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Devotionals
Living Christ Today wants to help you live out the gospel each day in every degree of life. These daily devotionals will equip and encourage you in Christ-centered living in your friendships, marriage, work, home, and church. Visit us often for fresh insight into God’s Word which celebrates God’s goodness and grace.
Children of Light in a World of Darkness:
The Grace of Ephesians--Part X
This week we return to our series of reflections on the book of Ephesians. This epistle is a rich storehousee of foundational teaching about the role of God's grace in salvation, and practical pastoral advice for the outworking of that grace in our family, church, and community relationships. These thoughts are adapted from my recent book Ephesians: The Glory of Christ in the Life of the Church (Reformed Expository Commentary series; P&R Publishing, 2009). I pray that the Lord will use this study to encourage you in your faith and better equip you for life and service in his Kingdom.
Bryan Chapell
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture readings are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Filled With God's Spirit for Fulfilling God's Purpose
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
—Ephesians 2:18–22
Earlier in Ephesians, Paul said that God is transforming the world for the church and by the church. Here we begin to see how. The church—the body of Christ—is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as its chief cornerstone. Its construction rises to heaven through the interwoven destinies and duties of each of us. But inside the walls that rest on this foundation and cornerstone lives the Holy Spirit of God (Eph. 2:22).
This building composed of dear and vital human elements is itself alive and filled with his power. God lives in the house he constructs by building our lives together. This recalls the entry of the glory of God into the tabernacle at the time of Moses (Exod. 40:34–35), or into the Jerusalem temple at the time of Solomon (1 Kings 8:10–11). We must keep this image in mind as we consider what God is calling us to do.
What Paul communicates here is that the days of glory are not past. God did not work among his people only in ancient times. He indwells us for his purposes now. There is still a task for his church, and he dwells in us so that we may fulfill it. Until he comes again, we are in his plan for each other and for this world.
When our lives become painful or roll forward seemingly without purpose, we by faith must reaffirm the vital role of each person and each generation in God’s building program. We are the body in which the living Spirit of God is at work to change the world. God is not yet finished with his plan—and he is not yet finished with us either. He prepares to use us by filling us with the Spirit of power to fulfill his calling for this generation.
As long as we draw breath on this earth, God is fulfilling his purposes through us. He tells us that we are dear to him, secure in him, and vital to his purposes. There is still plenty of Kingdom work to do. Let us do it together in love, filled with his Spirit, and all to God’s glory and praise!
This material is adapted from chapter 9 of Bryan Chapell’s book Ephesians: The Glory of Christ in the Life of the Church (Reformed Expository Commentary series, P&R Publishing, 2009).