Category Archives: Bible Study

Ephesians 2:3

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Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Ephesians

Ephesians 2:3

We used to live as one of those sons of disobedience. he says in verse 3 that we all once lived among them. We were just like them.

What was our character? It was to live according to the passions of our flesh. Passions are lusts or strong desires that drive us to do things. Lusts of the flesh are strong desires that come from our physical bodies. John writes that the things of this world involve the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

In verse 3 here Paul explains that living in the passions of our flesh involves the carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. We do what we want. Whatever comes naturally based on the desires of the body, that is what we do. There’s not much thinking and virtually no self-control. If it feels good, do it! That’s the philosophy of the age we live in, but it has been the philosophy of the human race since the fall, and we were just like that.

Paul goes on to say that we were by nature children of wrath just like everyone else. Our nature is evil. It is in-born. The wrath of God rests upon all human beings because of their natural rebellion against God and because of the strong desire to do what we want to do without considering God or others.

Everyone is like that from birth onward. Just like they, we also were by nature children of wrath. We are no better.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 2:00 PM October 26, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing? – Part 9

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Continued from Part 8

In Galatians 4:21 Paul asks us to look at the picture provided by Abraham’s two sons. If you know your Bible you will recognize these references are to Ishmael and Isaac. One was of the freewoman (Isaac) and one was of the bondwoman (Ishmael). The one born to the bond woman was of the flesh. He came into existence because of the Abraham’s scheming, not according to the working of God. Isaac, the child of the free woman, was a child of promise. He came into existence because of the promise of a miracle, which promise Abraham believed.

Romans 4:19-22 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

These are symbolic of two covenants (Galatians 4:24) – one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage and the other corresponds to Jerusalem. Sinai, of course, was the place where the law was given.

Paul concludes by saying this in verse 28, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise…. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.’ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

This is the warning and admonition with which we conclude this study. The seed of the bondwoman, representing life under the law, and the seed of the free woman, representing the life of faith based on the indwelling Holy Spirit according to the promise of God, are mutually exclusive. The warning is that we are not to be entangled again in the bondage that comes from trying to perform in order to reach an acceptable standard with God. So we are to live by faith, trusting God’s promises and living accordingly. We are to accept the forgiveness freely given by God and not beat ourselves up for our lack of perfection. God is working on each one of His followers and molding them more and more into the likeness of his Son. That’s His promise. We need to accept that and trust Him with the outcome.

So, my question of you is this: Have you trusted Christ as your only hope of eternal life and your only hope of escaping the curse? You can’t escape by working at it, because it is impossible to keep all of the law all of the time. Your only hope is that God is faithful to His word and will save those who come to Him through Christ.

Ephesians 2:2

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in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Paul says that we once walked in this way. Again he’s speaking about the past. When we trust in Christ and believe on Him, this life pattern becomes our past pattern. But it’s important to realize what that condition was like, because for those of us who were saved early in our lives, we tend to become smug and judgmental toward those we consider to be worse sinners than we are.

So, what was our walk like? It was according to the course of this world. The word for course is age or eon. We lived the way the world has always lived. There is a course or pattern to the way human beings have lived since the fall, and we ourselves also were like that.

We followed the prince of the power of the air. Who is that? The spirit that now is at work in the sons of disobedience. He, of course, is referring to Satan or the devil. We followed his leadership in the way we ordered our lives.

This spirit is even now at work in the sons of disobedience. That is who we used to follow, but no more! Having been saved and rescued out of Satan’s grasp, we no longer follow him.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:43 AM October 22, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing? – Part 8

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Continued from Part 7

So the bottom line for the person who is in Christ is that the days of the guardianship of the law are over. It did it’s job in the first part of human history, but now in Christ, it’s responsibility has been completed.

