Trinity
19
Eph
4:22-28
10/15/23
Living
as a Christian is an ongoing struggle.
It is because of what God has done for us in Christ, and because
of what we continue to be. Our salvation
is certain and sure because of Christ.
The Spirit has given us new life through baptism, and we now live as
those who are in Christ. Yet the
remnants of sin are still there – the old Adam is still present. And so, our life as Christians is one of an
ongoing struggle against sin.
Because
this is the case, we continue in the need to hear the call to live in ways that
are true to God’s will. We need the
exhortation of God’s Word that urges us to live as what God has made us to
be. Until we die, this is a word that we
will always need.
St
Paul does this all the time in his letters.
Often, the latter portion of his letters has a concentration of this
kind of language. The apostle
continually exhorts and encourages his readers to live in ways that are
produced by Christ. He warns them about
the sin that is present in their lives.
He believes Jesus makes a difference not only in the salvation he
provides, but also in the life that he causes.
Our
text this morning is a classic example of this.
In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle deals with the obvious fact
that they are Gentiles. The vast majority
of them were not Jewish. They did not
descend from Abraham. Instead, the Ephesians were Gentiles who were not part of
God’s people.
As Paul talks about their situation
before Christ, the first thing he comments on is the sinful condition in which
the Ephesians existed. He says in
chapter two, “And
you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” They were spiritually dead. Yet this deadness did not mean they did
nothing. Quite the opposite! Because
they were spiritually dead, they were walking in sin. They were living
in ways that violated God’s will.
This was bad
enough. But then there was more bad news.
Because they were Gentiles, they did not have access to God. This could only be found in Israel. It was only true for those who descended from
Abraham and had been included in the covenant.
Paul says, “Therefore
remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’
by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands--
remember that you
were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope
and without God in the world.”
Walking in the way of sin the Ephesians had no hope and
were without God. The same thing can be
said of you. Paul says that the life of
walking in sin was true of all of us. He
says that “we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh” and so “were by nature children of
wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
The sin of Adam infected us all. We were by nature those who deserved God’s
wrath. Sin was in us from the moment of conception. Your parents never had to teach you to be
angry or jealous. It was just there - inside you – ready to come out.
And then, you are also Gentiles. You don’t descend from Abraham. You
forefathers were never part of Israel.
Instead, you descend from the hordes that were continually coming out of
the steppes of Eurasia as they moved west.
Wave after wave inundated Europe as they settled in those lands – each
one displacing the one before.
Paul provides a hopeless
description. And it would be hopeless if
the answer depended on us.
However, the apostle goes on to say, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been
saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.”
God was rich in mercy and he showed great love toward
us. He acted in grace – his undeserved
loving favor. He sent his Son into the
world as the sacrifice for sin. What we
were unable to do, God did for us through Jesus. God condemned our sin in Christ. Then he raised Jesus from the dead on the
third day. He defeated death and began
the resurrection life that will be ours when Christ returns on the Last Day.
God has given us forgiveness in Christ. And the surprise is that this includes those
of us who are Gentiles as well. Paul
says in this letter, “But now
in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by
the blood of Christ.” In Christ God has
united Jew and Gentile to be one people – the people of God. Paul tells about
Christ: “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to
the Father.”
This is what
God has done for all people who have been called to faith. Baptized into Christ we share in this blessing
together. But God’s salvation means that
there is now a change in the way we live.
Just before our text Paul says, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer
walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened
in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have
become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to
practice every kind of impurity.”
Those words describe our world. The world is alienated from the life of
God. It says that true happiness is to
be found in things. And so it engages in the never ending quest to have more
and to have better stuff.
The world has
become callous and has given itself up to sensuality. Sex is used in every setting outside of where
it is supposed to be – in marriage.
Couples live together and break the Sixth Commandment without giving it
a thought. They do so because fornication
is normal for the world. And it’s not
just unbelievers who do this. People who
call themselves Christians live together outside marriage as they choose to
live in a state of unrepentant sin.
This is how the
world around us lives. We constantly
face the pressure to fit in. We regularly
have this other way of living presented as a temptation before us. Yet Paul introduces our text by saying, “But that is not
the way you learned Christ!--assuming that you have heard about him
and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.”
This way of living is not how we have learned
Christ. Instead, Paul says in our text:
“Put off your old man, which belongs to your former manner of life
and is corrupt through deceitful desires.”
We put off the old man by confessing our sin and repenting. We admit that we have sinned and return to
our baptism in faith, because there we find forgiveness.
Yet forgiveness is not meant to leave
us in the same place. Paul says that we need, “to be renewed in the spirit of
your minds, and to put on the new man, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness.”
As we return to our baptism in faith we put on the new man. Paul told the Romans, “We were buried therefore
with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life.”
The Spirit has given us new life in
baptism. We draw upon this source of
life through faith – through trust in what God has done through water and the
Word. In this way we put on the new man
who has been created in true righteousness and holiness. The Spirit provides the ability to walk in
God’s ways. He renews the spirit of our
minds so that we can live as the new man in the world.
What does this look like? Paul provides us with several examples in our
text. He says, “Therefore, having put
away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor,
for we are members one of another.”
We do not lie, but instead we speak the truth. We do this with all people, but especially
with our fellow Christians because we are members of one another. We share in
one Lord, one faith and one baptism.
Through baptism we have been joined together as the body of Christ. We have been united in Christ and so we do
not lie to one another.
Paul
adds, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go
down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” The old man wants to hang onto anger. In a way, we almost like being wronged
because it gives us justification to be angry.
But the anger of man never works the righteousness of
God. Our anger is only a source of
sin. Instead of being angry, the new man
forgives. He forgives because God has
forgiven us in Christ. Paul says at the end of this chapter, “Be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Paul says that we are not to let the
sun go down on our anger. This means that we do not let anger fester. We forgive, we ask for forgiveness, and are
reconciled. The apostle warns that to do otherwise is to give opportunity to
the devil. He wants you to remain angry
because then sin is at work in your life.
But as we put on the new man, instead we forgive with forgiveness God
has given to us in Christ.
Finally, Paul says, “Let the thief no
longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his
own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” The new man does not steal. He does not take what belongs to others. Rather than taking the focus of our life
shifts to how we can help others. We
become Christ to our neighbor as we share what God has given to us.
Baptized into the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has given you forgiveness and salvation. At the same time, the old man is still
present. He wants you to continue in
sin. For this reason we need to hear
God’s Word that directs how we are to live.
This is
a word that returns us to the forgiveness that we have received in baptism. The
water of baptism does more than just provide forgiveness. It is also the source
of the Spirit’s continuing work in our life.
In repentance we put off the old man.
Through the Spirit received in baptism we put on the new man as we speak
the truth, forgive, and help our neighbor.
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