“A New Life from a New Gift”

There was no message last week due to my illness. Feeling better now.

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

Is this life our only true reality? Christians would generally say “No.” But even for those who believe that it is, they still hope that it isn’t! “Reality” shows have become very popular on TV, and have been for a number of years, but quite honestly, they offer little hope, and even less reality!

About 15 years ago, while I was still employed at New York State Electric and Gas, I was having lunch with some folks from the office, and the subject turned to a popular “reality” show that had aired the previous night. Practically the entire table, except for me, had seen it, and the conversation began to center on the exploits of 1 or 2 of the show’s participants.
As the debate slackened, and a couple of people looked toward me, almost asking what my opinions were, I commented “I’m not into voyeurism.” One woman turned and replied “Oh no – they had all their clothes on last night!”
She missed my point – that not only didn’t the show have anything whatsoever to do with “reality”, it was more of an invitation to the viewing audience to peer into the foibles and problems and deceitfulness – the story line - of the show’s characters than it was to examine the quality of their relationships.

This life is full of our own foibles and problems and deceptions, and while they should actually remain within our own life, some think that they have the right to know all about them, and that we shouldn’t try to hide them! The misuse of Face book, Twitter, and other social media are stark evidence of that!

Laura Schlessinger writes:
It is not a matter of whether life dealt you a good or bad hand with ''realities'' that are rich or rocky in soil. ''It is the choices you make in your reactions to deal with them that determine the quality of your life. Most of the time you don't get to select your challenges [that is, your realities]; sometimes your challenges are the direct consequences of previous choosing. You may not even like any of the available options. However, you never lose the freedom and responsibility to choose and then honor that choice.

''When these choices are determined by virtue and values, you bring purpose, meaning and integrity to your life.''
--The ending to Laura Schlessinger's book How Could You Do That?!: The Abdication of Character, Courage and Conscience (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 268.

Personally, “reality shows” have little value and even less virtue. (And I expect to receive more than a few rebuttals on that statement!)

Read Ephesians 2:1-3

Even though sin is truly a reality of life, it isn’t something that we should cling to! Paul reminds the Church that sin is equated to death, and that we all have lived in that void of gracelessness. There are no exceptions! Romans 3:21-26 tells us that we ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us – John, and Peter, and Paul, and Timothy and you and me – ALL of us! Not one perfect soul in all of history – except for Jesus, of course.

And in our sinful condemnation, it is Satan who rules our lives – not because he forces us, but because we give ourselves to him. And Paul says that every time we seek to gratify our sinful cravings, we are acknowledging his authority once again.
And there is little we can do about it. What if we simply begin doing good things to counteract the effects of our sin? It won’t work! Could we begin thinking good thoughts to balance the bad ones out? Doesn’t help either. The only hope that we have is to look to the Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to refocus our lives. It is only by our surrender to Christ and his will that we can be welcomed into his holy and righteous nature.

Read Ephesians 2:4-7

Made alive in Christ, even while we were dead in our sin, because of the love that God has for each and every individual throughout the ages. I don’t know about you, but I sure am glad that God’s love doesn’t get tired of us and our shenanigans! Have you ever thought about that? The Lord never tires of rescuing us from the messes that we create! And folks still think that they can put the Lord into a self-defined, very short and very narrow box, and that this is all they need of God. Unfortunately for them, human understanding doesn’t go very far when it comes to describing God’s mercy and passion for humanity. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 – “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” No matter how weak and foolish we try to make God out to be, his power and understanding is still far beyond anything we might have!

Paul continues by telling us that we have not only been raised up, but that we have been seated with Christ. And where is Jesus sitting? At the Father’s right hand! Romans 8:12-17 tells us that we are not only children of God, but that we are his “joint heirs with Christ.” In Jewish law, the eldest son – the first born (in this case Jesus!) - would receive a double portion of his father’s inheritance, but now we hear that we will be joint heirs with Christ. Jesus is the first born of salvation, and all others come to the Father because of him, but Paul says that we will receive as much grace and glory as Christ will! Jesus will always be the Name above all names, but we will become equal partners with him in eternity!
God’s grace trumps every ounce of goodness and reason that all of humanity together could possibly muster. Can you think of a better reason for glorifying the name of Jesus? He saves us from wrath so that we can receive a part of the inheritance that is rightly and completely his.
Where would we ever find that kind of love in human nature?

Read Ephesians 2:8-10

We have been saved by grace through faith – a precious gift of God’s to the people of earth – and there is nothing that any of us can do that can match the power of that gift. We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, we can’t conceive of it, and we have an impossible task in trying to describe it. All we can do is accept it.

The renowned theologian Frederick Buechner wrote:
Grace is something you can never get but only be given. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you [that] I created the universes. I love you.
There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.
--Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 33-34.

Saved by grace through faith, and not by works so no one can boast. Have you ever known someone who just loved to talk about their own salvation? That’s boasting! What we need to do is to talk about God’s grace, and how it is there, just waiting, for the other person to reach out in the name of Jesus and receive it for their own life. That is a part of what “sharing the love of Christ” is all about.
And these are part of the “good works” that Paul tells us about in verse 10. We don’t have to make them up, we don’t have to figure them out, we don’t have to give them purpose and definition – God has already completely prepared them for us in advance, and again, all we have to do is reach out and accept them.
And just in case anyone thinks that if one more person comes to Christ that it will diminish their own share of glory, remember that ALL who are in Christ are “joint heirs” with him in eternity. The grace of God is infinite and limitless!

When my brother and I were in college, I remember the time that we were talking about “infinity” at supper one evening (college kids just love to expound on their new learnings in front of their parents and younger siblings!). In the course of our conversation, Mom made the comment that she just couldn’t imagine anything that had no end. But as we talked a little more, she also admitted that she had just as much difficulty in imaging space having an abrupt end to it.
Grace is like that. We can’t imagine its infinite quality, but neither should we imagine that it can be limited. We have to understand that it just IS!

Grace – Mercy – Salvation – God’s infinite love – Christ’s infinite passion – we don’t have to understand any of it. As Buechner wrote, we only have to reach out and accept it, and when we do, the condemnation of our sin is history. Ancient Israel didn’t have Jesus, so their only recourse to sin was the Law of Moses and the Love of God. Of course, the law was inadequate to achieve salvation for their lives – it would simply be their feeble attempt at “good works”. And they never did get a good grasp on what the love of God was all about! But it was always with them, just the same. The Lord’s grace and mercy is all they had going for them, and that is our situation, too.

A new life that brings us to that joint inheritance with Christ is strictly a gift. It’s Christmas and Easter and the Fourth of July all wrapped up in one beautiful present. The Babe of Bethlehem, the Sacrificial Lamb of God, and Freedom from sin and death – a glorious gift that is beyond our wildest imagination. That’s what Jesus is for each and every one of us.

Share that glorious gift with the world around you. They need it just as badly as we do!