The Work of the Cross
Ephesians 2:1-22
This is Labor Day weekend.
Labor Day is set aside as a day of celebration of American Labor.
Late in the 1800's the average workday was 12 hrs and it was not uncommon for the average American to work 7 days.
As the Industrial Revolution got underway many workers, with the support and impetus of workers' unions, rioted in the streets in protest of the labor conditions.
Some states began to hold parades one day per year in honor of American labor.
After about twelve years the Congress legalized the holiday and we now celebrate Labor Day once a year.
I enjoy the celebration of labor; I am a hardworking person.
Besides the work of the Church, which I love with all my heart, and to which I am able to dedicate some 20 hours per week, I put in about 50 hours per week in a secular work place.
I don't begrudge the fact that I must work to support my family.
It is a privilege to have the energy to fulfill the responsibilities God has given me.
I believe that Christians should be the hardest working people on earth.
However, there is, in many religious circles, a very wrong idea about work.
Many people are convinced that they must work for the salvation of their soul.
It is the common belief that good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell.
This idea of a works-based salvation is a dangerous and blatantly unBiblical belief.
I have often questioned people whose belief is that they must do good works to earn their way into Heaven.
After an honest conversation and some clear Bible reasoning, they will usually admit that they are not good enough.
It is quite simple to see from Scripture, that God's standard of righteousness is higher than we can reach in a lifetime.
As a matter of fact, over the course of a lifetime we are actually incurring more and more sin debt with no way of paying it off, because our own righteousness is worthless to pay our sin debt.
Isa 64:6 ¶ But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
I recently read an article about Teresa of Calcutta, known by many as Mother Teresa.
It seems that this dear sweet lady had all her life tried to work her way into good graces with God.
In truth, she probably sacrificed more than I ever will, and her life should be admired for that.
However, as she discovered, a life of self sacrifice and good works is not enough to reconcile a person to God.
Theresea wrote about God in a confession to a priest,
"The more I want him — the less I am wanted,"
In 1955 She wrote,
"Such deep longing for God — and ... repulsed — empty — no faith — no love — no zeal. — [The saving of] Souls holds no attraction — Heaven means nothing — pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."
After receiving an award in the Philippines in the 1960s she wrote,
"This means nothing to me, because I don't have Him."
In her writings throughout the 1980's she referred to her lack of fellowship with God as "my darkness," as if she recognized a personal darkness.
She referred just as commonly to Jesus as "the absent one."
I use this lady as an illustration, because no one here has done the work that she did.
If her work was not enough to earn fellowship with God, then certainly we need something greater than our own work.
As a matter of fact, for a man or a woman to insist upon doing the work of salvation themselves is to disrespect the work of the cross and offer in its stead filthy rags of our own righteousness.
Our text reveals the real work of salvation and that work which reached past our condition to reconcile us to a sinless Holy God.
It was the work of the Cross.
READ TEXT
PRAY
There are revealed in this text two great accomplishments that we can see in the work of the cross.
The first and the greatest is the reconciliation of man to God.
1.) The Cross Reconciled Man To God.
- You will notice where we started by our own sinful nature.
Verse 1, We were dead in sin. (spiritually, there was no living entity that could fellowship with God)
Verse 2, We walked according to the ways of the devil. (as followers of the will of Satan rather than God, we were children of disobedience.)
Verse 3, We committed sins that incurred the wrath of God. (as we were created for His glory and given distinct commands to that end, our selfish living was an act of rebellion)
- You will then notice where we are as a result of the work of the cross.
Verse 5, We have been made alive.
Verse 6, Our relationship has been established in Heaven.
Verse 7, We have an eternal future with God.
Verse 10, We have the ability to now do good works.
Verse 16, We are no longer God's enemy.
Verse 18, We have instant and constant access to God.
The second accomplishment of the work of the cross is the reconciliation of man to man.
2.) The Cross Reconciled Man to Man
- You will notice the particular difference of Jews and Gentiles.
Verse 11, The Gentiles were separated fromt the Jews by religious rituals.
Verse 12, The Gentiles were without God.
- You will notice how the cross overcame the differences.
Verse 13, The blood of Jesus Christ brought them together. (thus all people bought by the blood of Jesus are brought together)
Verse 14, There is no wall that separates us while we worship the same God.
Verse 16, Both become one body of Christ.
