Jesus wins

Preamble

Brent provides a background snapshot of what Ephesians chapter one is all about. Brent reminds us the this letter is a deep read — lots of hard concepts to understand.

Ephesians 1:7-8

In these two verses, Paul reminds us that we are free from our sin. We have been redeemed. Redemption means deliverance. We are all sin addicts — we can’t  Jesus has rescued us from our sin.

Doctrine of Atonement

This is a theological term that describes the 4 part act done by Jesus that caused our redemption.

1. Sacrifice – Jesus died in our place. He was the substitute.
2. Propitiation – this is appeasement; the appeasement of God’s wrath
3. Reconciliation – the fixing of the relationship with God
4. Redemption – the rescuing of us from God’s wrath and from our own sin. (1 John 4:10)

Old Testament sacrifices and pagan Sacrifice

The difference between Christian sacrifices and paganism is that God finally provided his own perfect sacrifice on our behalf. Paganism beliefs never have a god who satisfies himself, instead it is always left up to the human’s job to create the reconciliation. This means you must rescue yourself, which is impossible!

It is a blessing that we know we are forgiven

It is clear that God has been forgiven. God has told us this in his Bible. We are aware that we are justified.

Justification explained

Justification is the theological concept that God now sees us as “saved” and “forgiven.”

Sanctification explained

This is after our “saving” (or Justification). This is the theological concept that describes the process of becoming more like Jesus. This is the process of abandoning our sinful routines and changing to honour God through our actions.

Sanctification is a struggle for us

Changing to honour God is hard! We don’t like this part of our relationship with God because we are stubborn and self-centered. We don’t want to be told what we can and cannot do. We feel like we are following rules. Yet God is wise, and he passes on his wisdom onto us.

God’s Wisdom

The term wisdom, when used in the Bible, it describes God’s understanding of what is right and wrong. An example of God’s wisdom is on the concept of money. God is not greedy, yet we are greedy. God doesn’t care about wealth. We care about wealth a lot! We must view money the way God views money. All our money is a gift from God and he controls it, not us. Money does not bring us happiness. Brent also provides other examples of God’s wisdom on the topics of sex and drinking.

Right living is painful

God will challenge our thinking on our habits and our own beliefs on what is true. God will maneuver our lives so that he can continue sanctification.

When we stick out our tongue at God

When we turn our back to the things God is trying to teach us we are saying to God, “I don’t trust you.”

Jesus reveals the answers to mysterious questions.

In the upcoming weeks we will cover the concepts of:

• Eph 6:16 – God has revealed the good news that God had become a man named Jesus. This was the answer to all the prophetic statements God had made to the Israelites for 1000s of years.
• Eph 5:32 – The mystery of the union of Jesus and the church. We will discuss how Jesus and the church are an answer to each other.
• Eph 3:6 – the mystery of the entire world is now apart of God’s family. God had originally made promises to one nation and now he has opened up his promises to the entire world.
• Eph 1:9-10 – The mystery that Jesus Wins. Jesus is the answer to our justification and he is the model for our sanctification.

Our priorities and God’s priorities

We align our priorities with God’s priorities. How can we learn of God’s priorities? Easy answer: he’s already told us! Read the Bible. Learn his Word. Next step is to make sure everything we believe that is “ours to control” must be now placed under God’s control. Our money is His. Our relationships must honour Him. Our wealth must honour Him.