"Under New Management"
Ephesians 2:1-10
The highest spot in the continental United States is Mt. Whitney in Northern California. It stands a majestic 14,495 feet. From its top, a beautiful panorama of landscape unfolds. But just 80 miles southeast is Death Valley, the lowest spot in the Unites States at 280 feet below sea level. Death Valley is also the hottest in the country with temperatures reaching 134 degrees in the shade. It is a stark contrast to Mt. Whitney.
In these verses we see the stark contrast between the "Death Valley" of sin and despair and the mountain peak to which God lifts us up.
Because of His great love and mercy, God reached down to the very depths of our sin, saved us from death and lifted us up. And in so doing, we have been re-created.
Next, BY GRACE we ARE Recreated 2:10
In verse 10, Paul writes that "we are his workmanship," literally we are his making. We have been created. We have been formed. This is not in the general sense, but in the sense of a new creation. 2 Corinthians. 5:17 says: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, new things have come."
Paul says we have been re-created "for good works." The emphasis here is on holy living, the exact opposite of how we lived in the past.
When the Standard Oil Company began to refine petroleum, there was a black substance, a by-product, that no one knew what to do with. It was black, sticky, stinking, it could not be buried, not burned, and everyone complained of the all-but-endurable stench. If it were run into a stream it killed all the fish. Therefore, the company offered a reward to anyone able to solve the problem. A great many chemists, attracted by the promised reward, occupied themselves with the task of coming up with a solution. Finally, one walked into the office of Mr. Rockefeller with a white shining substance free from every offensive quality, and in fact extremely useful. It was what we know of today as paraffin, used for candles and hundreds of other purposes.
Like this chemist, God takes the dirty, sticky, stinking parts of our lives and applies the cleaning agent; the blood of Jesus Christ, through which the dirt and grime is removed. We are cleansed, and re-created.
In the past, we walked in sin; in the present we are to walk in righteousness.
In the past we were dead in sin, in the present we are alive in Christ.
In the past we were under the old management. In the present, it is the new management which now had control.
Consider your past.
Celebrate your present.
We’ll conclude tomorrow.