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 Paul's prison epistles are a convenient grouping of four letters Paul wrote during his first imprisonment, as described in Acts chapters 23-28. The four letters are to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon, a Colossian believer. They appear in our English Bible after the lengthy letters to the Romans and the two to the Corinthians, except Philemon, a short letter which appears right before Hebrews.
Because of its importance, we have also included Galatians in the "I'm Excited" series, which is about the same length as the other three main letters. In this issue we include an extract from the forthcoming "I'm Excited About Ephesians," a revised and expanded edition of "Exciting Ephesians," first published in 1994.
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Get Those Graveclothes Off!
Ephesians 2:4 is one of the most positive verses in the Bible. Set against a dark background, the light of God shines forth. "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us." God comes on the scene and against that dark background makes a new focal point of something glorious. It is God who lifted us out of the graveyard of sin up to a very high place indeed.
Notice in verses 4-7 the repeated usage of the word "us": "he loves us," "made us alive together with Christ," "raised us up with him," "seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and "the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Those pronouns are like footprints across the muddy flats of sin, rescuing us out of the graveyard and seating us at God's right hand in Christ. Is that not something to shout about?
God was too concerned about us to leave us as we were. God loved us, quickened us, raised us, gave us seating, and showed his kindness to us. I'm joyful that I'm tapped into his plan for my life. He was concerned for me, and so he did magnificent things for me. He lifted me out of that desperate, depressing, dark background of the graveyard into the graceyard -- a place of light and love and life.
Let's go back and look more closely at each of these steps. First, he has great love for us (verse 4). He loved us when we were unlovable, when we went in the direction of this world, when we were following the dictates of Satan, when we were dominated by the flesh. He loved us at a time when we didn't care whether there was a God or not. No wonder it speaks of "his great love with which he loves us."
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Verse 5 says, "Even  when we were [not now, but in times past] dead in our trespasses." To be dead in trespasses [or transgressions] is to be full of them, according to one commentator. That would seem to be an accurate picture of us in times past. A transgression is "a falling aside, when one should have stood upright." Yet even when we were falling aside, God "made us alive together with Christ." Now that is really something! In chapter 1 verse 20 it states that God raised Christ from the dead. Now in chapter 2 verse 5 it states that God, "Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)."
"And raised us up with him" (verse 6a). When Jesus Christ was raised, we were raised. We were once dead in our trespasses, now we are alive in him! And to top it all off, God "seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (verse 6b). Get the picture in your mind-you and Christ sitting down together. When God raised you it was in order that he could have fellowship, companionship with you.
[ Continued online! Adapted from the forthcoming book I'm Excited About Ephesians by Peter Wade. Please LEAVE A COMMENT online if this article has blessed you! ]
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My Confession
Through lips of clay He speaks today, His message clear and tender,
His Living Word through men is heard, Our best in service render.
I am what He says I am, That is my glad confession;
I live in Him, He lives in me, Gone is my transgression.
What He says I can do, can be done, The Mighty One's indwelling,
His Grace and Wisdom both are mine, His wonders I am telling.
He is my Lord, my risen head, My mighty intercessor;
He died for me, He lives for me, With Him I'm joint possessor.
From Kenyon's Living Poems by E.W. Kenyon.( www.kenyons.org) |
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