TWO EXPERIENCES OF EPHESIANS, CHAPTER TWO.
By G. T. Wilson
In this chapter is presented to us very vividly the contrast between the saint and the sinner. The Lord has here made that state in which the sinner finds himself to appear as it really is,—a hateful, hard, lustful, wrathful, disobedient life. But He has set before us also the happy contrast of the one who has had his nature changed by God’s grace, and has lost his hateful, lustful disposition. The Lord desires that we shall study these two experiences, and choose the one which will secure to us a home with the noble, princely, and happy household of the great Jehovah. The Sinner’s Experience. The Christian’s Experience. - Lying dead in sin.
- By nature a child of wrath.
- A degraded life of fleshly lust.
- Satan’s child of disobedience.
- Walks after the world’s ways.
- Studies to gratify his feelings.
- Enmity to God and man.
- Wall of partition between him and God.
- No hope, afar off, without God.
- Alien from Israel of God.
- Stranger to covenant of grace.
- Jew hates the Gentile and God.
- Filled with Satan’s spirit.
- Sinner’s foundation, Satan.
- Quickened with Christ’s life.
- Loved with great love by God.
- Raised to sit with Christ, new life.
- God’s child of obedience by love.
- Walks in good works of God’s ways.
- Studies riches of heavenly grace.
- Enmity slain, love to God and man.
- Partition wall broken down by Christ.
- Made nigh by Christ’s blood.
- Citizen with the saints of God.
- No more stranger or foreigner.
- Jew and Gentile reconciled to God and to each other.
- Filled with God’s Spirit.
- Christian’s foundation, Christ.
Here is set forth the service of Satan in contrast to the service of Christ. Satan’s service is one of wrath, enmity to God and man, and has no hope in it of a future rest or comfort, to cheer the weary toiler. At Satan’s instigation, the sinner doubts the tender love of Him from whom he receives every good gift, and, feeling inclined to fear God’s wrath instead of trusting His mercy,5he builds a partition wall of prejudice between himself and his best Friend, and sets enmity to guard it. To acquaint the sinner, whether Jew or Gentile, with the Father of mercies, Jesus came and broke down this wall of prejudice and self-justification they had erected between each other and God, and took away all means of self-justification, by abolishing “the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” and set before them the one Sacrifice which God accepts, the Lamb of God, offered on Calvary’s cross for the sins of all mankind. The moral law of Ten Commandments speaks wrath to the sinner, and he feels to resent its restraints. He is at enmity with its Author, and at variance with those of his fellow-men who do not embrace his way of thinking and doing. From the thunders of Sinai’s holy law he found no way to escape, till he looks to Calvary, and there he sees Jesus, the Innocent One, bearing on the cruel cross his penalty for sin. Seeing Him he learns how “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Then it is that the sweetness of God’s pardoning love bursts upon the enmity of the sinner’s heart, and his hatred to God and his fellow-sinners vanishes. O, it is wondrous love which does it; love bears all the barriers away, and causes the sinner to love God, who first loved him, and then to love his fellow-sinner, whom Jesus died to save as well as himself! Blessed sacrifice of divine love! It reconciles the sinner to his God, and to his fellow-sinner, of whatever race or color. Man’s work in which he naturally boasts is set aside by it. It needs no addition of human works, but is perfect, and of sufficient value for all the world to avail themselves of it if they will. He tasted death for every man. The moral law, which once sent terror to the sinner, is now his delightful study. Indeed, it is a chain of precious promises by the power of Jesus Christ in his soul; for it says, Thou shalt not, or canst not, do what thou once didst do. And when the tempter comes to lead him away, he exclaims, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God!” and he is kept by the power of God through faith. Raised up to sit in heavenly places in Christ, created a new creature in Christ, he walks in the footsteps of his Master in good works. Grace did it all; great love in God provided the sacrifice, and does the work in the new man, and the riches of divine love are the joyful study of the Christian, and the will of his Father in heaven, his glad employment constantly. Dear reader, which is your experience? Have you ever tried the joys of the Christian’s experience? If you know only that of the sinner or the backslider, I invite you, in the name of my blessed Redeemer, to try a change of master. Try Jesus Christ’s rule of love, which brings a new and exalted and more happy position in this life, and fits us for eternal joys in the presence of our Saviour.