00:00:00:14 – 00:00:20:13
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for bearing with us. And I do mean that we appreciate you being with us on this Tuesday as we continue in to the second chapter of the book of Ephesians. That might be I don’t we don’t often do this, but we might look at one passage over two days. We’ll see how far we get today.

00:00:20:18 – 00:00:46:49
Clint Loveall
We are jumping in in verse four. I do think it’s helpful, if you weren’t with us yesterday to at least know that prior to this, Paul has been discussing kind of the human problem or the problem of the human condition, the reality that all of us, are affected and all of us once lived in separation from God in our sinfulness.

00:00:46:49 – 00:01:11:56
Clint Loveall
And, if you get a chance to watch yesterday’s study, it may be helpful as we move into today because Paul takes, a hard turn here looking at the other side of the equation. So, verse four here, but God, who is rich in mercy out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

00:01:11:56 – 00:01:39:06
Clint Loveall
By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So this is very much the second half of the story for Paul. We were all in sin.

00:01:39:10 – 00:02:09:12
Clint Loveall
But God, who is rich in mercy. And that’s the contrast that Paul wants to draw here. All humans were lost. We were separated. We were guilty. But God, who is rich in mercy out of his great love with which he loved us, even then, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Jesus Christ or through Jesus Christ.

00:02:09:18 – 00:02:42:27
Clint Loveall
So this is the bad news, good news for Paul as he sees it. We were dead. Now we were alive. To use the language of the old hymn, we were lost, but found we were once in our sin. Now we are in Christ. And I think, that death to life imagery metaphor. Michael, it’s not uncommon in Paul, but here it I mean, this is clearly the note he’s ringing.

00:02:42:32 – 00:03:08:29
Michael Gewecke
It is an astonishing movement in the text that I would argue it’s not a movement from a thing we haven’t seen before. It is a movement, I think, cyclically, because we had earlier in the description of Jesus Christ, the fact that he is one who dies and rises again, Jesus Christ is the center and the first part of every building block of this book.

00:03:08:42 – 00:03:30:54
Michael Gewecke
But now here, when we turn our attention to the text, as we move further in, we find that the same pattern that applied for Christ is being applied to believers. So therefore we are all universally in verse three we talked about this yesterday. We are by our nature children of wrath, everyone else. So that’s the widest net possible.

00:03:31:04 – 00:03:55:46
Michael Gewecke
Everyone else. So yes, including you, including me, Christians, sometimes as we said yesterday, are quick to dismiss that. But the truth is, we’re all in that net. But here’s the amazing turn that the thing that we believe see through eyes of faith. What has happened for Jesus Christ is available for everyone who is in that very same status.

00:03:55:46 – 00:04:20:11
Michael Gewecke
Yes, the same you and me. And here we are. We go back in verse four to the nature of God. God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us. That this is again a statement of what God is doing for us, that this is now we are Presbyterian and stand under the reformed umbrella.

00:04:20:11 – 00:04:49:46
Michael Gewecke
So that’s an important clarification here. But Clint, I have a hard time not reading this text, as being very clear that we have to we race works out of our imagination to be something that is the foundational building block of our salvation. Now, ultimately, it’s God’s character. Why is there good news? Because God is great and rich in mercy, and that is God’s great love, which is at work in our lives.

00:04:49:53 – 00:05:07:40
Michael Gewecke
This is a function of God’s work in decision, and that is ultimately the great good news, because no matter the nature that we come into this world with, we are those who have been addressed by God in his salvific work. And that’s a that’s a key term in the text like this, you know.

00:05:07:40 – 00:05:41:07
Clint Loveall
And it whether we get there today or tomorrow, that’s exactly where Paul’s going. Verses eight through ten are going to spell that out just absolutely clearly. But even in this part of the text, Paul can’t help from saying it together with Christ and and then inserting here by grace you have been saved. And so even here, Paul is foreshadowing what he’s going to, kind of flesh out in further words, with, some upcoming passages.

00:05:41:07 – 00:06:01:49
Clint Loveall
But I think another important thing here, Michael, if we look at this phrase by grace, you have been saved. We went or stand maybe a couple of those words, but it helps to know the nuance. I think of the original language. And this I don’t mean this to be one of those things, but it’s helpful, I think, to know what we think the Greek meant.

00:06:01:49 – 00:06:31:30
Clint Loveall
And the word grace means something unearned, a favor or blessing that you don’t deserve. So it’s not a wage. When I do a certain amount of work I am owed by the person who hired me a wage. That is not this word. This is a gift. It by by gift, by unearned favor, by undeserved goodness. You have been saved.

