{"id":570,"date":"2014-10-28T10:30:18","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T14:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=570"},"modified":"2014-11-10T21:36:07","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T01:36:07","slug":"saved-by-grace-through-faith-3-our-new-life-shall-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=570","title":{"rendered":"Saved by Grace through Faith (3): Our New Life Shall Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"galaxy\"<\/a>Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10<\/p>\n

We were once spiritually dead but have been saved by grace. In the book of Ephesians, Paul likens our salvation as being raised up with Christ and being seated with him in the heavenly realms (v. 6). Although being seated with Christ in the heavenly realms sounds mysterious, it is most likely a metaphorical usage meaning that we have the life of Christ and that one day we will be with him in the heavenly realms.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Our salvation is sealed by the Holy Spirit, so being seated with Christ is something that will happen for sure, and the Bible treats such a certain thing as if it has happened. Or, thinking it differently, it is that part of salvation that has happened, but the final fulfilment has not happened.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

We will now look at an aspect of salvation that is sometimes overlooked. Verse 7 says that God places us, the New Testament believers, in a special position that throughout the ages, we will be shown as a testimony to the “incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”<\/span> This certainly refers to the act of salvation and the power of making us alive, but the explanation that immediately follows also says that we are God’s handiwork to do good works (v. 10). It is also an important theme that Paul will pick up again in chapter 4: we are “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (4:1). Thus our salvation and our new living is a display of God’s grace.<\/p>\n

Perhaps a little visualization might help.3<\/a><\/sup> Try to visualize the image of the whole universe. In this huge universe, God has separated us, the New Testament believers, also known as the Church, as a special group to show his incomparable riches of his grace throughout the generations in the past and continuing to the future. We are small but at the same time very important in testifying God’s grace, to men and to spiritual beings. Hopefully seeing this will give us a better perspective on our life, how God sees it, and how we should live it.<\/p>\n

The Bible describes our salvation as “so great a salvation” (Heb 2:3). May we all live a life worthy of the calling!<\/p>\n

\n

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, \u00a0in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. \u00a0All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. \u00a0But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, \u00a0made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. \u00a0And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, \u00a0in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.<\/span> \u00a0For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– \u00a0not by works, so that no one can boast. \u00a0For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:1-10 TNIV)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10 We were once spiritually dead but have been saved by grace. In the book of Ephesians, Paul likens our salvation as being raised up with Christ and being seated with him in the heavenly realms (v. 6). Although being seated with Christ in the heavenly realms sounds mysterious, it is most likely a metaphorical usage meaning that …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,20,4,12,21,11,18],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ephesians","tag-bible-study","tag-by-grace-through-faith","tag-ephesians-2","tag-faith","tag-grace","tag-hope","tag-salvation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}