Hope for Personal Change
For Meditation
Last Sunday we saw Paul confronted by the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. This confrontation changed Paul forever, and he became a fearless apologist for the resurrection of Jesus. In the coming weeks we'll spend a lot of time in Paul's writings about the resurrection, which he sees as the fulcrum of the transformation God is bringing about in all creation.
But this week we'll start small with the transformation God brings about in each individual person who trusts in Christ. In Ephesians 2, Paul unpacks the dramatic change that occurs when someone trusts in Christ, as they are brought into union with his death and resurrection. It is an eternal, permanent, forensic transfer from death to life. But then begins the subjective work of transformation, as God calls us to practice our new resurrection life that is now ours in Jesus.
To prepare for worship this Sunday, read Ephesians 2 and Colossians 3:1-17, and ask God to show you what new resurrection practice he is calling you to enact in your own life.
Ephesians 2:1-7
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in 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. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.