own strength in order to do what Paul wants us to do. It is the strength of the Lord that we must stand in. He then goes on to say that the way we become strong in the strength of the Lord is to put on the whole armor of God. God has redeemed us and has given us armor to fight the fight of faith. We will get to those in just a bit. However, the reason Paul is telling them to put on the armor of God is because the fight we fight is a supernatural one which we cannot fight with out natural fleshly strength. Thus, we need God’s supernatural strength to fight a supernatural battle.

Paul says that we must put on the armor of God because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, we are not just fighting other humans here. The Christian walk is not that simple. We fight against the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness (like the prince of the power of the air in chapter 2), and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We are fighting a spiritual battle. There is spiritual warfare. Chapters 1-3 show us our glorious salvation in being chosen, predestined as sons and daughters of God, redeemed, inherited, and sealed forever with the Spirit. Paul ends that section with a prayer for a supernatural empowering through the Spirit in our inner being, and that Christ would dwell in our hearts because we have been rooted and grouned in Christ’s love for us. So, Paul has hinted in chapter 2 and the end of chapter 3 at the supernatural aspect of this life of faith we have been purchased into and the life of unbelief that so many still dwell in. We are wrestling and fighting against Satan (the devil 4:26-27) and all of his evil legions of spirits. These are the spiritual beings at work in this present “dark” age we live in.

Paul ends this section by stating again that because we are fighting against spiritual forces of evil we must take up the armor of God to stand firm in the evil day.

2. What is the armor of God?

Paul, now moves on to tell us more specifically what armor it is we are to put on. He is using the image of a soldier going into battle and needing every possible resource possible. The everyday battle we fight against darkness and sin is a life or death battle. It is a battle for eternity, for our holiness, for our joy, and for God’s glory through Christ. So, lets look at the armor. Paul first says to gird our loins with the truth.

The imagery here is a belt which holds all of the other armor together. We have seen earlier in Ephesians 5 that Jesus is the truth. In John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. So, for everything else to be held together, we must have the truth. The truth must be present in our lives. Jesus prays for us in John 17, “Sanctify them in truth, your word is truth”. So, the way we get this truth is to beg God to draw us to His Word, that in it, we might get to know the Truth, Jesus Christ. He is the truth that holds all of the other armor together.

The second piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness. This breastplate I take to be the righteousness we have in Christ’s death and resurrection. It protects us from any fatal blows to our heart. Though our other armor fail us at times, as we are weak in using it, the breastplate of the righteousness we have in Christ, not in our own strength, will sustain us and keep us from fatal blows.

 Next, we are to put on our feet, the gospel of peace. This is to be bound on our feet. This is how we are to run and move. The gospel of peace enhances our ability to be active in this fight. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet”. Galatians 5 lists “peace” as a fruit of the Spirit. Because we know the Truth (Jesus) and believe in Him, we have been justfied by Him and given His righteousness, which leads us to know God, the God of peace. We have peace with God, we are no longer in worry about our eternal destiny. Because of this Truth working in us, and this righteousness, we bear the fruit of peace. This peace holds us close when we have doubts, worries, and sin dragging us down. There is something about the nature of peace in the God of peace that will crush Satan. I think that when we know the righteousness of Christ in the deepest way we can on this earth, we experience the peace of God, and peace with God which frustrates the condemning and lying focus of the devil in our life. We rest in our peace and do not become overwhelmed with guilt, fear, or sin.

This naturally leads to the shield of faith. We know the Truth, it holds all together, we have righteousness of Christ, we have a deep settled sense of the peace of God and with God in our lives, and this leads to faith. We believe! The promises of God our better than sin. The promises of God overcome our sin. We are tempted by sin, and our souls say, “No, I will not run to that, I believe Jesus is more satisfying, more to be desired, I know that this sin is deceiving me with empty pleasures right now, I believe in the promises of God through Christ”. Or, we fail and Satan speaks words of condemnation to us and our souls say, “No, I know Jesus intimately, he died on the cross for me, I believe in His work, I am clothed in His righteousness, I have peace with God, therefore God is always for me and I will run to Him for forgiveness and full acceptance right now”. That is the shield of faith, with which we put out the flaming darts of the evil one. Satan is a tactician of our souls. Satan will send darts right to the chink in our armor, Satan will send temptation right when we are weakest, but remember, Satan is not all-powerful, all-knowing like our Sovereign Savior is. But, he is powerful and we must be on guard with the shield of faith.