Please don’t interpret any of this to say that we are free to live in any way we like. I’m talking about the role of the law and its place in our lives. The reason this is important is that many Christians put themselves under the law in order to try to please God in the sense of making Him happy with their level of obedience. What they don’t realize is that perfection is the standard and we fall way short. Even though you may not lie, steal or cheat, do you really want God to condition his favor toward you based on whether you loved Him with the entirety of your mind, heart, soul, and strength over the last 24 hours? You didn’t fall at all short of that standard? Even though you didn’t rob a bank, you perfectly loved your neighbor as yourself, and didn’t look with covetousness or envy at anything at all that another person has or does? You don’t really want to be evaluated by the law, do you? The good news is that you won’t be if you are in Christ.

Another motivation sometimes is to try to use the law to get our lives in order. If we struggle with certain temptations, we tend to go back under the law to solve that problem. The trouble is that the law brings a curse as we have seen. In fact in Romans 7:8, we learn that sin takes the opportunity in the law to produce all sorts of evil desire. Second Corinthians 15:56 tells us that the strength of sin is the law. Sin gains power when the law is in force. By going back under the law, you are actually enabling sin to have a stronger influence which is completely opposite what we were hoping for. Life requires self-discipline, but putting oneself under the law doesn’t work, and in fact, God pleads with us not to do that.

Returning now to Galatians 4:7 we find that if we are a son, then we are an heir of God. Think about what that means! We are adult sons, not children. We are heirs of God with all the rights and privileges of being an adult son. Paul tells us in Romans 8:17, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” We share in the inheritance that Jesus Christ receives. We are His siblings, so to speak.

Paul basically spends much of the rest of chapter 4 begging the people not to return to childhood. Notice his pleading in verse 9, “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?”

In Colossians 2:8, Paul writes, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” Then in verse 20 he says, “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, (there’s that expression again) why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations – do not touch, do not taste, do not handle.” The interesting point here is that he finishes up this thought in verse 23 by saying, “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” In other words, it doesn’t work to set up these rules for yourself to try to stifle the flesh. Returning to law-keeping seems like a wise thing to do, but it does not work! It just stimulates more sin.

So my question was, “does God beg us not to put ourselves under the law?” Look at verses 11-16 of Galatians 4 and see what you think. God is serious about this. He uses expressions like “I urge you…” and “I’m afraid for you….” The answer we need for trying to live a godly life is not more law. It is in our recognition and accepting by faith the fact that we are new creatures in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit within us, and we need to yield to His leadership in our lives.

Ephesians 2:1

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And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Now Paul turns his attention to us. He says, “And you.” Who is he talking to? He says you who were dead in the trespasses and sins. That includes all of us, doesn’t it?

He uses the past tense of dead, which means we were dead, but are no longer dead. According to the Bible, we are born dead, spiritually dead.

Trespasses have to do with moral failures great or small. We are sinners. We fail to live up to the holy standards of our creator and so we are dead in them.

Sins has to do with our offenses against God and the resulting guilt. To what degree were we involved in trespasses and sins? How bad were are moral failures and offenses against a holy, righteous, and loving God? For that, we need to go on to verse 2 next time.

But in the middle of this verse is the phrase “He made alive.” Some translations don’t include this phrase but the meaning is still there when we get to verse 5. We’ll deal more with it when we get there, but for now the truth is stated that even though we were dead, God made us alive. He is the life-giving God.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 5:03 PM October 18, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing? – Part 7

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Continued from Part 6

During this time of childhood, Paul describes it as a time of bondage under the elements of the world. What are those elements? This is not a trivial question just for theologians. It is a practical one for us,  because if we find out that we are still trapped under those elemental issues, then we are still responding like children. We are living like adult children still under the sway and guardianship of our parents, and that is not a good place to be.

Let’s begin with a question Paul asks in Galatians 4:9: “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” Do you see what he is asking? There is something wrong with desiring to be in that kind of bondage to what he calls the “weak and beggarly” elements. What are these? In the very next verse he says, “you observe days, months, seasons and years.” What does he mean by this?

