Christ is our peace

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation…” Ephesians 2:14. 

There was a wall between God and humanity. Nobody could pass it. We were enemies with Him. He could not reach us with His love, because the wall would not allow it. The wall was sin. 

However, Christ came and tore the wall down. He took the sin on Himself and redeemed us. There are no more walls and you can run to God. You can feel peace now. This is the consequence of redemption. You do not need to search for peace outside or by means of chemical substance. If you are redeemed He lives inside of you and you can be at peace with God, yourself and others.

Created for good works

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them“ Ephesians 2:10. 

We discussed our salvation by grace in a number of posts. When Christians talk about being saved without any works one might get the impression that good works are unnecessary. Nothing could be further from the truth. This verse in Ephesians clearly states that the whole idea of God creating us was for the purpose of us doing those works. We are called to be doing something, something that will benefit others, advance the kingdom of God, bless those who do not know Him and eventually make us happy too. 

Of course, do not forget that works do not save us, but rather is a consequence of us being saved. God makes us good and when you are good, you can do good. Good works flow from transformed nature, which is the result of being born again.

By grace through faith

„For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.“ Ephesians 2: 8-9

I have already written a number of posts from the second chapter of Ephesians. Let’s do one more. It is such a rich epistle that you do not want to skip a single verse. 

Two things save us from wrath of God and they are: grace and faith. Grace shows where the source of salvation is and faith enables us to connect to the source. I am happy that Paul added the part about works. They won’t save us. The Word of God does not leave us any possibility to boast or claim that we are good enough to be saved. We are not. It is all through His Grace and it is all by faith.

Alive in Christ

„But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved“ Ephesians 2:4-5.

Previous two verses told us that we were dead in our sins. Now, we have much better news: we are alive in Christ. It happened, because He loved us. Love was His motivation in saving us. It has nothing to do with us, our merits or how good we are. We were not that good to be saved. None of us was, is or going to be.

It is only by His love and grace we got eternal life. Be grateful for this gift. It is for free. Imagine, you and I had to be punished, but God had mercy on us. We do not have to do anything to earn this. Even if we tried, our efforts would not convince God to save us. The only thing that we can really do is to believe it and receive. Well, and then thank Him for His great gift. Doesn’t He deserve to be thanked every single day for that? I bet He does. Bless Him every morning for the benefits He has given you.

Dead in sins

„As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in 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“ Ephesians 2: 1-2

Being dead in sin is a condition that all of us have been in. Some still are, some have gone from the state to being alive in Christ. Sins cause us to die spiritually and separate us from God. We are then easily manipulated by the prince of this world: Satan. Why? Because we have the same nature as he does. 

However, when you repent and ask Jesus to forgive you, your sins are forgiven and you get new nature. You no longer belong to Satan, but to God. You get Christ’s righteousness and Satan is no longer your father. God becomes your Father. Keep on walking in the light!

You should not be afraid

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” 2 Timothy 1:7.

Fear dominates most people lives today. They are afraid of their present and are not sure of their future. Some are scared, because they lack finances, some are worried about their health, others about their children, yet others about their businesses. There are zillions of reasons for being scared. However, you should not be. If you want you can find the same number of reasons to rejoice as you find for being afraid.

God loves you and He does not want you to walk around trembling. He wants you to be happy and satisfied. God wants you to have inner peace and joy, not anxiety and fear. The scripture above clearly states that we have been given the spirit of power, love and self-discipline. Fear is not the quality of God and neither it should be of his children. People say:”Like father, like son”. If you are the son of God you should possess the same qualities He has. Fear is alien to our God and so should it be to us.

When next time fear comes just remember that you have the Father in Heaven and He cares after you. If He does that you have no reason to be afraid. Trust him and enjoy your daily life. 

Encouraging verse for spiritual fight

Ephesians 6:10-12: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

A path of a Christian is not one of peace. The Bible tells us that we live in a hostile world that is overpowered by sin and the evil one. We will always have to fight in order to defend our faith and to advance in our spiritual walk. We do not inspiration for that. I was inspired recently by reading 15inspirational Bible verses for everyone and decided to write a bit about spiritual fight.

Of course, you have to understand that our fight is not physical. We do not fight with people. Far from it! We bless them, pray for them and preach them the good news of the Gospel. Jesus told us not to keep a grudge against anybody. However, He gave us an example how to fight against evil. Although Jesus died on the cross, it was not a failure. His death was the biggest victory against these forces of darkness.

Jesus won redemption for us and taught us an eternal lesson that we conquer evil by doing good. That is the strongest tool of our fight. You do not lose spiritually if you lose materially. If you learn to forgive you do not really fail when somebody offends you. God is just and He sees what happens in your life as well as your daily behavior. You only lose if you fail to keep to the word of God and start doubting His promises.

Following verses mention other ways of fight, but all of those are spiritual. You protect yourself by knowing that God is your righteousness. By loving others you get a breast shield from arrows of hatred. The Word of God is your sword, which is a means of attack against all those evil powers of darkness. Your readiness to preach the Gospel is yet another means of battle for the Kingdom of God. I could go on and on, but it would be much better if you read the entire 6^th chapter of Ephesians to find out more. God bless you in your spiritual fight.