We are to take up the helmet of salvation. This is another defensive element to save us from mortal wounds. In our salvation we are secure. We cannot receive any fatal head wounds with the helmet of salvation firmly fastened. When everything else seems forgotten, when it is hard to remember the Truth(Jesus), hard to believe we have the righteousness of Christ, hard to believe we have peace with God, hard to have faith because of our miserable failing or because life is hard, we cling to our salvation. We beg for faith, for a sense of peace with God, for a sense of our righteousness and Truth, but we cling to our salvation. Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold”. Psalm 51:12 says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit”. We cling to our salvation, which is from the Lord through Christ. When all else fails we run to this.

Lastly, we do not simply defend ourselves, although that is the majority of what is spoken here. Instead, we take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Matthew 4:4 says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God”. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God”. The gospels tell us that the role of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Jesus to us. So, we see that we are to live, fight, breathe the Word of God. We live by it, it is our nourishment which keeps us from being empty. It is by taking up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which leads to taking up the shield of faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If we have the Word of God in our hearts, memorized, used, spoken of often, then we will have the promises of God in our hearts. We will have resources to fight with when the pleasures of this world or the condemning voice of the devil come against us. The Spirit will then come and do His job, revealing to us Jesus Christ in whom all the promises of God find their “Yes” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Thus, when those enticing pleasures or discouraging darts come flying at us in this world, we can strike an offensive blow to our sin and the devil with our eyes being opened to see the promises of God which find their Yes is Jesus, and this happens by the Word of God being illumined by the Spirit of God who reveals to us this Jesus. As, we strike the first offensive blow, we then naturally take up the shield of faith, and in doing so we are reminded of our peace with God, our righteousness of Christ, and the Truth that we know so intimately.

O, the battle is hard and sometimes we are caught off guard or unprepared and all we can do is cling to our salvation. All we can do is plead with God through Christ to restore the joy of our salvation. I pray that as we see the riches of grace that have been lavished on us in chapter 1-3 and as we try to live “in a manner worthy of that calling” in all of the practical ways within the church, within marriages, within familes and relationships, in chapter 4-6, that we would remember that we have armor to put on every day. I pray we would take the battle seriously. I pray we would spend much time in the word of God, that the Spirit of God would reveal Jesus to us, that we would have faith that He is better than the fleeting, deceitful pleasures of sin, and that if we do sin, we have at all times peace with God, righteousness in Christ, and this all comes because of our intimate knowledge of the Truth who is Jesus. O, would many battles be won, many saints fight hard, that we might have great joy in this life and forever and that God would receive much glory through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ!