Let’s look at a couple of other passages and then draw some conclusions.

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:20-22 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

So we can see from these passages that the elementary principles of the world involve man-made religion, human rules and regulations, religious exercises, and similar practices that are not from God.

In addition, God has said that even His law was given to keep us under its guardianship until adulthood came. We were in elementary school as it were. Adulthood came with the coming of Christ. When a person is a child, he needs to be told what to do about virtually everything. He doesn’t have the maturity to know which vegetables he should eat and that he shouldn’t play in the street. He doesn’t know it’s good to go to bed at a decent hour to get a good night’s sleep. But when adulthood comes, he essentially has the maturity to make these kinds of decisions for himself.

In the religious realm, before the coming of Christ and the subsequent coming of the Holy Spirit, people needed to be told what to do and how to live. Humans innately develop religious rules and regulations to guide them and God gave His commandments to His people to serve that same function.

But after Christ and the Holy Spirit came, believers are recipients of the benefits of the New Covenant which promised a new heart, new motivations, and the presence of God’s Spirit (Galatians 3:14; Jeremiah 31:33-34; Ezekiel 36:25-27). Under these circumstances the guardianship of the law is not necessary. A Christian has within himself the resources to follow God and do the things that are pleasing to Him. He is an “adult” in the sense that he has “grown up” spiritually. He has the internal resources he needs. He is treated by God as an adult son. There is obviously more maturing to go through,  just as in physical adulthood, there is a big difference between an adult 25 year old and an adult 60 year old in terms of wisdom and experience and so on. It’s the same in the spiritual realm. We are adult sons, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us, but there is maturing to do as well. But we don’t need to be like children being told every move to make.

So the bottom line for the person who is in Christ, is that the days of the guardianship of the law are over. It did it’s job in the first part of human history but now in Christ, it’s responsibility has been completed. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit within you to guide you to do the right things. When you go back to the law to try to measure up, and to try to make yourself better, you are falling from grace and putting yourself back under the curse that we talked about at the beginning of this series. Believe me, you don’t want God to evaluate you based on how well you keep the commandments. We all get a failing grade every time.

Ephesians 1:23

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And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Christ is the head of the church, which is His body. The church is an organism and not an organization. The life of the church is the Spirit of God at work through the various members functioning according to the gifts God has given them. Jesus is the head, the director, the mind behind all that takes place.

The next phrase is astounding to me. The church, the body of Christ, is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. That means that, in some sense, the church is the fullness of God! That means that if you are a Christian, you are a member of the body of Christ, and, as such, you are part of the fullness of God, because God, through His Spirit, indwells everyone of us. Amazing, isn’t it?

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 4:33 PM October 18, 2020.

God’s Curse or Blessing?- Part 6

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Continued from Part 5

Now let’s go back to a question we left hanging earlier. The law is a guardian and a tutor until faith comes. When is that? What is the timeline? Once faith comes, the guardianship and tutor relationship ends. When is that? Does that mean when we trust Christ and are saved? Let’s continue reading.

In Galatians 4:1-3 we learn that the law is like the parent or guardian to an under-aged child. A child, Paul says, is not much different than a slave even though he is the heir of everything. Many children probably feel like that! He is under the rule of his parent until he comes of age. Even though he is an heir, he still has to go to bed when told, has to go with mom to the store, has to eat his vegetables, and so on. In the same way, when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world. My question is still the same – when were we children and when did adulthood come?

Paul answers that question in Galatians 4:4. He says, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

So there’s the timing answer. God sent forth His Son more than 2000 years ago when Christ came into the world. That’s when childhood ended. That’s when adulthood started. That’s when the law’s guardianship and tutelage ended. It doesn’t have anything to do with our growth from childhood to adulthood or with our conversion to Christ, or even our growth in grace.

During the time of childhood, which is now past, Paul describes it as a time of bondage under the elements of the world. What are those elements? We’ll look at that next time.

Ephesians 1:22

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And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.

