In Ephesians 2:1-10 Paul contrast life before Christ to life in Christ. He reveals a future to not only look forward to, but also to live for. He makes clear distinction between the two. He wanted the Ephesians to understand that salvation would have a radical impact and make a distinct difference between their past; before they accepted Christ, and their future, after they received Christ into their lives. He was saying to them, it is not about a change of status, but a change of life!
Paul started out by reminding them of how bad it was before, when they were simply dead men and women walking around in their transgressions and sin in verse 1, and went on to remind them of how they use to live, following the ways of the world and satan…that which is opposite of God’s ways….he went on to remind them that, that is how we all use to live, gratifying those sinful cravings that our sinful nature longed for, thinking about and having desires to please those inward cravings that separated us from God.
Paul was also saying to them that life before Christ led to death in every way…..matter of fact, he viewed death as a spiritual tyrant that dominates all unredeemed humanity….Elsewhere in Romans 6:23 the scripture reminds us that the wages of our sin is death…..Paul uses this word death to the Ephesians strongly because he wants his readers to understand what they were, without Christ….just a bunch of dead men and women walking around waiting to die in their transgressions. He so wanted them to understand that we are only really made alive when we come to Christ. Then he continues to tell them that there is nothing within themselves that they can do to buy this great salvation that is offered to them, but that they must simply accept God grace and mercy through their faith, and be willing to become His workman by doing right and living right. He tells them that once they receive Christ, God takes care of the rest….it is even God that enables them to be His workmen and will help them to accomplish the things that now would be expected of them.
Once a person receives Christ, though they continue to struggle with the old nature that is still in them, that nature that whisper in their ear to do wrong, they now have an advantage over their temptations that they did not have prior to their conversion. That advantage is that they now have the Spirit of the Living God that dwells in them to do His good pleasure in them…and that good pleasure is to do His will, live right, serve Him….however, every child of God must learn to work out their own salvation through their own personal walk in Christ. That means that each one must learn how to walk…the right way as God gives us direction to walk, through His Word. The scriptures tell us that while the old life in us is gone once we become a Christian (all is forgiven and God remembers them no more), we must learn how to manage the sinful nature that continues to war in us. Once we become “born again”, we must always be aware that the old nature or dead man or woman in us will often times raise it’s old head and we must be spiritually sensitive to this and learn to control it….and the way that that is done, is through feeding the spirit in us and denying what the flesh or old nature wants to do or have. Once we learn acquire the ability to reason properly from the Word of God we make great headway in overcome our wrong thinking, and before you know it….your actions show an attitude of someone that walks with God.
Your perception or reality is distorted because of your fallen nature. The natural fallen mind in us is led by the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes and the pride of our life. But when we commit our minds (our way of thinking) to be submitted to what God wants, then we can discern between right and wrong and determine the paths that we should take. Romans 12:2 tells us that we are to transform our minds (or our way of thinking) by: NOT conforming any longer to the ways and patterns that the world leads us to follow. That, simply put is keeping the dead man/woman in us at bay….keeping that old man in us down and keeping their mouth shut, their hands tied, and their wants and desires controlled making that old nature, our slaves….
Before Christ we are carnally minded, our thoughts and ways are not God’s thoughts and ways, but, the Child of God’s thoughts and ways should be set on the things of God and should be, spiritually minded. Paul tells us about this in Romans 8. The natural mind is corrupted by sin. Believers are not to walk like unbelievers. Romans 8:5 makes a very serious statement to us and says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature, have their minds set on what their nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit, have their minds set on what the Spirit desires”….at this point, I should say, “Choose you this day, whom you will serve, but for me and my house we will serve the Lord”!
To renew your mind means to daily exercise the truths that you are learning from the Word of God. Our thoughts are like building blocks and as we build our thoughts, they develop into attitudes regarding to the use of our time, work, family and relationships. Sinful attitudes will always bring bondage, hurt, disappointments and pain, while biblical attitudes always liberate us even if there is pain and disappointment. As we learn to look at those disappointments through God’s eyes, they too liberate us. While we may not always see clearly, God insure us with His peace that He is in control and that He sees the bigger pictures…and that alone is enough for us, when we are looking through His eyes and we do that by knowing what His word says. We gain the mind of Christ as we gain to know His word. Philippians 2:5 says, ”Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”…and that mind was…the very mind of God!
Loving you today,
Bren
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