1 John 1:5-7 Fellowship With the Light

This section starts out with “this is the message we have heard from him”. The him is referring back to the one in v. 1-3 who they have seen with their eyes, looked upon and touched with their hands, the word of life, the life made manifest. They have seen this word, this life and testify to it and proclaim the eternal life to them. Obviously, we know from the gospel of John that the Word of life, the one who with the Father from the beginning is Jesus. So this message they heard and are now proclaiming is from Jesus. Notice, that the hearing is in the perfect tense and the proclaiming in the present tense. I think this implies that when they heard this message from Jesus in the past the result that continues into the present is the present proclaiming of the message. When one hears the truth of the gospel in a true way that one is then fellowshipping with God through Christ, one must proclaim it.
The message they heard from Jesus and proclaim is that God is light and in God there is no darkness at all. I wanted to go back and see what John’s idea of “light” was. Also, Johns idea of darkness. For God to have absolutely no darkness in Him means that he neccessarily must be light. Not a light, or a light shining, although he does shine, but God must be light if there is no darkness. So what does this mean?
Verses in the gospel of John on light and darkness:
John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it
John 1:7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
John 3:21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 11:10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him
John 12: 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness
Sometimes, these phrases can be confusing because clearly John’s view of the light is that the light is Jesus. No one else is spoken of like this. Jesus is the Word of life. Jesus is the light. Jesus does not just speak words of life, but rather he is the Word. Jesus does not just shine the light of life, he is the light. I think the reason He is referred to this way is because He is the primary messenger and the content of the message. Jesus speaks words of life, and those words of life are about himself. Jesus shines the light of life into peoples hearts and he is what is revealed as worthy to be seen for life and joy.
So, John sees Jesus as the light. We know from John 17 that John sees Jesus and God as so identified with each other and so intertwined that there is no separation, that is how Jesus sees it as well when he speaks of himself being God. John 17 also sees us as intertwined with Christ and God, Christ in us and God in Christ etc.
I think this also means that Jesus is the only true way to see all of reality. If you are not looking through the lens of Jesus in every situation you are not seeing it clearly or rightly. Eternity rests in the balance and yet if people do not see the light, Jesus, they will love darkness instead, although it makes no sense when reality is seen correctly. Indeed, John says that people stumble as they walk in darkness because they cannot see anything as it really is. John says Jesus came to overcome that state of darkness and bring the light of life, that is the message of the light of life with the content being himself, “Come to me, I am the light of the world”, the only way you can see reality and be saved and live in joy forever is me. You cannot see until you see me and love me.
So, there is a deep sense of identity here between God and Jesus and those who follow God and Jesus. To see the light is to become the light.
Thus v.6 says that if we say we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So we speak fellowship and that is a lie, because we are practicing behavior (sometimes, often, all the time) that is not in step with the light (Jesus). We are showing by our behavior and hearts that either our whole selves (unbelievers) or parts of us (believers) have yet to become like Christ, or light.
V. 7 goes on to give the alternative. If we walk in the light, as He himself is in the light. (theres the identity with Jesus again) we have fellowship with one another and the blood of his Son cleanes us (present tense) from every sin.
We cannot have fellowship with either each other, or more importantly God through Christ if we are walking in known darkness. We are simply saying no to the light and the joy that he offers. We are liars if we try to convince ourselves of this. However, if we walk in the light, we can have fellowship with one another, (I think this means each other and Christ based on v. 3 of this chapter) and know that Christ is cleansing us, purifying us from all of our sinfulness. When we walk in the light, we show our deep identity with Christ and we can know that our sin has been dealt with once for all because we are light and that Jesus continues to cleanse and purify us.
So, brothers and sisters, let us so love, see and savor Jesus Christ that we are compelled to walk in light and thus not lose the fellowship and sanctification which leads to our complete joy. Let us not lie to ourselves or others, but rather if we do sin, go to our advocate Christ Jesus and confess our sins and he will be faithful to cleanse us again and again so we can walk in the light. And, for those of you walking in complete darkness, who have never seen the world or reality through the light that Jesus is. Run to the light. Believe. Fellowship with God is at stake. If you do not have fellowship with God, everything else is worthless. Life or death is in the balance.

Ephesians 6:1-9 “Valuing and Displaying Jesus in Relationships”

1. What is Paul’s main point in this passage?

I think this is just a continuation of the relationship Paul is walking through in which he is discussing submitting to one another as we walk in the Spirit. Paul is simply thinking of the different relationships out there that model some aspects of the gospel and is addressing those groups of people more specifically. In this passage, he does it first with children and fathers. Now, this is with the previous understanding that a husand is to be in the “head” role of his household and over his wife, thus why I think it is addressed to husbands and not simply parents even though the children are commanded to obey “parents”. I also think the idea of submission is why the section to children and the section to slaves is so much longer than the sections to fathers and masters. Fathers and master do not have to submit. They have been placed in position of authority. However, Paul is concerned with some things that they could do in their positions of authority that I think could make more difficult the already difficult process of children and slaves submitting to imperfect people. However, I think this idea of submission, of children and slaves, as with wives has a lot to do with the way both groups value the gospel. Just as God is our Father and we are His children, so also should the relationship be with earthly fathers and children. That is why fathers are to bring up their children “in the discipline of the Lord”. Fathers are not to rely on their own philosophy or ideas but are to simply train up a child in the ways of the Lord. A Fathers job is to give his children the word of God, to show them Jesus and be transformed to be like him. The child’s job is to submit and obey the Father as we are to submit and to obey Christ. But also, as an example of the way Christ Himself submitted as a child and obey as a child God the Father. This is similar to being a slave. We are all “slaves either to sin or to righteousness” (Romans 6). We are slaves to Christ, but Christ is the perfect master always looking out only for our good and always enabling what he requires. However, earthly masters are not always so. So, Paul therefore is encouraging the slaves to submit because it pleases Jesus, and he will repay them whether they are slaves or free, we are all the same in Christ. Paul then closes with a short admontion for masters, similar to what he does for Fathers.

