Unity & Grace in Christ – Live Each Day in Christ, part 4
Is Jesus the cornerstone of your life? As a believer, you are part of the family of God, with Jesus as the cornerstone. This message reveals how and why you are to live in unity with other believers and with the grace of God in your heart. Learn how unity and grace in Christ bring peace with God and others.
This series asks and answers life questions such as: Who am I? How do I get past my past and embrace my future? How can I have peace? Learn how to live in Christ every day and in the hope you have in Christ, both now in the present and in the future. As a believer, God is with you, and your past is forgiven. God chose to love you and extend his grace to you in Christ. It is my hope that you are spiritually encouraged. No matter what you are facing, living in Christ, you can face anything, even death. God has a plan for your life. He loves you and you can trust him.
Live In Unity and In the Grace of God in Christ
We have been looking at the epistle that Paul wrote to the Ephesians. We have seen how the apostle Paul wanted the believers in Ephesus to realize who they were in Christ. Paul wanted the believers to know that their past sins did not need to define who they were once they placed their faith in Christ. Paul wanted you, and all believers, to know in your heart:
God is with you, and you are never alone.
Your past is forgiven.
You are freely loved by God, chosen, and predestined in Christ even before the creation of the world.
Paul then emphasized that God chose to love you and the believers in Ephesus and extend his grace to everyone who are in Christ.
Paul encourages the believer to live in Christ every day and in the hope that every believer has in Christ, both now in the present and in the future, and for all eternity. Paul wanted the believer to grow in spiritual wisdom and revelation. He prayed that the Holy Spirit would instruct the believers in the things of the Lord and for them to grow spiritually into the man and woman of God that God desired for them. Paul knew in his heart that God would receive all the glory as the person of God grew in the knowledge of Christ and lived it, for all to witness.
We have already noted the difference between grace and mercy. Mercy is withholding a punishment that is deserved, whereas grace is extending favor that is undeserved. The grace that God extends is totally undeserved, and God’s grace results in peace with God and the peace of God when the grace of God is received in faith.
It is only by the Grace of God that anyone will receive the peace of God and peace with God.
Remember Paul is a Jew and is speaking from personal experience. Paul desired everyone to know that if God extended his grace to Paul (the worst of sinners) God will certainly extend his grace to whosoever would believe.
Paul wanted every believer to know.
The hope God.
The riches of God.
And the incomparably great power of God for us who believe.
Paul wanted both Jew and Gentile to know the hope, riches, and power of God are available to them, for those who believe. With that in mind we will be looking at Ephesians.
‘Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ’ (Ephesians 2:11-13, NIV).
Paul tells the Gentile believers to remember who they were before they placed their faith in Jesus. They were looked down upon by the Jew. They were called uncircumcised. They had no part of the promises or the covenant of God like the Jew. They were viewed as foreigners without hope, having no part or hope of God. They were totally excluded from any hope of heaven.
I believe there are times we should remember that we too would be without the hope of God and heaven except for the mercy and grace of God. We too would be spiritually lost, burdened by sin and death, and living far from knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Anyone not born a Jew is considered a Gentile and is looked down upon by the Jewish-born individual.
In Exodus Moses tells the Israelites to remember the day they exited Egypt.
‘Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand”’ (Exodus 13:3).
I do not believe we should ever forget the bondage of sin and death that God delivered us from. Each person has their own Egypt, their own set of bondages that they are delivered from when they place their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Your Egypt and bondage might have been drugs, adultery, alcohol, sexual addiction, success and money, envy and pride, or a host of other spiritual, emotional, and physical bondages. Maybe you are still living in some type of bondage that you have not been able to get out of yet. Some people get delivered from bondage but, because life can get difficult, they want to go back. Much like the Israelites who were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, but when things got tuff in the desert; when they got hungry, they thought life was better back in Egypt, where at least they weren’t hungry. They forgot about the suffering and pain that the Egyptians placed on them.
Remember the place you once lived in when you were living far from God. You once experienced pain, suffering, bondage, and hopelessness. Remember when you were living spiritually dead in the trespasses of your sin. Remember the hopelessness of your situation before knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior. Like Moses and the Israelites, who were delivered out of the bondage of Egypt, they were to celebrate and commemorate the day God delivered them from Egypt. Every believer should remember and celebrate their deliverance from spiritual bondage. Remember and celebrate your deliverance from sin and death every day.
