“The Just Shall Live By Faith”
New King James Version Written by: David Hicks
Romans 1:17 “ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
Galatians 3:11 “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."
Hebrews 10:38 “Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
“Articles of Faith”
The Church of Christ
(A Study in Ephesians)
Lesson 18 - The Transformation:
In our last lesson we spent time on the principle that we are new creations, created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. This transformation takes place according to what we have learned in Christ (putting off the old man of sin and renewing our minds to the truth that is in Jesus).
Paul is going to start the text for this lesson with the word therefore (and we always ask, ‘ what's it therefore ?'). This tells us that the instruction he is about to render is based on the principle of the new man and the renewing of our minds. Since we were created according to God, according to what we have learned and have been taught by Christ, we have to understand how this information has come to us . For this I want to revisit a prayer of Paul's that we have already discussed, note:
Ephesians 1:17 “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him ,”
Even though spiritual gifts existed at this time, Paul prays that they will have wisdom and continued information in the knowledge of Christ. This wisdom and knowledge were exactly what they were receiving in this letter from Paul, and from every word of God that was being spoken to them. This Gospel knowledge was being distributed by the Apostles and prophets and it was they that had received it from the Spirit, note:
Ephesians 3:1-5 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles-- 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets :”
This defines the work of the Spirit! Revelation of the knowledge of Christ, and as this knowledge is portrayed by the Apostles and prophets, its purpose is, note:
Ephesians 1:18 “ the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,”
So in summary, since we are new creatures created according to God by the teaching of Jesus Christ, which has been revealed by the Holy Spirit and made known to us through the Apostles and prophets, we can either grieve the Spirit by rejecting, ignoring, and disparaging the instruction; or be transformed by the teaching. The later is the hope of Paul's teaching.
Text: Ephesians 4:25-32
“Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. 26 "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God , by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.”
Lying: In putting off the old man, true repentance requires a reformation of life, and includes both the ceasing of practices that are wrong, and increasing in the practices that are right. Such as lying being put away and replacing it with truthful speech. Since we are members of the same body (the church of Christ ), the practice of lying would be harmful to the rest of the body and act like a cancer.
Anger: Paul does not say to never be angry! Jesus looked at the people with anger because of the hardness of their hearts ( Mark 3:5 ), God is angry with the wicked everyday ( Psalms 7:11 ). The sin accompanying anger lies in what we allow our anger to lead us into doing. We are not to harbor angry thoughts, but banish them before the day is done. In addition, we are to never handle the word of truth in an angry state ( James 1:19 -20 ); we are never to allow anger to surface when teaching others ( II Timothy 2:24 -26 ).
Devil: The great tempter and deceiver is the father of all un-righteousness; all who give in to un-righteousness in all its forms has Satan as their father. There is to be no place for the Devil in our hearts. He cannot dwell along side of the knowledge of Christ. Thus, even if we are learning and growing in the Spirit; if we harbor anger from day to day, we offer Satan a door to our hearts.
Work: We are admonished as we are in virtually all these instructions towards transformation to avoid an evil and work a good. Here, Paul admonishes all who can to work. Christians are to be workers (physically and spiritually, vs. 16 ). You may say that to stop stealing only applies to actual theft. However, in light of the text, consider, anyone who can work and does not and accepts help from those who are working, is he not stealing from them? Benevolence is for the truly needy brother!
Speech: This has opportunity to be a lesson all in itself. Such passages as James 3 ; Colossians 3:17 ; I Peter 4:11 , all refer to both the damage caused by an uncontrolled tongue and the true speech that should flow from the mouth of a disciple of Christ.
Corrupt speech simply means, “Of poor quality or worthless”. There is much to say about our speech in general, however, since the subject of the transformation is the new man produced by the teachings of Jesus, this is the speech Paul is directing his instruction towards here. Our speech in reference towards the Gospel's truth is for the purpose of edification (building up) and that only. Our only objective in Christian speech is imparting a favor of a spiritual kind to a brother (build-up, enlighten, warn, encourage, etc…).
Grieve the Spirit. As we discussed in the lesson set up, to grieve the Spirit, is to ignore, reject, or disparage the word that has been revealed through Him. In this instance it would be specifically to continue to practice bitterness, wrath, anger, quarreling, and evil speaking. This is the opposite of what it means to put off the old man (thus clinging to and embracing the old). The Apostle Paul would expand on the explanation of what it means to grieve the Spirit in his letter to the churches of Galatia , note:
Galatians 5:16-21 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Transformation: The complete putting off of the old man takes place when we practice with regularity these things:
I. Kindness.
II. Consideration.
III. Forgiveness.
This is what it is to be a new man, to live as the Spirit directs through the word of God. In addition, this is what it means to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Paul would also expand on this premise, just as he did concerning grieving the Spirit, note:
Galatians 5:22-26 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law . 24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit . 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Next: “ Walk In Love ”