2. How do we understand these earthly positions of authority?

I think the first thing to remember is that we are all to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ. Even Husbands, Father’s, and Master’s will be held accountable to God. A father is admonished to not incite his children to anger, and like out heavenly Father to bring up his children in the way of the Lord. This in itself is recognition of the Lordship of Christ and submission to that by the husband. Paul says follow me as I follow Christ. I think this is the same idea with children and fathers. We are God’s children in the realest way possible, and earthly fathers are to show a picture of the love, provision, protection, and training that reflects that same relationship with our heavenly Father. In the same way, masters are told to not to threaten their servants, but to also submit in every way to the Lord as working for Him and not for men. The masters are reminded that the master of both them and their slave workers is in heaven and he shows no partiality. They are to follow that example and tremble with fear that they might abuse their authority.

One last observation is that there are hard duties in following and submitting. It is hard to do, mainly because those we submit to and follow are imperfect sinners who let us down and don’t always have good for those they lead in mind. However, those submitting must remember the picture of the gospel they are displaying and thus live in accordance to please the Lord and not men. Similarly, those in headship or leadership responsibilities must tremble before the Lord. They must feel the weight of the responsibility, the weight of the gospel on their own hearts, and then they must out of a deep sense of the gospel grace they have been given, follow closely their Master who is in heaven. Oh that many in positions of submission would love the gospel, and many in headship and leadership positions would love the gospel enough to model relationships so that the world may see more of Christ and God! This is the true path to joy, serving as to the Lord and not men!

Ephesians 5:22-33 “Valuing and Displaying Jesus in Marriage”

1. What is the main point here? Is this passage mainly about marriage?

Yes and no. This is a passage explaining the concept introduced in verse 21 of “submitting to one another”. I think that is a natural progression of “being filled with the Spirit”. Therefore, when we read about submission and certain actions they are definitely cues for how we are to live in our marriages. However, the key thing I see in this passage is the constant reference to comparing this to Christ and the church, and even comparing the marriage relationship to the relationship of a believer and Christ. In verses 22, 23, and 24 the wife is instructed in various ways to submit to her husband, “as to Christ” or “as the church submits to Christ”. They are told husbands are the head of the wife “as Christ is to the church”.

Then in verse 25 there is the specific call of Husband to love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Also, verses 25-27 are all one big comparison which is filling out the comparison in verse 25. Then in verse 28 there is a reference to the husband loving the wife as his “own body” and we saw that Christ loves us as his own body throughout Ephesians and even above in this passage. In verse 29 we see explicitly again that we are to nourish and cherish our wives “as Christ does the church”.

So, while we certainly are shown the proper way to live in marriage as one relationship in which we submit to one another I think that this passage is mainly about the relationship of Christ and the church. This makes sense when thinking about it practically as well. Number one, there is in almost every verse calls to look at that relationship in order to understand marriage, not simply obey, but even understand what marriage is all about. Second, the relationship of Christ and the church is the one that Paul and God are most enamored with and the relationship of marriage while beautiful and glorious, is only those things because of the way it can reflect the ultimate realities of the love Christ has for his bride and his body, the church.

2. What implications does this have for how we live our our marriage?

Well, some implications are very obvious as they are right in the text. Wives are to model the glad submission that the church is to model under Christ. Each member of the church has been redeemed and is to submit to the “Headship” of Christ. They are to do this in every way. It is that simple. Wives are first and foremost to submit to the Lord (as are husbands). This means, if a husband were to ask a wife to do something sinful, she should not follow him into sin. However, anything short of that the wife should gladly submit in every way to her husband, respecting his position in the gospel picture of marriage.

