2 Peter 3_15-16      Summary of Ephesians

Rev. David Holwick

First Baptist Church

West Lafayette, Ohio

February 20, 1983


Summary of Ephesians


2 Peter 3:15-16, KJV



I would like to read the passage from 2 Peter again this morning but this time from the New International Version.  Compare it to your KJV as I read:


"Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.  His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction."


Peter had a very accurate view of Paul.  He knew that Paul's letters were not just human writings but were really Holy Scripture.  He also knew that Paul could be difficult to understand at times but Peter says the one thing that stands out about Paul's letters is that they always talk about salvation.


This is especially true of Ephesians and this week I would like to summarize the letter by tracing salvation through it.  There are three great circles of salvation in this letter to the Ephesians.  Paul begins with the salvation of individual people.  Many people today believe there is no need for personal salvation.  They like to think God wrote the book, "I'm OK, You're OK" but it's hard to defend this position from the Bible.  The Scripture says that God loves all people but it also says that mankind has rebelled against God.  As Paul says in Ephesians 4:18-19:


"Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."


Human knowledge is said to be doubling every ten years.  Yet the more we know, the less we seem to understand.  Many of the best-educated people have the unhappiest lives especially when it comes to their relationships to other people.  Woody Allen recently did a movie about a sophisticated New York family.  It was his first non-comedy movie and it was a big hit with the critics.  They praised the movie's insight into the modern condition of man.  What did Woody Allen say that condition is?  He said modern people are alienated.  They want to reach out to those close to them and express their deepest feelings.  They want to feel loved and needed but they can't break through the alienation.  It's a depressing movie but it expresses what many people feel.


Most of us are so wrapped up in our personal lives we fail to realize our greatest alienation of all - alienation from God.  Because we are alienated from God, we cannot experience the fullness in our lives that God wants us to have.  As it says in Romans 3:23:


"All have sinned and fall short of God's glorious ideal."


Salvation in the Bible means we are brought near to God and his love.  God wants this to happen and according to Ephesians, he planned it before he even created the world.  According to chapter 1:4:


"As he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ."


God's predestination is based on love and was made effective by Jesus Christ.  It says further in chapter 2:4-5:


"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ."


Just about every religion centers on salvation.  Most of them say that people must make a great effort to earn their salvation.  Biblical Christianity says that salvation is a gift from God to undeserving people.  You don't earn salvation.  It is given to you.  Chapter 2:8 says:


"For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."


God gives us salvation when we trust in Jesus' death to wash away our sins.  We can do nothing to be saved, we can only accept the gift.  This is so simple most people miss it.  None of the cults accept it.  At our Thursday Bible study we are studying Jehovah's Witnesses.  They believe Jesus died for your sins but only for some of them.  His death takes away the sin of Adam but it does not take away your personal sins.  To wash these away you have to do it yourself.  That's why they are so persistent in knocking on doors.  If they don't, they won't be saved.  Even Baptists can get caught up in this trap.  Many people I talk to think that they are Christians because they believe in God go to church and try to lead good lives.  This is a subtle way of saying you are earning your own salvation by something you do.  If salvation can be earned, those who earn it deserve to brag about it.  But as Ephesians 2:9 says:


"Salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast."


James Kennedy is a pastor in Florida who built his church from seventeen to 4,500 in less than fifteen years.  The key to his church's growth is a program call "Evangelism Explosion."  The program contains one question which really separates the believer from someone who thinks they are a believer.  Here's the question: "Suppose that you were to die tonight and stand before God and he were to say to you, why should I let you into my heaven?  What would you say?"  Many religious people give the wrong answer.  What would you say?  "Because I believe in God or because I try to obey the Ten Commandments."  If you say anything like this, you do not know what the Bible teaches about salvation.  Who can give the right answer?  The right answer is this: "I bring nothing to God.  I believe Jesus died for sinners and I have asked him to wash away my sins.  I totally trust in his death on the cross alone."  Believing God exists or believing the Ten Commandments are a good rule to live by but it is not enough to be saved.  Only totally committing yourself to Christ's free gift will work.


The first circle of salvation deals with individuals.  The second circle deals with the Church.  The Church is where we learn more about Christ and how to apply his principles to our lives.  This is where ethics and the Ten Commandments and living a good life come in.  We do them not to become saved but because we are saved.  It is our way to show gratitude to God.  Ephesians describes this as putting off the old man and putting on the new nature.  To assist us in this Christ established his Church. 


Many people have a limited idea of the Church.  Perhaps the reason is because Americans tend to be rugged individualists and we cannot see beyond the need for personal salvation.  There is far more to the Christian faith than just knowing your soul will go to heaven when you die.  In Ephesians Paul stresses that Christians should gather into churches, which he call the body of Christ.  In the Church we should strive for unity.  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, as it says in 4:5.  To bring about this unity, God uses different kinds of Christians.  Some are leaders and others are followers but the goal is the same.  Ephesians 4:12-13 reads:


"For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."


Building up the church involves more than attending services and being on a committee.  More important than this is the way we treat others in the Church.  Paul says we shouldn't gossip about each other, or cheat each other or hold grudges.  These drag the Church down.  Instead we should encourage each other and put the interests of others over that of ourselves.  Chapter 4:32 says:


"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."


The first circle of salvation concerns the individual.  The second involves the church.  The third circle deals with society.  Being a Christian is not limited to a decision you made ten years ago or the hour you spend in church on Sunday.  Most of your Christian life on this earth will be spent with your family, your neighbors and the people you work with.  In chapters 5 and 6 Paul gives explicit instructions on how to bring the fruit of salvation (love, joy, peace, trust) into these relationships.


One of the great promises of Christianity is that peace with God can bring peace into human relationships.  If you are not able to love and be loved you will not be a happy person.  A bad marriage or constant tension at work can cause more pain than most diseases.  The way to bring the fruit of salvation into these areas is to first give it over to Christ.



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Typed on January 25, 2006, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey


Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick

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