Ephesians 2:1-22
This is Labor Day weekend.
Labor Day is set aside as a day of celebration of American Labor.
Late in the 1800's the average workday was 12 hrs and it was not uncommon for the average American to work 7 days.
As the Industrial Revolution got underway many workers, with the support and impetus of workers' unions, rioted in the streets in protest of the labor conditions.
Some states began to hold parades one day per year in honor of American labor.
After about twelve years the Congress legalized the holiday and we now celebrate Labor Day once a year.
I enjoy the celebration of labor; I am a hardworking person.
Besides the work of the Church, which I love with all my heart, and to which I am able to dedicate some 20 hours per week, I put in about 50 hours per week in a secular work place.
I don't begrudge the fact that I must work to support my family.
It is a privilege to have the energy to fulfill the responsibilities God has given me.
I believe that Christians should be the hardest working people on earth.
However, there is, in many religious circles, a very wrong idea about work.
Many people are convinced that they must work for the salvation of their soul.
It is the common belief that good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell.
This idea of a works-based salvation is a dangerous and blatantly unBiblical belief.
I have often questioned people whose belief is that they must do good works to earn their way into Heaven.
After an honest conversation and some clear Bible reasoning, they will usually admit that they are not good enough.
It is quite simple to see from Scripture, that God's standard of righteousness is higher than we can reach in a lifetime.
As a matter of fact, over the course of a lifetime we are actually incurring more and more sin debt with no way of paying it off, because our own righteousness is worthless to pay our sin debt.
Isa 64:6 ¶ But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
I recently read an article about Teresa of Calcutta, known by many as Mother Teresa.
It seems that this dear sweet lady had all her life tried to work her way into good graces with God.
In truth, she probably sacrificed more than I ever will, and her life should be admired for that.
However, as she discovered, a life of self sacrifice and good works is not enough to reconcile a person to God.
Theresea wrote about God in a confession to a priest,
"The more I want him — the less I am wanted,"
In 1955 She wrote,
"Such deep longing for God — and ... repulsed — empty — no faith — no love — no zeal. — [The saving of] Souls holds no attraction — Heaven means nothing — pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."
After receiving an award in the Philippines in the 1960s she wrote,
"This means nothing to me, because I don't have Him."
In her writings throughout the 1980's she referred to her lack of fellowship with God as "my darkness," as if she recognized a personal darkness.
She referred just as commonly to Jesus as "the absent one."
I use this lady as an illustration, because no one here has done the work that she did.
If her work was not enough to earn fellowship with God, then certainly we need something greater than our own work.
As a matter of fact, for a man or a woman to insist upon doing the work of salvation themselves is to disrespect the work of the cross and offer in its stead filthy rags of our own righteousness.
Our text reveals the real work of salvation and that work which reached past our condition to reconcile us to a sinless Holy God.
It was the work of the Cross.
READ TEXT
PRAY
There are revealed in this text two great accomplishments that we can see in the work of the cross.
The first and the greatest is the reconciliation of man to God.
1.) The Cross Reconciled Man To God.
- You will notice where we started by our own sinful nature.
Verse 1, We were dead in sin. (spiritually, there was no living entity that could fellowship with God)
Verse 2, We walked according to the ways of the devil. (as followers of the will of Satan rather than God, we were children of disobedience.)
Verse 3, We committed sins that incurred the wrath of God. (as we were created for His glory and given distinct commands to that end, our selfish living was an act of rebellion)
- You will then notice where we are as a result of the work of the cross.
Verse 5, We have been made alive.
Verse 6, Our relationship has been established in Heaven.
Verse 7, We have an eternal future with God.
Verse 10, We have the ability to now do good works.
Verse 16, We are no longer God's enemy.
Verse 18, We have instant and constant access to God.
The second accomplishment of the work of the cross is the reconciliation of man to man.
2.) The Cross Reconciled Man to Man
- You will notice the particular difference of Jews and Gentiles.
Verse 11, The Gentiles were separated fromt the Jews by religious rituals.
Verse 12, The Gentiles were without God.
- You will notice how the cross overcame the differences.
Verse 13, The blood of Jesus Christ brought them together. (thus all people bought by the blood of Jesus are brought together)
Verse 14, There is no wall that separates us while we worship the same God.
Verse 16, Both become one body of Christ.