The husband obviously has a high calling of trying to imperfectly model Christ first and foremost to his wife and then to the world as people look at his marriage. The husband is not Christ, he also must submit to Christ. But, he is in the position of of “headship” in modeling Christ in this gospel picture. The husband is called to love his wife in the way Christ loved the church. The husband is to die for his wife, give himself up for her. This means a general sense of putting her own needs before his own in the most costly of ways. A husband is to go all the way  to death I think. But for the sake of what? Christ dies for the church so that he might sanctify her, washing her with the word. This then allows him to present the church glorious without any spot or blemish. This is the goal of husbands as well. We are to die to ourselves so that our wives can see Christ, can be washed with the word of God and be sanctified. This will also lead to a wife who is glorious and without spot or blemish. This obviously is not a call for husbands to make their wives perfect, but rather to love them in such a way as to more and more sanctify them and as that happens they develop the “adorning of the inner person of the heart, the imperishable beauty of gentle and quiet spirit”. (1 Pet 3:4). But notice, that husband must DIE to themselves first before this can happen. Husbands are called to love their wives as if their wives are their own bodies. When someone is hungry, they find food. When they are thirsty, they drink. I think this is the type of sensitivity husbands are to show with their wives. It is as if husband feel the hurts, needs, cares, desires, goals, dreams, and everything else their wives are going through as their own body, and again the example here is that Christ does that with His church which is His body. Christ is a great high priest who has suffered and been tempted just as we (Hebrews). Therefore, he knows, he feels it, and he wants to help. This is the call of husbands. This all hinges on husbands dying first, as without the death of Jesus there is no bride to sanctify and the bride would not be a bride and would not need to submit. This is a high and hard call, but what joy comes from it as well!

Lastly, I think sometimes we look at this passage and simply pull principles out of it. We talk about submission and headship. We talk about love and respect. Now, these are mainly true and helpful because we are designed this way to model something greater. But, I am becoming more and more convinced that the only way to have a beautiful, sweet marriage where the husband dies to himself for the purpose of the sanctification of his wife and the wife gladly submits, the only way this happens is if both partners are deeply passionate about the message of the gospel. We must care about the gospel for this to be the case. A husband will not die to himself if he is not blown away by the gospel truth that Christ died for him. A husband must understand his own unworthiness, his own sinfulness to the very core of his being, and be stunned at the gospel that God sent his Son Jesus to DIE on behalf of sin. Wow, that must blow a husband away deep in his heart before he will die on behalf of his wife. Then, after that blows the husband away, he must realize the gravity of the fact that his marriage and his actions represent that reality to the world, especially in a Christian marriage, but really in every marriage. So, not only is he blown away by the gospel, but how deeply does he care that the message and picture of the gospel is as clear as it can be? This is true of wives as well. Wives will not submit to their husbands if they are not blown away by the fact that they have been redeemed from their deep wickedness and sin. They must realize also that their husbands are sinners in need of gospel grace and forgiveness. Then, when they are blown away by the love of God through Christ’s death on the cross, they also must decide how important it is to give the world and accurate picture of how the church should submit to Christ. How important is the gospel message to these wives?

You see it is not a matter of intelligence or of ability at all. It is a matter of the worthy of the gospel in the hearts of husbands and wives. The marriage relationship is the most vivid picture this world can see of the ultimate reality of th gospel of Christ loving his church to the point of death, sanctifying her, and meeting her every need along the way. It is the most vivid picture we can see then of the response of the church to submit to Christ in every way! Husbands will not lead perfectly because they are not Christ. This does excuse a lack of submission by wives if they truly care about the gospel. In the same way, when wives are not submitting, this does not excuse a lack of sacrificial love to the point of death by a husband. Christ does this for us every day. Oh, I pray that this text would awaken a deep desire to love the gospel more, care about its proper representation, and then live in accordance with those convictions. Humans pass away, marriages pass away. So, let us be passionate while God gives us breath to model the eternal realities to the world and to each other! To God be the glory and to us be happy marriages filled with deep gospel centered joy!

