October 9: Experience God’s life-changing power

Ephesians 1:18-2:10

Sep 21, 2005
WILEY RICHARDS

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

Many Christians struggle with how to present God’s plan of salvation to an unsaved person. In our study today, we will turn our attention to some of the spiritual stages seeking sinners go through as they reach out to the Savior who died for them. For a memory peg, I start each of these with the letter V.

• As the Holy Spirit directs, the seeker has to come to the place of a personal vision (1:18-19). By vision, I mean a spiritual understanding of what Christ offers. The phrase “eyes of your understanding being enlightened” speaks to the issue. The Holy Spirit entices the person with the promise of a different kind of life. Look carefully at three glorious pronouncements, to know the “hope of his calling,” the “riches of his glory,” and the “exceeding greatness of his power.” These become active in the lives of those “who believe” (v. 19). Their seeking presupposes repentance.

• Next, the seeker catches a faint glimmer of the nature of the victor (vv. 20-23). God the Father showed His great power in raising Jesus from the dead and “set him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.” Having established the Son in the position of honor and power, He proceeded to “put all things under his feet” (v. 22).

In an amazing change of thought, the Bible says God made Jesus the Head of the Church. The Lord of heaven abides as the Ruler of the Church. Almost as an afterthought, the church is His body, the perfect expression of Jesus, whom members are subject unto Him (Eph. 5:24). He reigns supreme in heaven and earth.

• To participate in this wonderful adventure, the sincere seekers come to realize Satan has brought them to the status of victims (2:1-3). They understand they are spiritually dead because of their trespasses and sins. They need only look at their life style to see evidence of their dire circumstances. They have lived according to the likes and values of the world around them over whom Satan, the “prince of the power of the air,” works his will to produce children who disobey God’s moral standards (v. 2). Furthermore, all of us once gave evidence of our wrathful nature by giving in to sinful desires(v. 3).

• God stepped into this dreadful set of circumstances and delivered His verdict (vv. 4-7). In spite of our rebellion and contempt toward Him, He has extended His mercy toward us, withholding the judgment we deserved. In His love, He never gave up on us. Although we were dead to His love, He nevertheless sought us and made us alive as we trusted in Christ Jesus. He raised us up together, empowering us to reign with Christ in heavenly places. All of this came about because of His grace. He purposed that in the unending ages to come, He will reveal to us the “exceeding riches of his grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (v 7).

• In light of what God has done for us in Christ, we are entitled to shout, “Victory!” (vv. 8-10). The salvation God provides us is a gift, not an earned benefit. The Bible states unequivocally that belief is not a work, as some commentators assert. As the Bible states in regard to Abraham, he “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom 4:3). The Bible adds, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (4:5). All boosting is thereby excluded (Eph. 4:9). We are God’s crafted product, fitted in Christ to produce good works.

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