4 Truth Or Consequences

High-Stepping in Heavenly Places

Truth or Consequences

Lesson Four

We must come to the Truth and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or suffer the consequences. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Jesus is the only way to salvation. He died on the cross for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), but His blood is only applied to the sin account of those who receive Him by faith. God invites us to be saved. Romans 10:13 says, Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God desires us to be saved. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).We must personally receive Him through faith on His terms: repentance and faith. Or face the dire consequences of rejecting Christ – eternity in hell (Mark 10:43-44; Rev. 20:10-15). Having written about our glorious position in Christ and prayed for divine revelation and understanding. Paul now reminds us of our lost condition prior to our conversion. It aids our forward progress with the Lord to occasionally glance back to be reminded from whence we came. However, wallowing in past hurts and humiliations OR relishing past accomplishment and accolades can stall our forward progress. Acknowledge the past but DO NOT allow the past to cast a shadow over the present. I. The Lost Estate of Man-Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul recounted our lost condition prior to our conversion. Adam and Eve were placed in a perfect environment with full access to God. They walked with God in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). Until sin entered. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made (Gen. 3:1) approached Eve, cast doubt on God’s Word, and tempted her to sin. Eve took Satan’s bait and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate (Gen. 3:5). Enticed by Satan, Adam forfeited the estate of mankind, condemning all future generations to be born with a sin nature inherited from him. Romans 5:12 says, Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. Adam’s sin nature was passed to us. Prior to our conversion experience we were sinners by nature, sinners by birth, and sinner by choice. Paul described our condition prior to our conversion. We were: a. dead in trespass and sin-In Romans 3:6 Paul wrote, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Man is born spiritually dead. He does not become spiritually dead because he sins; he sins because he is spiritually dead. Except for Jesus Christ, that is the spiritual condition of every human being because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. A person outside a personal relationship with Christ is not sick; he/she is dead. An unbeliever does not need resuscitation or reform; he needs resurrection. Whether it is the out-and-out sinner who lacks moral boundaries or the well-educated, socially eloquent, financially prosperous up-and-out sinner who lacks for nothing, both are born in a lost state, outside a personal relationship with Christ. Those without Christ are spiritually dead. b. disobedient-A person outside a personal relationship with Christ is held captive by sin, Satan, and self. Wittingly or unwittingly, he/she is in bondage to Satan, the prince of the power of the air obeying the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Satan has a huge advantage – our fallen natures are allied to

Ephesians

Fall 2009

High-Stepping in Heavenly Places his! c. depraved-A person without the Lord lives to please himself/herself. Unbelievers (indulge) the desires of the flesh and of the mind. He/she are controlled by the sway of the world, the flesh and the devil. d. doomed-A person without the Lord is helpless, hopeless, lost, doomed and destined for hell. The Bible, speaking of the final judgment, says, And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone (where he) will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:10). Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14-15). Anyone outside of a personal relationship with Christ is headed for eternity in hell – with the exception of a child who dies before reaching the age of accountability or a mentally handicapped child incapable of distinguishing sin. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:6). Jesus Christ is the only exception. He had the nature of God, not the sin nature of Adam. Because He was virgin born, He did not inherit Adam’s sin nature. This is why His virgin birth is essential to the Christian faith. Jesus Christ was (and is) co-equal with God the Father and God the Spirit but He “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and . . . being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:6-8). Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. Jesus Christ was deity clothed in humanity. A man forfeited the estate of mankind. Justice demanded a man retrieve it from Satan. The inherited sin nature of Adam nullified anyone born of the human race. Only a perfect man could remedy the ruin of man. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:17). II. The Grace Gift of God-Ephesians 2:4-9 Romans 6:23a says, The wages of sin is death. The outlook for a person without Christ is bleak, and would be hopeless if God had not made a way of escape. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:23). We were dead in our trespasses and sin. But God made a way. God, being rich in mercy, because of the His great love which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5). The only remedy for man’s ruin is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is God’s free gift that must personally be received by faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Salvation is by grace through faith - completely apart from any merit or works on our part. III. The Result of Redemption-Ephesians 2:10 God’s redemptive purpose is not merely to get us out of hell and into heaven; that is a glorious side benefit of our salvation. His divine purpose in our salvation is that we would be holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4) and live to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:14). God has a plan for our lives corporately in the church, the body of Christ, so that in ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ (Eph. 2:7). God has a plan for our lives individually. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10). We are God’s workmanship, literally His “poem”. God uses our lives to write His message of redemption, reconciliation, and regeneration God is using our life experiences as a testament of His power to save to the uttermost. Grace places us into the body of Christ. God raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). God gave us Jesus, the Living Word. He gave us the Bible, the Written Word. And He gave us His Holy Spirit who endues us with resurrection power (Eph. 1:19-20). We are saved by His grace thorough faith. We are raised . . . up with Him and seated . . . with Him in the heavenly places in Christ

Ephesians

Fall 2009

High-Stepping in Heavenly Places Jesus (Eph. 2:6). Christ in us allows us to do some High-Stepping in Heavenly Places. Glory to the Lamb!

Ephesians

Fall 2009