Ephesians 3:14-4:3: Walk Worthy of the Calling by God’s Sovereign Grace

I know I have missed a chunk of Ephesians in between my last post and the contents of this post. But, this passage has been simmering on my heart this morning and I think its an important one. This really deals with Ephesians 3:14-4:3. I pray it is helpful to motivate us to “work harder than all of them, but not us, but the grace of God working in us (1 Cor. 15:10). Oh, that we would not waste the grace of God toward us. I pray we would not be duty bound and heavy ladened with many “works”. But rather, that we would be joyfully gospel driven, working hard in the good works God has prepared beforehand by his grace (Ephesians 2:10).

Ephesians 3:14-4:3

When examing this text. Several questions came to my mind.

1. What is the “calling” we are to walk worthy of….the word calling shows up a lot in Ephesians….

1 Cor 7:20; 1:26; 2 Tim 1:9; Eph 1:18; 4:4, Rom 11:29; Phil 3:14; 2 Thess 1:11; Heb 3:1; 2 Pet 1:10

All of these passages have a reference to the calling or of being called in them. It really seems that in every case it is referring to the divine, sovereign, gracious act of God reconciling sinners to himself through Jesus. This is the calling. God saving sinners. We who believe can also be those who are said to have been called. So, what does it mean to walk worthy of this calling? Two things came to mind.

1. This call to walk worthy of the calling is a stupendous request. Paul has just spent 3 chapters defining this call. He has spent 3 chapters defining and showing and stating and re-stating and nuancing in great detail this Saving act of God. Those who believe have been chosen to be holy and blameless before God, predestined into His family through Christ, Redeemed by the blood of Christ, inherited by the God who works all things according to His purpose, sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that God will indeed retrieve His inheritance someday, given eyes to see so that they might have a spirit of revelation and knowledge of God. They have been privledged to know the hope of the calling, the glorious riches of the inheritance of the saints, the power working toward them. THey have been rescued from utter darkness by grace. They have been brought into God’s covenantal family into one household of God with the Jews. This is amazing. God has done all of this through Christ. How are we to walk worthy? How is it possible to walk worthy of this miraculous, unsearchable, unimaginable grace? So that is the calling to which we have been called. However, it made me realize something clearer about the passage.

This brings me to question number 2. What is Pauls main point here and how does everything support that point?

Paul is challenging the Ephesians, exhorting them to walk worthy of the calling. This is an imperative verb and thus can be assumed is the main point of his argument. Walk worthy! But how can one do this? How is this not legalism and not burdensome? We need only to go back to the prayer at the end of chapter 3. The Ephesians have been rooted and grounded in love. Paul prays this before he begins chapter 4 for a reason. He knows the Ephesians have been rooted and grounded, yet he knows that often times burdens and suffering and sin can kill a worthy walking. Therefore, he prays for a powerful strengthening of the Spirit and a very real sense of Christ dwelling in them by faith as the Spirit testifies of Christ in their hearts. Paul knows what he is about to ask is impossible. He knows if done in ones own strength it will only kill as it did to him when he followed the law rigorously in his own strength. However, he knows that the impossible has already been accomplished in many ways with the amazing salvation story of God intervening in history by His Son to bring sinners to Himself and into His family, and not just Jewish sinners, but people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. Therefore Paul prays to the God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that any human can ever ask or even imagine. God does not have limited resources. God is able to supply what he demands.

Therefore, when we read 4:1-3 we see not a duty bound command, but a gospel reliant faith in a God who is able to do the impossible time and time again and has already accomplished the most impossible by ransoming dead sinners to Himself. We are called to walk worthy, but Paul is certainly not counting on doing this on our own power. We often hear “do this in light of what God has done for you in Christ” and then we feel bad if we are not able to. Paul does not burden that way. He says, “Here is what Christ has done for you, it is a great motivation, but I will continue to pray for supernatural power to really comprehend and understand this love. I will pray for supernatural power for God to help you.” This is encouraging for those who feel a heavy burden that they have not done enough or felt enough in light of what Christ has done. Even as believers, we need more grace from the God who can do the impossible in our wretched hearts! Praise be to God who is “faithful to complete the good work he started” (Philippians 1). May God grant all those he has called to walk worthy of that calling for their joy and His glory!

