GOD’S HANDIWORK, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS
Ephesians 2
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
At the top of the chapter, we were “dead in your transgressions and sins”. By the end we have become “a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Here, in this chapter, is God’s grand design, laid out clearly for us to understand and appreciate. The intention in helping us understand what God is doing through the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in Paul’s appeal to us in chapter 4: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
The mechanics are all there for us to read and understand: we were all cursed to die but God in his love and mercy agreed to remove the deadly grip of sin in us and made us alive with Christ. In doing so, he elevated our status to be family alongside Christ. All this is done by grace and faith, when we choose to carry the name of Jesus and follow him as King.
When we understand this, everything else becomes crystal clear: becoming a Christian is not about enjoying a good life as a Christian, being blessed with material wealth and comfort, or even gaining the power to accomplish our own will and purposes.
Jesus, through his sacrifice, has broken down the walls that separate us from God so that “through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit”. Therefore, when we become a Christian by choosing to accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord, God, in his mercy and grace, sends his Holy Spirit to dwell in us, initiating the process by which in due time we will become “a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Being a Christian is about being God’s holy temple (and its priest): a place where the Holy Spirit dwells; a place where people can find God, know and learn to recognise him as we ourselves grow in holy and righteous living; a place where people can experience the love, mercy and grace of God; a place where people are prayed for; a place where people can pray and know God hears; a place where people can find shelter and sanctuary from evil and the evil one. In this temple there is power and authority, but only as wielded by Christ himself, in humble service and sacrifice.
“In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”