在去旧迎新中实践恩典Living out Grace in Our New Life 7/12/2015
以弗所书Ephesians 4:17-32
INTRODUCTION
Most people like new things. When we were still kids our parents might buy new clothes and new shoes at the Chinese New Year, because New Year signifies a new beginning. There is a reality show titled “Extreme Makeover” that features people who were essentially given a new home. There were families that have children with special sickness, a member who was severely injured by military service overseas or a home that was badly damaged by hurricane. A team of workers helped rebuild their homes. The before and after pictures of those houses can be quite different on the outside. It is because in some cases if the house is beyond repair it would be demolished and a new house will be built. In the book of Ephesians Paul says that Christians too have undergone an extreme makeover. We used to be sinners that are destined for eternal condemnation. But God the Father chose those whom He planned to save from among all nations before the creation of the world. He revived us while we were still dead in sin. Through the death of Jesus Christ and by faith we are adopted as children of God. Because we as Christians have gone through such extreme makeover from death in sin to alive in Christ Paul tells us that we must live out God’s grace in our new life.
EXPLANATION
1.旧人的光景Condition of the Old Self
First of all, Paul recaps the condition of our old self when we did not know Christ. He says in verse 17: So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longerlive as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. By “Gentiles” Paul is not talking about the non-Jews. He is referring to the non-Christians. Paul elaborates in verses 18 to 19 the condition of our old self when we used to live as a person who did not know Christ. 18They are darkened in their understandingand separated from the life of Godbecause of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.19Having lost all sensitivity,they have given themselves overto sensualityso as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. The logic goes like this: one’s spiritual condition would affect his/her mind condition, and his/her mind condition would be manifested in his/her actions. Paul tells us in verse 18 that we used to be “separated from the life of God.” Because of such spiritual condition it affects a person’s mind. Ephesians 4:17 says that people who do not have a relationship with Christ harbor “futility of their thinking” meaning that their thinking process is deprived of truth. Then verse 18 describes that they are “darkened in their understanding” meaning that their understanding is deprived of light. Then it says they are “ignorance” meaning that they are deprived of knowledge of God. Also these people have a problem with “hardening of their hearts” which describes a condition like covering with callus. On the top of all those ungodly mind condition Paul adds in verse 19 that they have “lost all sensitivity” meaning that they become numb. Because of all those mind conditions mentioned above people who do not know Christ resort to ungodly actions as listed in verse 19. Paul says that they “have given themselves overto sensuality.” The word sensuality means unrestricted lust. They also have a continual appetite “to indulge in every kind of impurity.” The word impurity refers to physical or moral uncleanness. So you can see that one’s spiritual condition would affect his/her mind condition, and his/her mind condition would be manifested in his/her actions.
Some of us may protest that: wait, I am not a Christian or I know someone who is not a Christian but I am a decent person or the non-Christian I know has a better moral standard than many Christians. I am not overlooking the so called good works a lot of non-Christians do. A lot of scientists, physicians, teachers and social workers, etc. are non-Christians. They contribute to the well-being of our society. In many past natural disasters that happened in Taiwan the first group of people who came to the rescue were the Buddhist believers. They arrived even before the government rescue team. Even when non-Christians do things out of selfless sacrifice these good works amount to nothing in God’s eyes because ultimately they do not bring glory to God. Isaiah 64:6 says: All of us have become like one who is unclean,and all our righteousacts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf,and like the wind our sins sweep us away. All sins are result of the fact that we do not know God in our old self. We do not know and do not follow God’s perfect standard for our life.
