PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Ephesians 2:1, 4–7
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
CONSIDER THIS
Every once in a long while a movie comes out that has everything the viewer wants. This has-it-all movie has a compelling story, thrilling adventure, spine-tingling drama, surprising comedy, loyal friendship, blossoming romance, a celebration of family love, striking special effects, and, perhaps best of all, an epic struggle between good and evil. That kind of movie is destined to succeed at the box office.
On May 25, 1977, when I was just a young teenager, my has-it-all movie hit the silver screen. I found the ad for it at the bottom of the movie page in the local newspaper, and my father and I went to see it together in a near-empty theater. The name of the obscure, new movie? Star Wars. And for a young boy captivated by space and the great beyond, it was just about perfect. I can almost hear the beloved character, R2D2, affirming my choice to reference the groundbreaking movie with a “beep-beep-boop-beep.”
Today’s verse about union with God in Christ and the love God has for us is better as a passage than Star Wars as a movie. Why? Because it is perfect in so many ways. It is God’s word, it is about his perfect love for us, it is about us becoming perfect in love (Col. 3:14; 1 John 4:18), and it resonates with perfect truths that are keeping the universe on its course.
Ephesians 2:1, 4–7 is a true, has-it-all verse.
Let’s read it out loud again, with enthusiasm.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
First, we were dead. As a friend put it years ago, “Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. Jesus came to make dead people live.” We were dead in our transgressions and sins; our soul was corrupted, and we were in a sleep unto death. Welcome to the world as we know it.
“But . . . ,” and here the soundtrack supports the dramatic movement, the sheer romance of the story. “But, because of his great love for us . . .” God acted. From his abounding affection for you, for me, and for the world he loves (John 3:16), God intervened on our behalf.
“God, who is so rich in mercy”—is a character note about the Trinity, the Divine Hero, of our story. And here come the special effects—“. . . made us alive with Christ.” Dead hearts come to whole and fulfilling and beautiful life! The epic battle of good and evil presses the scene forward as we read that grace was poured out on us, saving us from the devil’s grip on our hearts (1 John 3:8b).
But wait, there’s more! Just when you think the special effects couldn’t get any better . . . POW! “God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” We are with Jesus in heaven as we walk on earth. We carry his heavenly perspective with us into the grocery store, into that difficult meeting, into a voting booth, into a room filled with grief or joy.
Can you feel the storyline rising—the adventure, the laughter, the friendship, the abundance of breathtaking kindness that is in these words?
We are in union with Jesus; we are in Christ Jesus! And in participation with Christ in his death and resurrection (another way of talking about our union with Jesus), God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
Once again, union is habitation (Christ in you, and you in Christ), participation (we died and rose with him), and incarnation (Jesus is living his life through us by his Spirit). Today’s verse gives us the theological headwaters for these three aspects of our union with Christ, watering them unto blooming and flourishing. Our realized and deepening union with God in Christ is a result of God’s inestimable love for us (v. 4).
This epic tale is the real one to which all others knowingly or unknowingly point (the “true myth” of Tolkien). The love of God for you, for me, and for the world is at the center of the narrative. The whole plot points back to Jesus.
And finally, why is all this union—this habitation, participation, and incarnation—necessary? Enter verse 7: “In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus,” to a weary world. Can you hear “O Holy Night” playing in the background?
Q: What is the Father’s greatest act of kindness to humankind?
A: Christ Jesus is God’s greatest act of kindness to humankind.
You, and I, in Christ, are characters in this epic tale of union and love. We are the ones who point the way to the God who is love, the God who is making all things new in Christ.
THE PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I am in you and you are in me. I am thrilled to be a beloved character in your epic story of union and love. I turn my heart toward you today so that I might take my place, showing the same grace to others that you have shown me. In Christ Jesus, I pray, amen.
THE QUESTIONS
What aspect of today’s passage most moves you? Why? How does seeing yourself as a beloved character in God’s epic story of love for humanity help you as you follow him today?
For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt
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3 Responses
Sin has severed people’s connection with the loving, holy God and turned humans into dead men walking–empty shells who reject God’s way, abandon the truth, and are lifeless inside and without the inner presence of God’s Spirit. God longs for all people to come to life in His presence and to experience the beauty of His reality day and night.
Because of His great love and grace for people, the One who raised Jesus from the dead shines His resurrection power into the death cold hardness of the human heart. He calls and knocks to enter in and as many as receive Him and follow His Spirit become life-filled children of God. They live by the faith of the Son of God as the risen Jesus lives in and through them and seats them in the supernatural dimensions of the heavenly realms so they can be living demonstrations of His grace and kindness on earth as it is in Heaven, not in theological theory but in day-to-day reality.
Born again Christ-followers have been rescued from spiritual death so they can continually surrender the control of their mind, will, desires, and emotions to the risen Lord Jesus Christ and manifest His presence on earth as people who are seated in Heaven. The world desperately needs all born again Christ-followers to courageously, boldly, lovingly, and humbly shine His light by submitting to and obeying the inner promptings of His Spirit.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,… But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” This is the very heart of the Gospel message. As the result of the Fall, all of us were born into this world spiritually dead. Dead people neither know nor do they care that they are dead, and therefore without God’s intervention, we would be destined to spend eternity in that state of reality. BUT, because of God’s great love for us, God, through preceding grace opened our hearts, as he did for Lydia of Philippi, (Acts 16:14) thereby allowing her and us, to respond to the Gospel’s call to salvation. All of us in Christ have experienced the first resurrection, the resurrection of our spirit, so on the Day of the Lord, we will not have to experience the second death. (Revelation 20:11-15)
Bob, “randomly” this morning, and long before reading your comment and listening to today’s wake-up call, a question popped in my head – ‘What is the genuine core of the gospel message?’ I truly believe God spoke to me through your comment today. Thank you for always sharing.