Recently I've been studying Ephesians through the local BSF chapter (Bible Study Fellowship)
This book is one of the most encouraging books of the entire Bible, and this book essentially spells out what it means to be in Christ. I've found a reading of these chapters to be extremely edifying, and also frightening, in that I'm becoming more fully aware of what Christ indeed saved me from.
It dawned on me that in terms of evangelism, this book is my preferred launching off point, as it goes in detail what it means to be living without Christ, how Christ loved us in spite of our sins, and what it means to be in Christ.
I'm basically going to quote my BSF notes on the commentary of Ephesians 2. Christ has saved believers from 4 aspects of the past life, and the past grave from which they have been raised. I want to focus on the first two aspects, and will do the rest in another post.
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1. The past status before God. Every person outside of Christ has no spiritual life, no spiritual response, and no spiritual accomplishments. God sees that person as dead. There can be no spiritual communion between the living and the dead. As Jesus said in John 5:5, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." Such a life is eternally and spiritually meaningless, however humanitarian it may be.
-- The soul who sins will die. Ezekiel 18:4, 20
-- The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23
-- When you eat of it, you will surely die. Genesis 2:17
-- Death came to all men, because all sinned. Romans 5:12
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What really got me here was the fact that growing up I considered myself a "good person" having been raised in a Catholic home and was taught that infant baptism cleansed me from what they call "original sin". However, the reasoning that I was somehow "innocent" because I had a calm nature and never did anything "really bad" like killing people was false reasoning. This "good person" lie is perhaps the number one objection that people have to Christianity, in that that they already think they are fine, or they are spiritual, or they haven't committed things like murder.
If we go on what the Bible says in terms of man having a sinful nature from birth, then the only way to experience spiritual life is to be born again by the Holy Spirit. No infant baptism or sacramental program will cleanse our sinful nature. The only way is to trust Jesus Christ personally as Lord and Savior, to be forgiven from a sinful nature, and to be given a new nature, in terms of 2 Corinthians 5:17
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2. The former controlling spirit. Every person who has not yet crossed over from spiritual death into spiritual life by faith in Christ lives according to the world. Behind this world system and all atheistic or agnostic education, cultures, values, or philosophies exists an invisible but powerful spirit -- Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ called him the prince of this world (John 14:30). Jesus taught that although invisible, he is a real person, posessing traits such as mind, desires, volition, and activities. Paul called this same invisible being, the "ruler of the kingdom of the air", the being whose influence permeates the moral, intellectual, and emotional atmosphere of the world. Our minds were blinded by the god of this world. This spirit united himself with our spirit to live in disobedience to God."
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If someone told me that I was living under the control of Satan during my teenage years, I would have thought they were crazy. Yet based on Ephesians 2, that is exactly what was going on, before having been born again when I was 21, through the grace of God. In terms of outward appearances, everything was great, and I certainly didn't feel like I was dead in sin.
The human being is comprised of body, soul, and spirit. Prior to knowing Christ as Lord and Savior, the spirit is dead, which is the part of us that relates to God. The soul consists of mind, consciousness, emotions, and will, which is still alive, along with the body, even though the spirit is dead. So I can still think, reason, and feel things, and I can be "spiritual" in this sense, but I am really dead if I don't know God.
For a person who refuses to trust Christ as Savior and they die, their soul still lives on eternally. But they live on in hell, which is conscious and eternal torment, emphasizing the fact that it is a CONSCIOUS experience where the mind is active and emotions are felt. This is an accurate Biblical portrayal of the 2nd death.
None of this really sounds encouraging, and it's hard to imagine why I'd find it so, but the next post will get into that. The gist of it is that Christ still loved us in this despicable sinful state that he came to rescue us from sin. In so trusting him, we become "in Christ" and with that, we need to learn what that really means.
This book is one of the most encouraging books of the entire Bible, and this book essentially spells out what it means to be in Christ. I've found a reading of these chapters to be extremely edifying, and also frightening, in that I'm becoming more fully aware of what Christ indeed saved me from.
It dawned on me that in terms of evangelism, this book is my preferred launching off point, as it goes in detail what it means to be living without Christ, how Christ loved us in spite of our sins, and what it means to be in Christ.
I'm basically going to quote my BSF notes on the commentary of Ephesians 2. Christ has saved believers from 4 aspects of the past life, and the past grave from which they have been raised. I want to focus on the first two aspects, and will do the rest in another post.
----------
1. The past status before God. Every person outside of Christ has no spiritual life, no spiritual response, and no spiritual accomplishments. God sees that person as dead. There can be no spiritual communion between the living and the dead. As Jesus said in John 5:5, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." Such a life is eternally and spiritually meaningless, however humanitarian it may be.
-- The soul who sins will die. Ezekiel 18:4, 20
-- The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23
-- When you eat of it, you will surely die. Genesis 2:17
-- Death came to all men, because all sinned. Romans 5:12
-----------
What really got me here was the fact that growing up I considered myself a "good person" having been raised in a Catholic home and was taught that infant baptism cleansed me from what they call "original sin". However, the reasoning that I was somehow "innocent" because I had a calm nature and never did anything "really bad" like killing people was false reasoning. This "good person" lie is perhaps the number one objection that people have to Christianity, in that that they already think they are fine, or they are spiritual, or they haven't committed things like murder.
If we go on what the Bible says in terms of man having a sinful nature from birth, then the only way to experience spiritual life is to be born again by the Holy Spirit. No infant baptism or sacramental program will cleanse our sinful nature. The only way is to trust Jesus Christ personally as Lord and Savior, to be forgiven from a sinful nature, and to be given a new nature, in terms of 2 Corinthians 5:17
----------
2. The former controlling spirit. Every person who has not yet crossed over from spiritual death into spiritual life by faith in Christ lives according to the world. Behind this world system and all atheistic or agnostic education, cultures, values, or philosophies exists an invisible but powerful spirit -- Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ called him the prince of this world (John 14:30). Jesus taught that although invisible, he is a real person, posessing traits such as mind, desires, volition, and activities. Paul called this same invisible being, the "ruler of the kingdom of the air", the being whose influence permeates the moral, intellectual, and emotional atmosphere of the world. Our minds were blinded by the god of this world. This spirit united himself with our spirit to live in disobedience to God."
-----------
If someone told me that I was living under the control of Satan during my teenage years, I would have thought they were crazy. Yet based on Ephesians 2, that is exactly what was going on, before having been born again when I was 21, through the grace of God. In terms of outward appearances, everything was great, and I certainly didn't feel like I was dead in sin.
The human being is comprised of body, soul, and spirit. Prior to knowing Christ as Lord and Savior, the spirit is dead, which is the part of us that relates to God. The soul consists of mind, consciousness, emotions, and will, which is still alive, along with the body, even though the spirit is dead. So I can still think, reason, and feel things, and I can be "spiritual" in this sense, but I am really dead if I don't know God.
For a person who refuses to trust Christ as Savior and they die, their soul still lives on eternally. But they live on in hell, which is conscious and eternal torment, emphasizing the fact that it is a CONSCIOUS experience where the mind is active and emotions are felt. This is an accurate Biblical portrayal of the 2nd death.
None of this really sounds encouraging, and it's hard to imagine why I'd find it so, but the next post will get into that. The gist of it is that Christ still loved us in this despicable sinful state that he came to rescue us from sin. In so trusting him, we become "in Christ" and with that, we need to learn what that really means.
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