2.新人的光景Condition of the New Self
Paul tells us that we as Christians have gone through an extreme makeover such that we must live out God’s grace in our new life. Just now we have reviewed the condition of our old self. Let us look at the condition of our new self in Christ. Paul says in verses 23-24: 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds;24and to put onthe new self,created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul tells us that this new self is created after God’s righteousness and holiness. The word “create” can be used to describe God’s creation. It appears in the book of Ephesians 4 times. For example it is used in 2:10 when Paul says: For we are God's workmanship,createdin Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do. When we are saved in Christ we went through God’s re-creation process for God to cleanse our sins and infuse us with His righteousness and holiness. It is as if we went back to the stage when God made Adam and Eve. Before they sinned Adam and Eve could fully reflect God’s glory. Here is the key: we are saved by God’s grace and there is nothing we can do to assist the process. However, after we are saved we have to actively choose to live according to God’s standard. Paul uses an analogy of changing of clothes when he says that we have to put off our old self in verse 22 and put on the new self in verse 24. Salvation is God’s work and it is a one-time process. Sanctification is our active decision to choose to obey God and it is a life-time progression. We can never be perfect but we are working toward perfection in our life. Paul reinforces the truth this way in Romans 6:19…Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousnessleading to holiness. This action of offering our body to be used by God has to be initiated by ourselves. God would not grab us by our throat to force us to obey Him. But you say: I can’t do it! Indeed God never says that by ourselves we can live an obedient life. It is not a matter of ability, rather, it is a matter of willingness. When we are willing to submit to God in obedience He will manifest His strength in us. If we choose to put on our new self then we can live a victorious life. On the contrary, if we hold on to our old self we will always be defeated.
The Bible says that there is nothing new under the sun. The principle applies to movies too. Every man-becomes-super-hero movie follows an identical story line. This pitiful guy when he is still an ordinary man is beat up by the bad guys with bruises here and blood stains there. Then just when we are about to say goodbye to our main character all of a sudden he realizes the built-in power inside him. Through some flashing of light he puts on his gear and voila, our super hero appears! With the superpower he turns the tide and defeats all the enemies with punches and kicks, and the super gadgets he has. Brothers and sisters, we do have super power inside us. They are the strength, wisdom and courage from above to empower us to obey God. Why succumb to sin and hold onto your old self when we can put on our new self in Christ? Next time temptation comes say to yourself: “Sorry, I don’t want to go back to my old self anymore.” Instead of struggling with the convenience and comfort of your old self tell yourself that now you have a choice to put on your new self to live for Christ. It can be your unwillingness to help a brother in need, your laziness to get up earlier for morning devotion or Sunday service or the cowardice to step up and witness for Christ. Brothers and sisters, we can be different because we are different on the inside. The issue is whether or not we are willing to choose and live differently to reflect God’s righteousness and holiness on the outside.
3.新人的样式Conduct of the New Self
Christians have gone through an extreme makeover. Therefore, we must live out God’s grace in our new life. After contrasting the conditions of our old versus new self, Paul elaborates on the specifics of the conduct of our new self in Christ. From verse 25 to the end of the chapter Paul lists different expressions of the conduct of our new self.Let us group them under the categories of words, deeds and minds. In regardto our words, Paul says in verse 25 that: Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfullyto his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.We have to be honest with our words. At one time a coworker said something at a meeting but later denied about it. I was quite puzzled about it. Two other coworkers called me up and explained to me: “Well, pastor, this is the way we try to protect ourselves in the environment we grew up from.” I responded: “Yeah, I understandthat. But no matter what background we came up, since we are Christians now honesty should be our trademark. Since then, someone came up with the idea of having audio records of our meetings so that we can refer to the recording later if there is any dispute. Fast forward to the most recent coworker meeting this past Thursday. After the meeting was adjourned an observer was surprised to learn that we did not record the meeting using the audio recorder. When asked why not I simply responded: “Because the coworkers trust each other at what was said.” Let us move on to verse 29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,but only what is helpful for building others upaccording to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. The word “unwholesome” means something that is rotten or worthless. The key as Paul explains it, is that whatever we say has to be edifying to others. It is part of our human nature that when we see a person did 8 things right but 2 things wrong our focus will be to criticize on the 2 things. We voice our opinion: “Why didn’t you?” I don’t know since when but I have determined to make compliment a vital part of my speech. There are too many criticisms in our world. Why not build each other up with our words?
