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GOD’S WAY OF SALVATION Authored By Gary Jones God’s way of
Salvation is very clear and simple.
This way has just three conditions.
These ten verses in Ephesians briefly describe these three conditions
more succinctly than any other passage in the Bible. These three conditions have many other
reference locations but none as brief as this. Carefully examining these ten verses can
help clear up much of the confusion that plagues so many other studies and
diversions. First, we are born
helpless; our spiritual condition is described as being dead, without any
volition. Second, God chooses to give
us spiritual life. Thirdly, God has a
system of managing His children the way He sees fit. It is all that simple; so, there is no
reason to make it any more complicated. EPHESIANS 2:1-10 1. DEAD
1As
for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of
the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are
disobedient. 3All of us
also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of
wrath. Everyone is born
spiritually dead. This means we are
all at the mercy of our sinful nature and our environment. Our sinful nature rules our dreams and
aspirations, and we thereby naturally follow the ways of this world. Any independence we may desire is limited
by the powerful forces in us or around us.
We learn to survive the best way we can by following the path of least
resistance, compromise, and negotiating our way around our struggles. Our view of right and wrong is based upon
the lessons taught by our society, which stress reward and punishment. Morality is generally related to
restrictions and confinement. The
subject of God is avoided or cause for embarrassment. We consider ourselves sophisticated if we
reject God altogether. We believe we
are in control of our future and we look with distain on those who claim they
have faith in God. We believe we can
develop our own morality and gain honor in the view of others and even in
God’s judgment, if there is a God. The good life is
defined by the success enjoyed within the scope of the individual’s
control. “I did it my way!” This level of pride feeds the attitude that
says, “I don’t need God.” It is
believed that if you follow the rules and are accommodating to the acceptable
social order everything will turn our just fine. This line of thinking is so common that any
suggestion that there is something wrong here is ridiculed as being
unrealistic. The subtleties in this
popular attitude extend easily into the acceptable social order called
religion. The church life can be very
supportive of the good life attitudes. One of the benefits the church offers is
mutual social exchange with others of similar persuasions. The ways of the world and the good life
become so intertwined that the definitions of right and wrong become relative
and mostly indistinguishable. God word is very
judgmental about the lethargic, causal, and tolerant attitudes of those who
are bent on living the good life [Romans 8:6]. The name given to those who live according
to this condemned path, in this Ephesians passage termed “objects of wrath,”
indicates seriousness of such attitudes.
God is going to punish such attitudes in someway. This passage, also, indicates that such a
condition as this is separated from any possible relationship with God. 2. ALIVE 4But because of his great love
for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even
when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with
Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in
order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his
grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have
been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. God has a loving
nature, He is sovereign, and He has a plan.
We cannot fathom God reasons, judgments, or methods. We can only listen to what He is telling us
in His word and we should not try to invent new plans based upon our desires
or the world’s propaganda. Besides, He
knows what He is doing, and we should acknowledge that we are being misled by
our sinful nature. These simple
statements in this Ephesians passage should be taken just the way they are
given to us. The only word here that
gives us any pause is the term grace.
If we define this word grace as God causing us to experience a touch
of His joy and pleasure then we can begin to appreciate something about what
is given in God’s gift. This gift is
the only cause for the condition of salvation. It is given by God freely without any
prerequisites required. This is the
gift of spiritual life, which resurrects a dead spirit, which can be compared
to the gift of physical life given to us when we were nothing. We did not participate in our physical
birth and we do not participate in our spiritual birth [John This unmerited
and unconditional transfer of joy and life is called entering the condition
of justification. This transfer of
grace is made possible by God’s redemptive act of taking upon Himself, on the
cross, the very nature of sin and thereby killing the power of sin. We do not have to understand this method or
the reason God planned it this way. We
are given the ability to believe that this is all true through a temporal
condition called faith. This faith is
a means God uses to cause us to be sure in our minds He is speaking the truth
and to be certain in our hearts that His promises concerning the future are
completely true [Hebrews 11:1]. God is
doing it all because He has His reasons.
These reasons are independent from anything we can think or do. It is through
this God given faith we can believe these unimaginable and unreasonable
actions God has taken in order to prepare for some indescribable future. In the eternal here and now, all those
things caused by our sinful nature have been washed away by the blood
sacrificed of Christ. This act of
justification has cleansed our spirit from all that separates us from God’s
joy and life [Romans 8:1]. This act of
justification is a spiritual redemption in the Spiritual domain and we have
assurance it is real because Jesus’ Spirit is telling and guaranteeing us [2
Corinthians 3. MANAGED 10For we are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do. The third
condition occurs after the justification event. This condition is very different in two
specific ways. First, this condition
is in a temporal and dynamic state characterized by a constant battle with
our inherent sinful nature. Secondly,
this “condition” is under the constant management of Jesus’ indwelling Spirit
[John God’s plan for
each individual is unique in terms of the process and the result. However, the result of this transformation
will be a new creature created in God’s image. It is not an instantaneous because God has
determined is best that each individual gain some appreciation for the how
the process works. Integral parts of
this process are the experiences of peace and pain. Jesus’ Spirit slowly bestows His harvest of
love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. Then concurrently we are
taught about God’s disciplines [Hebrews We need to drum
into our minds and hearts that justification and sanctification are two
separate conditions. They should never
be mixed where one jeopardizes the other.
We cannot change our justification by something we do in the
sanctification process [Romans |