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Articles 2024-2026
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course (Greek, AION – the age) of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
We were spiritually dead in our sins and we walked according to this present age. In a very real sense, we were the walking dead. And as such, we lived in harmony with the world system whose whole identity is tied to this age.
But now, since we have come to know God, we who are His children have been spiritually born from above, from the realms of eternity. And so, as a result, we have tasted of the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:5) and sing to a different tune, harmonizing with the choirs of heaven.
Some worldlings talk about being nonconformists, about differing in some ways from those around them. But because they are living according to this present world, they are simply conforming to the spirit who is at work in all the sons of disobedience. This is true even if they try to go off–grid, to get away from the rest of society. Spiritually fallen people no matter where they live will still be influenced by their own fleshly make-up which gives place in them to the influence of spirits of darkness.
And the prince of the power of the air (Greek, AER – the atmosphere, the air we breathe) opposing us is as permeating as the atmosphere we breathe and influences the whole world toward disobeying whatever God says/has said. So, the sons of disobedience are many. They are simply everyone who was in Adam when he disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Because he fell spiritually, all of mankind was born in fallenness and became sons of his disobedience. Thus, the phrase – sons of disobedience.
But all who have repented of their sins and have been immersed into Christ, are now sons of the last Adam’s obedience. Sons of obedience. Thank You Jesus.
among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
Not only did we feed our fleshly lusts, we also gave ourselves to what fed our minds. While it is certainly not wrong to seek a good education, still, the pursuit of knowledge can become what defines us. Our whole life can be consumed by a diet of what others are saying about politics, sports, science, religion, etc. But God has sent His Son to be our daily bread.
What others think will never fulfill the deep inner longings of the human soul. Paul, who wrote the above Scripture was a very educated man. He knew what it was to be filled with knowledge and at the same time be internally empty. Though he had a great amount of intellectual knowledge concerning the Scriptures and even though he was born a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin, yet he was spiritually dead. So, identifying with the Ephesian believers, he stated that with them, we all previously:
were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Being Jewish was not enough. Just like the Gentiles, everyone, including the Jewish people, because we were all born of the first Adam, were by our very nature tied to the wrath that came upon him for his rebellion against God. All of humanity needed a redeemer.
The problem: we were by nature children of wrath
The solution:
But God, who is rich in mercy…
His motivation:
because of His great love with which He loved us,
Our condition because of the first Adam’s fall:
even when we were dead in trespasses,
Our position because of the last Adam’s obedience. God:
made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
From finding our identity primarily as Jews or Gentiles, we are now of the heavens, plunged into Christ, seated together with Him and with each other. God’s heavenly people. We are His present proclamation of the power of His grace. And what He is saying is eternal in its roots and will continue to be proclaimed in all future ages.
His future proclamation:
that in the ages to come He might show (Greek, ENDEIKNUMI – to demonstrate, to display) the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
What His grace has and is accomplishing now upon earth, and what it will continue to accomplish in future ages is so noteworthy in its significance that our God wants to make it a center element of His conversations for ages to come. This raises the obvious question: How central is His grace in our thinking? And so:
There can be no place for human boasting:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
We could not successfully work for our salvation. Our only door of entrance into God’s kingdom was His grace through which faith was birthed in us. And that faith came by hearing, and hearing occurred because God was mercifully speaking to us by His Spirit. As a result, the only heart attitude that makes sense for believers is worship rooted in thankfulness. Christians who are known primarily for attitudes of murmuring, complaining, back-biting, etc. are living contradictions. What God has accomplished for us is beyond our ability to express sufficient gratitude.
Look at the spiritual destruction from which He has rescued us. And then consider what He has since then accomplished in us as He works to conform us to His image. And in all this, we can take absolutely no credit.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Even if God were to now use us in such mighty powerful ways that whole nations changed in their spiritual direction, yet all our service would be the works that He had prepared beforehand for us to do. And it all would be a manifestation of His grace that He lavished upon us. In the end, God’s kingdom is not primarily about man but about Him and what He is doing for His own name’s sake, for his glory. And it is also about the great privilege it is for His people to participate with Him in His work.
Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh–who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands–that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
We who are Gentiles were far from the place where God was revealing Himself among the nations. It was in Israel that the promised Messiah would be revealed. And His arrival would be because of promises that God had made there. It was there that the Scriptures were written, the prophets prophesied, and the glory of God was manifest. We Gentiles were far removed from it all. We didn’t even know what true hope looked like much less had any.
But the blood of Christ has now brought us near. Now Abraham is our father. The Scriptures are ours as well. Today, the Lord speaks to us from the prophecies made centuries ago through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, etc. And the promises made there that are already fulfilled are a wonderful foretaste of the ones yet to be fulfilled.
And so, we honor both the past and the present work of God in Israel. We pray for her. And we speak prophetically of her coming salvation which before the eyes of the whole world will probably be the greatest demonstration of the grace of God since the resurrection of Christ. Even so, arise O Lord Jesus for the sake of Your holy name. Amen.
Donald Rumble – August 2024
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