A New Creation Through Christ

We are getting to a part in Ephesians that we could easily just skip over if we wanted to stay the same.  If we wanted to go the easy route and just let our relationship with God be a casual thing, but we don’t want to do that.  Paul talks about how our relationship with Christ does more than change us.  Let us take a quick look at what Paul says here in chapter four starting at verse 17-24; “With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.  But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ.  Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception.  Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.  You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy, and true.”

Paul very bluntly says stop listening to what the world is telling you on how you should live your life.  The world is full of sin so just stop being foolish and trying to figure out how you should live by buying self-help  books, watching Dr. Phil, or where ever you get advice, just stop.  Why? Because these people do not know God, they have hardened their hearts.  We must come to the understanding that if we want to grow in God we must put the world behind and live for God.  As Paul puts it we “must put the new man on and get rid of the old.  The Greek word Paul uses for new means having a different quality or nature.  This means we are no longer the same, God enters into us and changes us from the inside out.  We are to no longer live as we used to, we are to take on the nature of God.  Christ says that we are to be born again, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.”(John 3:3)  Peter tells us the same thing, “For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”(1^st Peter 1:23)

We are to no longer live as we lived before Christ, we are to allow God to change and recreate us. Paul says if you lived as a thief, stop, if you lived deceiving others, stop.  So how do we live then?  “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”(Eph 4:32)  We are to live in love with God we must put all hate, all sin behind and live a life that that no longer puts us in the center but puts God and His love in the center of our lives.  We no longer get mad at people but instead we love them.  

Our Responsibilities:

As we look at the first part of Chapter four of Ephesians we see Paul talking about us being untied together through God and His Holy Spirit. We talked about being united with God in-depth last week. So I’m not going to go real in-depth on it here.  We know that it is Gods desire for us to united with Him, to allow Him to be our King and to follow Him.  God created us and it is through His grace that we have salvation.  It is His church that He uses to get His message out, and that is what we are going talk about here.  What Paul goes on to talk about here in chapter four is the church, he says in verses 11-13; “ He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ,  until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.”

Let us understand what Paul is saying here, let us not get into a debate on what these gifts are or how we can find out what gift God has given us.  The key words that Paul uses here are, “Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church.”  What does that mean to us?  That means that as we mature in our relationship with God we are to focus less and less on ourselves and begin to focus on God’s Church. We all have been called to go and make disciples.  Paul is saying we have a responsibility to take care of those who are new to the faith, those who do not know God, those who may be struggling in their faith.  We are to build them up help them become strong and mature in Christ.  Paul is talking to us, those who are a part of a local church who are already mature in our faith.  He saying that we must not just sit on the sidelines but we are to get ourselves into the game.  We must work on helping those who  need help in knowing the Lord or growing stronger in the Lord.  

Not to worry those of you who new to the faith, listen to what Peter has to say to you, “So get rid of all malicious behavior and deceit. Don’t just pretend to be good! Be done with hypocrisy and jealousy and backstabbing.  You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cries for milk,  now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness”(1^st Peter 2:1-3)  What does this mean for those who are new to the faith it means that you should be looking for opportunities to grow in Christ, bible studies offered at your local church, ask your pastor about books he may recommend.  Whatever you can find you need to seek it out in order to grow.  As Paul says, “ Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.  Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”(Eps 4:14-16)