As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 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. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12 remember that at that time you 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. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
(Read in King James Version)
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My Notes:
It is not the deadness of our transgressions that is the subject, but the great love and riches of mercy of God who makes us alive. This is good news. This is grace.
He seated us with Jesus in the heavenly realms at the resurrection. When Jesus was raised from the dead, we were as well. This is the good news. As dead in transgressions as we were, Christ became. He died. He died a sinner. But he rose again, and all death that was once ours was also shed when we rose with him. This is grace because it was done for us while we were yet sinners. We were loved while in a state of unloveliness.
But he made us lovely.
Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called children of God.
It is no longer correct to view oneself as depraved or sick or unworthy. You are not perverse. You are exactly as God intends you to be. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He has redeemed you and seated you in the kingdom of Heaven. He has called you his own. He has loved you, and it is the love within his eternal being that makes this sure.
Nothing that you can do, nowhere you can go, nothing you can say will reduce this love. It is not of yourself. It is of God. He loves you.
He loves you.
A being so infinitely powerful and mighty and transcendent as a Creator loves you. No matter how changing or uncertain you may be, he is not. There is no shifting shadow in the Father of lights. He remains the same, and how he remains is in love with you.
It does not matter where you came from. Some come to the cross with a background of near-perfect religious morality. Some come to the cross without any prior knowledge of faith. Both are redeemed.
The previous covenant required obedience and genealogy. Before Christ, the people of God were a specifically chosen nation, set apart by strict laws that identified them as different and holy. All of this has been fulfilled in the perfect Jewish man, Jesus Christ. He lived every piece of the story of God's people, and his resurrected life offered is now offered to all.
In Christ we are grafted into the family of God. Our adoption in Christ nullifies anything that would previously separate us. Anything in our background that we've done or has been done to us is void. Our family and heritage, such as it is, will not make us worthy or unworthy of the love of God. His love consumes it all. His adoption is entirely in himself. We have nothing to bring, and everything to gain.
We are not strangers to anyone in this new body of Christ, this new family of God. Born into resurrection life, we are all made family.
And it is within this family, alive on Earth, that God himself dwells and through it he makes himself known to the world.
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