Ephesians Study
Chapter 2
Amplified Bible:
Ephesians 2:9
Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
It is a good thing to put it into your heart that what God has done is not the result of what anyone can do. We are raised with all sorts of checklists and learn very quickly that there is something to be done to accomplish anything. If we do not have someone else’s checklist, we make up our own based on our perceived inadequacies. No so when it comes to what God has accomplished for us.
Just today, I heard the Lord say that I believed at a deep level that I was no good to God. It came from that event that happened at age eleven when I was told by a Sunday School teacher that I could not go to heaven if I did not belong to “that” church. All these years I have been carrying this lie, and I can tell you about making up check lists to hide my inadequacies and the pride and self-righteousness (did not know it) that was the motivator for those lists.
There are no coincidences! Do you think that it is a happenstance that I am hearing this message from Ephesians at this time? No, it is meant for my freedom. I hope you are finding your own places of freedom, too. I hope and pray that you do not think I am selfish for asking you to come along on this good news journey. Hopefully, it will put a different perspective on many things.
I keep being reminded that when Paul is writing this, he is in prison. We have different types of prison. Somehow there must be an answer for how life can hand me prison and, yet, God intended that I walk and live the good life. Is it all about a matter of perspective? “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.” This does not mean that there is no prison time. Like any survivor of anything, attitude and perspective play into it. I would rather not be discomforted! I would rather not be sick. You have had your own trials and maybe sickness. It is hard to rejoice when you are in prison. Then I notice this: Rejoice IN THE LORD. It is not the situations in which we are to rejoice. Now, that does put a different perspective on things.
Paul said, ! Corinthians 13:31: “For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, that I face death daily. This is as certain as my pride in what Christ Jesus our Lord has done in you.” I am so thankful for Paul’s experience. The fact that he faced death daily is not where Paul has his investment. It is in what the Lord has done for others. Do you not think that Paul had his questions about all this? I do. We want to shout “it isn’t fair, or there is so much good I could be doing instead of being in prison.”
Another human trying to understand these things wrote this: “Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain.
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