The Wonderful Body of Christ

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The Old Condition

 ["Click here for Ephesians 2:1-3"]

Chapter 2 deals with "The Wonderful Body of Christ", the Church. Verses 1 thru 3 tells us what our old unsaved condition was like. Unsaved is dead in trespasses and sin. Sin is what causes the separation from God. Conforming to the world is living in sin. Paul says, "All have walked that way". We are, by nature, slaves to sin therefore slaves to Satan for he is the god of this world and we, when we belong to him, are children of disobedience, having a carnal mind and living in the passions of the flesh. We also have corrupt affections, being evil by reason of our natural inclinations and appetites.

Not a very pretty picture, is it? Obviously, not all unsaved people are equally evil, but, they are all serve the same Master and they all are lost in the eyes of God. There are now, therefore, no degrees of being lost or being saved.

The New Condition

["Click here for Ephesians 2:4-22"]

So what can be done about this evil nature? Verses 4 thou 10 describe "A New Condition", being alive to God. Four glorious changes can be wrought by the Grace of God.

  1. Salvation, being taken from a loss condition and put into a saved condition. By whom, and in what manner, is this made possible? Lets establish first of all, by whom this is made possible. Notice Paul says this is not of yourself. There are many people today that believe that if they go to heaven it will be because of something they have done along this things that they believe they haven't done. Paul says, in no uncertain terms, salvation is not of works lest any man should boast. there is nothing we can do to save ourselves nor is there anything we can do to deserve salvation. Salvation is a gift from God. The knowledge of this gift and opportunity to accept it is the work of the Holy Spirit. So we are saved by God's gift of love. How? By what manner or means are we saved? By Faith. Can't we even boast about this? No, Paul says, even faith is a gift of God. We are saved by the free undeserving Grace of God. So the first change is form death unto life eternal. 2. The second change in us is that we are "made alive". We are now alive in Christ. To be "made alive" means four things:
    1. We now understand our sinful natural state and are better able, by God's Grace, to cope with it.
    2. We now understand our saved condition and are able to experience the joys and blessings that are ours.
    3. We now live for Christ, not ourselves.
    4. We now know the meaning of "life" and can, if we desire, live it to it's fullest. We are now "alive in Christ".
  2. The third change, wrought by Grace, is in "eternity". We now share in the resurrection of Christ. We too shall have a resurrected body, we too shall be with God, we too shall live in heavenly places.
  3. The fourth change, wrought by Grace, is the ability to Witness. The witness of Paul has produced a lasting effect on all generations since his conversion and will continue for all generations to come. So too was the witness of the Ephesians. The Grace of God in saving our souls will encourage others in their search for a meaningful life. So our witness will not only encourage the lost but it will also encourage the saved

So together we become, by God's Grace, "The Wonderful Body of Christ, the Church.

In verses 11 and 12, Paul says to the Gentile Ephesians, "Think back to that miserable lost condition that you once were in." This was the condition of all Gentiles before Christ. Paul suggests that all converted sinners should occasionally look back on their condition before they accepted Christ. Paul suggests a few conditions that existed in our lives prior to Christ:

  1. We were without salvation, a living soul destined to spend eternity in hell.
  2. Aliens to the body of Christ (Church) To belong to "The Church", is a privilege, think of all the joys we have when we belong to the body of Christ.
  3. We were "Strangers to the Covenant", the Covenant of Grace. With all of it's promises and blessings. We were without hope, separated from God, which is one of the best definitions of hell that I have ever heard.

But now things are different, in the wonderful body of Christ, and Paul continues to tell us about it in verses 13 thru 22. Here we see God ending the division that existed for years between the Jew and the rest of the world. Paul describes the Jew as those who were "nigh" and the Gentile as those who were "afar off", divided by a wall of hostility. In Christ that wall was destroyed. God, by sending His Son, brought those who were afar off, close to Him. Now, Jew and Gentile, all are close to God. But Paul says there still was something lacking. Hostility did not cease just because they both now had access to God. To the contrary, it got worse. What, then, was necessary? PEACE.

The "Peace of Christ". Christ made us one in Him thus He broke the hostility by abolishing the Law of commandments and ordinances. What did this accomplish?

  1. It created one "new man" instead of two of the "old man".
  2. It reconciled the new man to God.
  3. It created one body, the body of Christ.
  4. It created access to God.
  5. It allowed man to be possessed of God's Spirit.
  6. It made, of all who accept Jesus Christ, fellow citizens of the household of God, called Saints.

Notice how this was accomplished. First of all, it was accomplished by the building of a good "foundation" by God. That foundation was made up of the Prophets and the Apostles with Christ as the "cornerstone". Then the Holy Temple was designed, a dwelling place for God's Spirit. Where is that? The bodies of the saved, the Saints. "Know ye not that your body is the Temple of God? Paul in verse 22 says it is the dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So we are the wonderful body of Christ.


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