7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

In verse 7 the Apostle Paul refers to himself as a minister and in the original language means servant and through faith in Jesus Christ we are all servants. Throughout the gospels Jesus calls us to serve. Serving isn’t very popular in our culture or our churches, but when we are called into a relationship with God we aren’t only being pulled into an eternal reconciled relationship, but also eternal activity with God.

To be clear the activity doesn’t change our spiritual condition before God because it is only through the righteousness of Jesus Christ that our spiritual condition is changed. If we skip faith in Jesus Christ and go directly to activity it results in self-righteousness and us trying to prove our commitment with God. This will inevitably lead to exhaustion and frustration. Therefore, we first start with relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ’s work on the cross and then it results in activity with God.

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When you read Ephesians 2:4 it says simply, “But God…”. In the midst of all our chaos with finances, relationships, health, guilt, shame, confusion, pollution, divorce, pain, defiance, and on and on Scripture teaches us that God doesn’t leave us alone in that pain and chaos and Scripture says, “But God…” Probably the two greatest words in Scripture.

Sometimes people say that people wrote the Bible, however, the Bible describes humanity as dead in our sin, children of wrath, sons of disobedience, and eternally separated from God and if people wrote the Bible they would have made people the hero of the story, not God. The Bible isn’t about people, but about God responding to people in the midst of our pain and when we see the phrase “but God” it is the point in the story where everything gets better.

It is the point in the movie where the hero of the story enters the room, where Gandolf the white appears, when Edward comes for Bella, when Vince Young walks in on 4th down for the championship, when mom returns from the cruise after 5 days, and at the moment when it seems the darkest, without hope Scripture teaches us, “But God.”

Our culture today will ask, “Saved from what?” Saved from my huge house, my luxury car with heated seats, my vacations on the beach, my education, my wealth, what could we possibly need to be saved from?

All of us need to be saved from our broken and exhausted souls that are constantly looking for relief. Broken souls that are constantly unsatisfied, constantly trying to fill our stomachs and exhausted because we never find satisfaction that lasts. At best they are merely moments of relief.

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Not really a popular topic in our culture today. However, if you turn to Ephesians 2 verse 1 it simply reads.

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

Not a verse that you will find on a lot of Hallmark Cards around this Mother’s Day, but in verse 1 we see the pronoun “you” and in verse 3 we see the pronoun “we” so when it says we are spiritually dead it is talking about all people. It isn’t the bad people, the criminals, the dangerous, the teenagers of the world, or the really bad people who don’t recycle. It describes all people and it describes our spiritual condition before God as being dead.

Now I know some are thinking, “I don’t feel dead. I got up this morning, got dressed, got in my car, and got a cup of coffee.” Dead people don’t drink coffee.

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This basically means we all become Jedi knights and we can predict the future.

This means that most of humanity has an innate understanding of a god. We have an intuitive understanding that there is a creator / higher power that is bigger than all of this. Only a small few reject or deny the existence of a god.

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Look at all that we have been given in Jesus Christ; He determines to love us, adopts us, makes us holy and blameless, redeems, reveals His mystery, and gives us an inheritance that is even greater. Why would God give us so much? Scripture tells us it is for two reasons:

1. His glory. The more we are given, the greater the cross, the deeper His love, the greater His glory. As we gaze upon all He has revealed, all He has given, all He has provided we can only be in awe of all that He has done. He created us to find joy in His glory and to be satisfied in His glory. His glory is paramount.

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Jesus is not only our mediator, but also our redeemer. This is a big word that means one who pays the debt and picks up the tab. Don’t you love it when you go out to dinner and someone else picks up the bill? Or even better they tell you before you order so you can get the steak instead of the burger! You can always take me out to eat and be my redeemer 🙂

Because our spiritual debt is so great we need someone who can pay pick up the tab. Throughout Scripture there are examples of people who foreshadow the value of paying the debt for other people and Joseph is a great example. Joseph is loved by his father, but hated by his brothers and his brothers end up selling Joseph into slavery and leaving him to die. Through a number of events Joseph goes from being sold into slavery to leading Egypt to a place of power and position in the midst of a world famine.

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At the cross Jesus says the words, “It is finished!” There are a number of implications of those words, however, one of them is that Jesus is our mediator.

A mediator is a judicial word for when there is disagreement. When we are unable to resolve conflict we will bring in a mediator to fairly represent both sides. Because of our spiritual debt there is conflict between us and God and we are in need of a mediator.

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What is the last thing you did out of desperation? Get to the doctor because you were desperate to get better? Go on a date because you were desperate to get away from your kids? Study because you were desperate to pass a test? Most of our desperation comes in moments because most of the time we are doing okay, but Scripture teaches us that all of humanity is desperate for God.

Here is why:

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Sometimes in our marriages we get so frustrated, however, if you look in Genesis 2 we see that God didn’t intend for marriage to be frustrating. He created it us to be in a loving relationships with one another, intimate, fruits, naked, however, in Genesis 3 we see sin enter the equation and distort the relationship of marriage and it brings frustration.

Specifically for the husband when God created Adam He created Him to cultivate and care for the garden. He had a job, a responsibility, and it was a divine responsibility of stewardship, however, when sin enters into humanity it results in frustration. Look at Genesis 3:17:

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread,
till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust,and to dust you shall return.”

Verse 17 starts off and sounds a little offensive, but who were Adam and Eve suppose to listen to? God. Yet, Eve listened to the serpent, and Adam listened to Eve and it resulted in disobedience. As verse 17 continues it explains that which was originally good has now become broken and distorted, and the land that was previously a blessing has now become difficult.

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In Genesis 3:15 it tells us a seed is coming in the future, a seed that will crush Satan on his head. That is a foreshadowing of what is ultimately accomplished in Jesus’ work on the cross. That is in Genesis 3. Galatians 3 teaches us that seed is Jesus Christ who enters into human history to save us from Satan, sin, and death and Genesis teaches us Adam responded in disobedience but 1 Corinthians 15 refers to Jesus as the second Adam, and the second Adam responds in obedience.

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