Our Salvation In Jesus Alone Series

As we continue through the book of Ephesians, we’re getting ready to transition from the introductory blessings into the meat of this book. I want to reiterate the dominating theme of Ephesians. That should be evident by the title of our series, Jesus Only.

The Christian faith will always, always lose its influence when it tries to accommodate the world. You get the opposite results. These days, many churches have fallen into this trap. I have attended conferences and read books that have said that if I want to grow a church, all I need to do is find out what the world wants and then reach the world with that want. Additionally, they tell church leaders that the worst thing a church can do is act like a church.

Here is a very simple truth: for us to reach the world we must uncompromisingly be church the church that Christ called the Church to be. If we want the world to come to know the amazing love and salvation of Jesus, we must first hold fast to all the teaching of Jesus and do what the Lord of the Church commands. That means that we aren’t focused on how to entertain the saints or wow the world. We’re not focused on social issues, but solely on the will of Jesus to fulfill the Great Commission.

If you want to know more about how we are going to do that, then stay with me in this study in Ephesians. This is God’s instruction book on what we are to do as the church. There’s not a word in it about what the world wants. Nothing about how to engage politically, socially, culturally. It’s all about how to follow the Lord who is the head of the church, how to be consumed with Christ. That’s why the epistle begins essentially in verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

If you can fog a mirror, then you can tell things are not well in the world. They haven’t been right for a while and they’re not getting better; they’re getting worse and they’re going to continue to get worse. The Bible tells us that it is foolishness to believe that answers to these man-made problems are man-made solutions. The church is in the midst of what is going on in our world today. We’re in the midst of this because we point the world to the answer. And our responsibility is not somehow to figure out how to fix the world, but how to proclaim the gospel that can deliver people from the world.

Everything is in Christ. It’s all about our relationship to Christ. It’s all about knowing Him, loving Him, adoring Him, proclaiming Him, and helping one another in the journey to become more like Him. That’s what the church needs to be. That’s what we’re going to be and as the world accelerates more rapidly toward the end, we’re going to be here to welcome those who are seeking answers home.

Over the last few weeks in our introduction to Ephesians we’ve looked at some amazing truths Paul shared in the beginning of Ephesians. We saw the blessings that exist only in Jesus. We say our redemption only in Jesus. We saw our adoption in Jesus. We saw our predestination in Jesus and we saw our inheritance in Jesus. Today, before we move on toward how we are to live in these awesome blessings, we’re going to look at our salvation given to us in Jesus Only.

15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:15-23)