From words let us move on to our deeds. Paul says in verse 28: He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work,doing something useful with his own hands,that he may have something to share with those in need. The contrast here is stealing things for personal gain versus working hard so that one has extra to generously share with others. Even though we do not rob a bank to get easy money very often we rob God of His glory. We want people to put their attention to how smart and capable we are. Instead, we should give glory to God for our accomplishment. From words and deeds we now switch our focus to our minds. Verses 26-27 read: 26"In your anger do not sin":Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,27and do not give the devil a foothold.By saying “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” it means that we have to set a time limit to deal with our anger, lest our anger may turn into an opportunity for sin. Then Paul says “do not give the devil a foothold.” The meaning is that we should not leave any loophole for the devil to tempt us to sin. Verse 31 lists some of the possibilities of those sins: Get rid ofall bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.It goes without saying that anger can cause a lot of damages to our relationship. Paul encourages us to deal with our anger in a godly way inverse 32: Be kind and compassionate to one another,forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Does this verse sound familiar to you? You are right! This is where we derived our church theme for this year. Kindness and compassion are the way God shows to sinners. The third and the most difficult virtue humanly speaking is forgiveness. Paul is telling us to forgive each other “just as in Christ God forgave you.” Christ’s forgiveness of us gives us both a model to imitate and a motivation. He forgave us while we are still indulged in sins. When Jesus Christ was still hanging on the cross He asked God the Father to forgive those who offended Him. Luke 23:34 records what Jesus said on the cross: “Father,forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” He forgave us once and for all without mentioning our sins ever. He took the initiative to forgive us even before we admit our sins and repent from them. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus gives us a model on how we should pray. In Matthew 6:12 Jesus mentions about forgiveness: Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Do you pay attention to the logical sequence here? Jesus taught us to pray to the Father for His forgiveness over our sins just like we forgive those who offend us.You say: “I cannot forgive that person because the hurt he caused was so great.” Let me correct your statement – it is not that you cannot forgive, it is just that you are unwilling to do so. If you are a Christian God has forgiven you and has given you the power and grace to forgive others. It is your choice whether or not to tap into the power and the grace of the Lord who forgave you to forgive that person. Nowadays smart phones are common. Smart phones are so “smart” because they have the capability to run little programs called Apps on them. I did a search on the internet for some of the most unusual Apps out there. There are Appsthat enable a smart phone to check if you have a window that is leaking thermal energy, help you find fish in the water and diagnose problems in your car. As Christians we have the most wonderful App in the universe. It is called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into a person’s heart the moment he/she accepts Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit we can forgive people whom by our human nature cannot forgive and we can love others whom we think unlovable. The question is, do you have this App in you? And if so, do you rely on this App to live your Christian life?
CONCLUSION
In this passage Paul tells us that we as Christians have gone through an extreme makeover such that we must live out God’s grace in our new life. By God’s grace we should put off our old self and put on our new self so that we can live out our new self in Christ. My brothers and sisters, what are the things you need to rely on the power of Christ to change beginning from today so that you can be worthy to be called the children of the Heavenly Father? Perhaps it is something to do with your mind, words or deeds.
I once shared the following real story on the podium. Please accept my apology if you have heard it before. Once a person found out that he was allergic to peanut butter. He was baffled by it since he knew clearly that he did not have allergy problem with peanut. After a series of tests the doctor finally pinpointed the cause for the issue. This person had a kidney transplant not too long ago. The donor of the kidney was allergic to peanut. Therefore, by receiving a kidney this person inherited the medical issue. There is a radical change inside of him such that he had to transform his lifestyle to cope with it.From now on he became a changed man and could no longer eat peanut product. Brothers and sisters, when you received Christ you became a changed person. You need to put off your old self and put on your new self to reflect that you are now a new creation in Christ.
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