When you partake of the Lord’s Supper remember it is Jesus’ shed blood that paid the debt of your sin. Remember to give God all the glory for your deliverance. He is faithful to every one of his promises and worthy of all praise.
Paul wanted the Gentiles to remember their past when they were living far from God and excluded from promises of God. He wanted the Gentiles to recall the hopelessness of not knowing God and their deliverance from sin and death by the grace of God.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:14-18).
The Jewish temple had a wall that divided an area known as the court of the Gentile from the other part of the temple area. The Gentile, the foreigner, the uncircumcised non-Jew could not go beyond that area. However, in Christ, the wall is removed. The two (Jew and Gentile) become one in the faith.
Before Jesus, circumcision in the flesh was an outward sign of the Jew. Obeying the traditions and regulations of the law was important to the Jew and was thought to be what set the Jew apart from every other person. What the religious Jew did not realize is that they misunderstood the entire reason for the law. Not one person is able to obey the law; each one is a sinner needing a savior. Jew and Gentile alike. The Law was to illustrate to the Jew their need for a savior. Jesus fulfilled the commandment of the law. Jesus’ sinless sacrifice and shed blood are God’s gift of grace that is available to everyone who places their faith in Jesus.
Faith in Jesus brings true peace to a person’s heart; peace of God and a restored relationship with God.
In the Garden before Adam and Eve sinned, Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. They had a personal relationship with God. However, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, when they took and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they sinned (see Genesis 2:9). When they sinned, their relationship with God was broken. Yielding to temptation they sinned and rebelled against God when they took and ate from the tree and their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked. From that time on mankind was born with a sin nature. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves and hid from God, but God sought them out and called to them. God later covered them with skins of an animal and the blood that was shed temporally covered their sin. They were put outside the Garden, and it is only by the shedding of blood that their sin was temporally covered.
God made a covenant with Abraham and later he made a covenant with Moses and the people of Israel in Egypt. The Israelites were to take some of blood from an animal sacrifice and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses. The blood was to be a sign on the houses where the Israelites were, “and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).
This act was later commemorated and celebrated yearly by the Israelites as Passover.
“Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssops, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down” (Exodus 12:21-23).
Sin is only covered temporally by the blood of a spotless animal sacrifice. This was looking forward to the day when the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world would be crucified and his blood shed.
It is the blood of Christ that covers the sin of the believer. It is the blood of Christ that pays the debt to sin that the believer could never pay themselves.
Paul reminds the believer that “now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:15-19).
Now no more sacrifice is needed. Jesus’ blood covers and pays the debt to sin for the person who places their faith in Jesus.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
The Gentiles were no longer foreigners but rather part of the family of God, fellow citizens in Christ with Jesus as the cornerstone. Now every believer who places their faith in Christ becomes a holy temple set apart to God.
In Christ, the believer is being built up together where the Holy Spirit dwells in them. Now both Jew and Gentile are made one in Christ. The wall of separation is torn down. The physical sign of circumcision that the Jew once held so highly is replaced with the believer’s circumcision of the heart. The believer, Jew and Gentile alike, is set apart unto God in their heart. Both are one in Christ. Their sin is forgiven and covered, and the curse of sin and death removed.
By the blood of Christ, the believer is now at peace with God. By the blood of Christ, the person who was once far from God is brought near.
By the blood of Christ, the Jew and Gentile are made one, fellow citizens and members of the same household and both have direct access to the father.
Jesus is to be the center of the church and the believer’s life.
I urge you to search your heart and ask yourself these questions:
Am I living as set-apart unto God?
Is Jesus the cornerstone of my life?
Am I living as one in Christ and do people see Jesus in my life?
Am I living in unity with other believers and with the grace of God in my heart?
If you can answer yes to each of these that is great, but remember not to turn back to the bondage he has delivered you from. In him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, is at work in you and his grace and power are sufficient for whatever you face.
Suggested Praise and Worship
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Ephesians 4: Are you living according to your calling in Christ? This message offers practical ways to live in love and unity, plus 5 things people should see in you as a believer.