Ephesians 1:15-23

Paul has just finished recounting the spiritual blessings given to believers. God has chosen believers to be holy and blameless in his presence in love, predestined unto adoption into God’s family through Jesus Christ. He did this all according to the good pleasure of His will. Believers are redeemed through the blood of Christ, inherited by God, and sealed with the Holy Spirit until God Jesus returns to gather his inheritance in the saints. What glorious truths these are! This is all according to the plan of the “one who works all things according to His purpose”. So this plan stands. It will happen. It is secure for all those in Christ, redeemed by His blood and sealed with the Spirit.

So, now Paul starts a glorious prayer for those believers. Paul sees the faith that the believers have in the Lord Jesus and the love they have toward all the other saints. He knows that the only way that is possible is if God has broken in and chose and predestined them as he told them in the first half of chapter 1. He knows that it is only possible by the blood of Christ. Therefore, Paul starts off by saying he does not cease giving thanks for them. The way he does this thanksgiving is by mentioning them to God in his prayers to God. He is thanking God for this faith and love they have because he knows God has enabled it through Christ.

In those prayers Paul is asking that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Him. Paul wants the Ephesians to be encouraged and grow in their love and faith by having an even more intimate knowledge of who God is and how God works. This is not a 2nd filling of the Holy Spirit. These believers are already sealed with the Spirit as we saw in the first half of the chapter and this is simply a request by Paul for more of God for the Ephesians, based on the fact that the eyes of the Ephesians hearts have already been enlightened. Because of the enlightening of the eyes of their hearts to have faith in the first place, Paul is now praying for more faith for them, through knowledge of God.

Paul has some specific things he wants the Ephesians to know. There are three specific things and Paul focuses most on the 3rd aspect.

The first thing Paul want the Ephesians to know is what is the hope to which God has called them. I think this all ties back to verses 3-14. These people should have a strong and secure hope of their eternal destiny because of the work of the God the Father in choosing and predestining them. They should have secure hope because of the redemptive work completed in Christ through His blood, the forgiveness of all their sins. They should have a secure hope, because they have been sealed by Holy Spirit until the day when Christ returns to redeem His inheritance. So, in the nitty gritty details of life, when its not all going well, what hope a believer can have in the completed work of God in Christ.

The second thing Paul wants the Ephesians to know is what are the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints. Again, this is relating back to the preceding verses. In verses 3-14 we see the phrase “to the praise of His glory” over and over again speaking of the work of God towards these believers. I think Paul is simply saying, he wants their eyes to be opened to see the magnitude of this being inherited by God. What a crazy thing to think about. The almighty God of the universe made it a priority to choose a people to inherit for himself. Predesting, choosing, redeeming….what riches of glory does this inheritance show of God!

The third thing Paul wants the Ephesians to see is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us the ones who are now believing. However, this is not some random power. This is power that has been worked in the past on our behalf with the results of that work continuing up to our present time. This power is the power of the death and resurrection of Christ. This is the power that God worked on our behalf through Christ when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him on His right hand in the heavenly places. It is not some mystical power. It is the power of God to conquer sin on our behalf and create a new heart in us through the resurrection of His Son on our behalf.

Jesus now reigns far above every power, authority, ruler, or principality and above every name that could be named not only in this age but age upon age upon age. There will never be a greater name than Jesus. There will never be a great ruler. All things are under his feet. This all-powerful, all sovereign one has been given to the church, those who trust in His death and resurrection power on their behalf. Not only that, but those in the church are his body! We are part of the body of Christ. We are part of his work of filling the whole earth with His glory!

I hope and pray that we can see the magnitude of being part of the entire plan and scope of history. I pray that we would begin to pray for each other and ourselves like Paul prayed. I pray that God would give us a fresh spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing him. I pray that we would know the secure hope of His calling. Oh that we would know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And most of all, just as Paul spent the most time here, I would pray that we would know the surpassing greatness of His power toward us, which is the power he worked in Christ our behalf, raising Christ from the dead so that we could be raised from our deadness, and seating Christ in the heavenly places ruling over all, so that one day we will also sit with Christ and rule over all in the climax of all history! Praise God for His glorious plan of salvation for lowly sinners like us, all through Christ!