00:06:31:35 – 00:06:59:04
Clint Loveall
The second word then is saved. And in English. It’s it’s interesting both in English and maybe in the American church. We read that as a word in past tense. You have been saved as if that’s something that already happened in the Greek. That’s an ongoing tense. So it is a reference to a thing in the past, but a thing that continues.

00:06:59:09 – 00:07:27:32
Clint Loveall
You could almost fairly say you are being saved. Are you are now in a state of saved ness. There’s a there’s a continuity or a continuation implied here that I think we both lose in English, and sometimes we’ve lost in the faith as well, because we can talk about a day or a time which we got saved as if that reality is behind us now.

00:07:27:32 – 00:07:46:24
Clint Loveall
But that’s not how it works for Paul. We are always living out of and up to our saved ness in Christ. And so that’s an ongoing process. And I and I, I think it’s helpful to know that because I think it’s a better way of understanding what I think Paul’s trying to say.

00:07:46:29 – 00:08:17:43
Michael Gewecke
We obviously see the the connection between the life of Christ and what is true for the believer, and that’s important. And we celebrate that. And then we have in verse six this idea of raising us up with him, sealing us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If we paused here, Clint, I think what might happen, what we could be tempted to do is to fixate on this particular Worthing, the idea of being raised up in the heavenly places.

00:08:17:43 – 00:08:42:45
Michael Gewecke
And we might think of that as a sort of power or privilege. We might even think of that as a place where we might glory ourselves. We could have a little bit of pride in ourselves for having rose to that height. And yet we can’t miss. We have to keep going so that in the ages to come, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

00:08:42:45 – 00:09:06:07
Michael Gewecke
I want to make note that even the blessing, even the grace, which is a gift for us, is an opportunity for God to practice his character. And. And the reason we are afforded that blessing is because we are in Christ Jesus. And this is common in the other Pauline letters as well. This phrasing of being in Christ Jesus, we read past it very quickly, very easily.

00:09:06:19 – 00:09:32:27
Michael Gewecke
It it just becomes part of the nature of reading New Testament texts. But, friends, that’s an astonishing statement that we have our identities rooted in Jesus Christ. So in other words, it’s not the practices of the faith that you have. It’s not the way that you dress or the way that you live out the faith morally. It’s not fundamentally the stuff that we orient our Christian lives around.

00:09:32:27 – 00:09:55:26
Michael Gewecke
No, it’s ultimately your location inside the salvific power and work of who Jesus Christ is and ultimately the gifts that you’re given being raised to the heavenly places. This promise that there’s more than just the life that we see, that you’re going to be raised up in the kind of resurrection that Christ Himself experienced. Even that isn’t directly for your benefit.

00:09:55:26 – 00:10:18:13
Michael Gewecke
Even that is an opportunity for God to practice graciousness, to practice, even more perfect love. And this is an astonishing vision that while God is always at work drawing us closer and nearer, it’s never just for ourselves or for the sake of ourselves. It’s always for a larger purpose. And ultimately it’s to show us God’s love and grace.

00:10:18:13 – 00:10:38:31
Michael Gewecke
So I just want very quickly before we, you know, press on here. I just want to note how quickly we moved from our conversation yesterday in verse three with the idea of Children of Wrath to now moving forward to being raised up to heavenly places that God can practice grace. That is an important turn in the text like this.

00:10:38:31 – 00:10:53:15
Michael Gewecke
Because it shows us God’s intention. We don’t over fixate on one side of the pole. It’s a real thing that that nature is a real problem. But God’s solution is above and beyond our ability to imagine.

00:10:53:20 – 00:11:22:54
Clint Loveall
Not not only imagination. I think in the current moment, Michael, but there’s a timelessness to that, too, that is beyond our imagination. So our saved in this. It is not confined to a day in the past. It journeys with us in our life. We are being saved. We are living out of our saved status in Christ. But that has no end in the age to come.

00:11:22:58 – 00:12:03:28
Clint Loveall
He might show his immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. So this is our now eternal status. What Christ has done has so it has so completely transformed the life of believer that it applies not only in the life we live, but through Christ, even in the ages yet to come, even in the times beyond time, even in a life beyond this life, we now receive the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us.

00:12:03:28 – 00:12:33:06
Clint Loveall
And this is promising. And I know that, you know, afterlife talk has been kind of a mixed bag in the church. Sometimes we’ve overdone it, sometimes we’ve become obsessed with it. But here, for Paul, it it’s just a way of talking how big the work of Christ is. It’s not really for Paul ultimately about us getting to live forever in heaven.

00:12:33:10 – 00:13:13:48
Clint Loveall
It’s how completely Christ has defeated death. So that death not only is not the final word in this life, it never is the final word in the life to come. And I think, you know, again, there’s criticism that we’ve earned in some of our discussions along these lines in the church. But here I think Paul is just simply trying to paint a picture of of how incredible of how broad and how powerful is the work of Jesus Christ, that even time itself can ultimately not undo it.