Besides having described the place of dominion and authority to which Christ has ascended, Paul writes that God has put everything under Jesus’ feet. That means Jesus Christ is the supreme ruler of the universe. Everything means everything.

1 Corinthians 15:27 tells us that when he says all things were put under His feet, the one who did this is excepted. That means that God the Father, who placed everything under Jesus’ feet, did not put Himself under His feet. He is the exception.

Paul goes on further to say that God made Jesus the head over everything to the church which is His body. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. The pastor is not, and the people are not. Jesus is the head. That means He is the one who tells us what the church ought to be like, how it should function, what should be included or excluded, etc.

I hear many people say, “Here’s what I would like to see in the church.” Or “I need to find a church that is more to my liking.” We are not the ones in charge. If a church isn’t functioning the way God has said it should function, then we might have to leave and go to a different assembly. But, then the statement wouldn’t be, “I don’t like what they are doing,” but rather, “this church isn’t functioning the way God has ordained, and therefore, I am going to seek a different place to worship.”

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:40 PM October 14, 2020.

God’s Blessing or Curse? – Part 5

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Continued from Part 4.

To get the context for this discussion you should probably go back and read the previous posts on this topic.

But why was the law given then? In other words, if the law does not apply to me in my relationship to God, why give it? If I am completely forgiven and declared righteous completely apart from my obedience to God’s commandments, why does He give commandments? He answers that question in verses 22-24 of Galatians 3. First he says that it confines all under sin. In other words, the law lays down the standard, and no one lives up to it. Therefore all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Don’t just skip over this. That is an interesting reason to give the law: “to confine all under sin.” Paul writes essentially the same thing to the Romans in Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” Abound means to increase. The law was given to increase the sin. There are more attitudes and deeds that are sinful than you can imagine. When we confess to a few sins each day, we are way underestimating our sinfulness!

Second, before faith came we were kept under guard by the law and kept for the faith that should be revealed later on (Galatians 3:23). Before faith came the law had a guardianship role to keep people under control. A question you should ask yourself is what is the timeline involved? In other words, the law guarded before the faith came. When did the faith come? When did that guardianship end?

Third, the law was a tutor to bring us to Christ. Again, he says that when faith came, the tutor relationship ended. When did that faith come? We’ll look at the timing of this more later. What I want us to see now is that the purpose of the law had nothing to do with giving salvation because it can’t do that. It doesn’t even have anything to do with spiritual growth. As you will recall, Paul asked that question in verse 3. His conclusion was that the law neither perfects nor matures us. The law’s responsibility was to confine all under sin, make us all guilty, and to guard and serve as tutor until the time that faith comes, at which time, it would point to Jesus Christ as our only hope.

In the Old Testament God said that those who keep the law will be blessed and those who don’t keep it in its entirety will be cursed. (If you didn’t read the beginning of this series, you need to go back and start with Part 1.) There are many Christians who are still trying to live under those terms, trying desperately to keep the law so that God’s blessing will be on their lives. They do this because they read this in Deuteronomy and Joshua. They believe this applies to them. But it does not! What we’ve learned in this study is that as Christians, we are children of Abraham and therefore recipients of the unconditional promise made to him and to his seed. Christ took God’s curse on himself so that the blessing of Abraham could be ours (Galatians 3:14). There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Those who are in Christ Jesus are completely forgiven and declared righteous apart from the works of the law (Gal 2:16; Rom 3:28).

What I’m trying to encourage you with is to realize and believe that God will not add conditions to the blessing He is giving you through His promise to Abraham. The law that came 430 years after the promise cannot annul the promise. If you’re a Christian, the discussion of God’s curse does not apply to you. Christ became the curse so that you won’t be the recipient of it. The way to avoid the curse is to trust in God’s promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. Having done so, you are justified and declared righteous by faith. Any righteousness you bring to God is flawed and tainted and is replaced by the perfect righteousness of Christ.