00:13:14:02 – 00:13:18:02
Clint Loveall
Or, shrink it or change it.

00:13:18:07 – 00:13:42:10
Michael Gewecke
And make note. It’s a very small word, but it has a significant impact right here in verse seven. His grace in kindness towards and this is key us that could have easily been written. And in fact, in our culture, we would almost expect it to be written to you. Right? The idea that this is an individual promise given to each of us.

00:13:42:10 – 00:14:07:40
Michael Gewecke
And of course it is, but the focus and emphasis is actually on us. This is a gift for the community. This is a gift for the body of Christ. This is a gift for us regardless of our place in the marathon of faith. Those who are listening to our voice today, as you run your part of the race, you are part of all of that ages past and to come.

00:14:07:40 – 00:14:37:35
Michael Gewecke
And Paul has that in mind when he’s writing a text like this. This is not just a promise given to individual people. It’s a promise that binds us together in something larger than ourselves. Church is not just a gathering of people who take up individual spaces in seats. Church is a place where we discover and find and live out a kind of community which is both at odds with the world and also is called to serve that world.

00:14:37:35 – 00:15:00:09
Michael Gewecke
And all of this is implicit here in what is happening, that ultimately the promise of Jesus Christ being rooted in Christ does something with our identity. If it’s God’s identity to show this grace and mercy and love and kindness, if this is who God is, then part of our identity is to be recipients of that and to be bound up into something greater than ourselves.

00:15:00:09 – 00:15:05:58
Michael Gewecke
And that’s the invitation that is coming through a text like this.

00:15:06:03 – 00:15:39:45
Clint Loveall
I this is kind of, I think this is just occurring to me. Michael. So, if it’s loose, check me. Right. You know, pull me back. But I think when it comes to both God and perhaps also Jesus, we would use lots of descriptors, right? We would use powerful. In Jesus case, we would use obedient, humble. Kindness is a fascinating word.

00:15:39:45 – 00:16:05:42
Clint Loveall
I think we I think your average person of faith maybe does not reflect very often on the kindness of God or the kindness of Christ that maybe to some extent, biblical stories highlight other things. But it it occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve seen.

00:16:05:47 – 00:16:39:45
Clint Loveall
Much theology or preaching or writing on what we would call the kindness of God, or the kindness of Jesus. That’s a really interesting idea. It’s a fascinating word that God is that God is kind to us, just as we would try to coach our children. When you have an opportunity to be mean or kind, be kind. When you have a chance to be kind, take it, be nice, be I and I.

00:16:39:45 – 00:16:56:44
Clint Loveall
The word nice is problematic for me. But kindness is a beautiful word and I think a beautiful thing to aspire to in the idea that we receive kindness from God in Christ is a really compelling idea that I’ve not spent a lot of time with, but I. I will be thinking about.

00:16:56:49 – 00:17:25:19
Michael Gewecke
At our last midweek gathering, we were talking about the fruits of the spirit, and the first one we covered was kindness, and we actually turned to this text. And one of the interesting things is we tell our kids to be kind, and I think we often mean nice when we say that. But a Christian who’s practicing kindness, as with all things, when we practice the spiritual gifts, we’re practicing a God identity where we’re taking on in part a thing that God is in whole.

00:17:25:24 – 00:17:46:04
Michael Gewecke
And think of that you’re called to be kind, like God has been kind to you. And whatever your measure of kindness is, I know it is for me that will blow the lid off of it. Because fundamentally, God’s kindness extends beyond all of the layers that we could possibly imagine. So yeah, I certainly think that there’s a great deal here.

00:17:46:15 – 00:18:11:04
Michael Gewecke
We traverse through grace, we traverse through love. We land even in God’s kindness. I think what we discover is for all of that very difficult ground that we’ve got to stomach and wrestle with and really try to hold on to the reality of the depth of our problem. Look at how superseding Lee great God’s answer is, and it only literally takes a few words to get there.

00:18:11:09 – 00:18:39:19
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it’s really good. I, I would maybe challenge you, do you all to think a little bit today about the ways in which God has been kind to you? That’s a, that’s a compelling thought. Thanks for being with us today. Glad that you could, I would really encourage you, if possible, join us tomorrow. The verses we’ll look at tomorrow have been, I think you could argue, foundational for the faith tradition that we find ourselves in.

00:18:39:19 – 00:18:51:29
Clint Loveall
And, they are they are great. They’re verses that I would advocate that everybody commit to memory, that they’re that good. And, look forward to talking through them with you tomorrow.

00:18:51:34 – 00:18:55:22
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us. Like, subscribe, comment. See you tomorrow.