“Put On The Full Armor” ( Ephesians 6:11,13; NIV ) by Carley Evans

Paul says it twice: “Put on the full armor of God.” Why? “So that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” and “so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

Paul then speaks of “our struggle.” (Ephesians 6:12)

Obviously, we do have a struggle after our salvation. And what is this struggle? We struggle to stand our ground. In taking a stand, we wrestle “against the powers of this dark world.” We also struggle “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” We struggle here on earth; we struggle “in the heavenly realms” which is not to say we struggle in heaven itself. Rather, some of our struggles are physical; others are spiritual.

To withstand and even “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one,” (Ephesians 6:16) we need truth, righteousness, readiness in the gospel of peace, faith, our salvation, and God the Holy “Spirit, which is the Word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) We need to “be alert” and “keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)

Paul calls on us to “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” (Ephesians 6:10)

“Knowledge of Hope, Riches, Power” ( Ephesians 1: 18-19, HCSB ) by Carley Evans

Together with Paul, I pray you may:

Know the hope of His calling.

Know the glorious riches of His inheritance.

Know the immeasurable greatness of His power.

Know the working of His vast strength.

Know Him.

Know His power demonstrated in the Messiah’s resurrection from the dead.

Know He sits above all authorities and titles given, “not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:21)

Know He is appointed “head over everything for the church, which is His body.” (Ephesians 1:23)

Know once you were dead in your sins and trespasses.

Know now you are “alive with the Messiah even though [you] were dead.” (Ephesians 2:5)

Know “you are saved by grace!” (Ephesians 2:5)

Know “this is not from yourself; it is God’s gift.” (Ephesians 2:8)

How are you to know this hope, these riches, this power, this gift? Through “a spirit of wisdom and revelation” that is given to you by “the glorious Father,” “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 1:17)

“Not Your Own Doing” ( Ephesians 2: 8-9, ESV ) by Carley Evans

“For by grace you are saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

You and I are saved as a result of a gift. Saul is confronted along the road to Damascus by Jesus — this is the Lord’s gift to Saul, who has literally done nothing to deserve God’s positive attention. Jesus blinds Saul not as a result of any action by the man, but as a gift to him. Saul says “no one may boast” when given such a gift. This gift of grace is “not a result of works.”

Of course, this is not to say that grace will not result in works; it does. But to claim the gift is contingent on those works is a denial of God’s work.

“The New Life Fits” (Ephesians 4: 24, ESV) by Carley Evans

“Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness,” writes Paul. Webster’s Vest Pocket Dictionary defines “put” as “bring to a specified position or condition.” A perfect description of what God expects us to do; we are to bring ourselves into the condition specified for us by God Himself — we are to put on true righteousness, who is Jesus Christ. We are to put on His holiness. Webster’s also defines “put” as “cause to be used or employed.” We are to use Christ’s righteousness as our own.

The truth is not only that we are positionally holy; we are truly righteous because Christ is righteous and He dwells fully in us through His Holy Spirit, the Helper.

We put off the old self “which belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” (Ephesians 4: 22) We are then “renewed in the spirit of [our] minds.” (Ephesians 4: 23)

Our action is both a negative and a positive — we put off the old; we put on the new. The old is a foreign way of living while the new life fits us best because we belong to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

(by Carley Evans on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 7:27pm)

“Sealed When You Believe” ( Ephesians 1: 13, ESV ) by Carley Evans

When you believe in Him, that is, in Jesus Christ you are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of [your] inheritance until [you] acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)

What you will acquire eventually is your inheritance. What you acquire now, in conjunction with your belief in Jesus Christ, is God the Holy Spirit. He is your seal, similar to a stamp of ownership in that you are purchased by the blood of Christ crucified. His blood buys you for God the Father, and His Holy Spirit guarantees your acceptance into the family of God.

Your inheritance is one you share with Israel. Israel is predestined to be the nation of God. You also – because you “hear the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation” and believe – are a child of God.

Therefore, “having the eyes of your heart enlightened… [you] know what is the hope to which He calls you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19)

You are called to hope, to a rich inheritance through Christ’s great power to save. And, you are sealed with God, the promised Holy Spirit.

“Of No Effect” ( Ephesians 2: 15, HCSB ) by Carley Evans

Jesus “makes of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that He may create in Himself one new man from the two [groups - Jews and Gentiles], resulting in peace. He does this so that He may reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it.” (Ephesians 2:15-16)

Jesus puts “the hostility to death.” He makes Gentiles “no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household.” (Ephesians 2:19) Today, it is easy (at least in the western world) to forget that the Jewish people are the chosen people of God. He selects one individual to favor — Abram, and through his offspring, one people. Everyone who is not of Abram is rejected; that is, until Jesus.

Once Jesus reconciles the Jew and Gentile, there is peace. Up until that event, there is violence. “When the Messiah comes, He proclaims the good news of peace to you who are far away and peace to those who are near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Ephesians 2:17) “The Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body, and partners of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6)

This peace — this reconciliation — emerges from the law having lost its effect — the law no longer provides the means to pleasing God, reaching God. Only grace permits entrance to the Holy — only through “the incalculable riches of the Messiah” (Ephesians 3:8) do we stand justified before God. The law is of no effect.

“Light In The Lord” ( Ephesians 5: 8, HCSB ) by Carley Evans

Once we were darkness, “but now [we] are light in the Lord.” As children of light, we should walk in that light, “discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:10) Paul repeats himself, so that we know how important is his point. He says again that we are not to walk “as unwise people but as wise.” (Ephesians 5:15) We are not to be foolish; rather we are to “understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5:17)

“Everything exposed by the light is made clear,” says Paul. Jesus says that people come into the light so their deeds are exposed as “accomplished by God” (John 3:21) while other people hate and avoid the same light, remaining in darkness so that their deeds are not exposed as evil.

As we are children of light, a natural consequence is that we expose “the fruitless deeds of darkness.” (Ephesians 5:11) For this reason, Jesus tells us not to be surprised that the world hates us. (John 15:19) After all, the world hates Jesus first; it follows that the world hates us as well.

Our role is to reflect the Lord, to reflect His light. His light is love — sometimes soothing, sometimes searing. “The truth is in Jesus.” (Ephesians 4:21)

“Watch Out” ( Galatians 5: 15, ESV ) by Carley Evans

Christ set us free from the law of sin and death and we are “not [to] submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1) Since we have died to the world in and through Christ, Paul wonders why we “submit to regulations” of the world as if we were still alive to the world. (Colossians 2:20) “For [we] are called to freedom, brothers, only [we are] not [to] use [our] freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love [we are to] serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13) In love, we serve one another and so fulfill “the whole law.” (Galatians 5:14)

In our efforts to conform to regulations which “indeed have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:23); sometimes we attack one another. “But if [we] bite and devour one another, watch out that [we] are not consumed by one another.” Instead, we are called to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10) Notice Paul calls us to “do good to everyone.”

“Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

God’s Purpose ( Isaiah 14: 24, ESV ) by Carley Evans

“The Lord of Hosts swears, ‘As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand… This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?” (Isaiah 14:24,26-27)

God has a plan. He has a purpose concerning the whole earth. No one is able to annul God’s plan. No one is able to turn God back from His intention.

What is God’s purpose?

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul says God’s purpose is to bless us — that is, Christians — “in the heavenly places. even as He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in His sight.” (Ephesians 1:3,4) God’s purpose is also to “put all things under [Christ's] feet” and to make Christ “head over all things” to the benefit of His church, “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22,23)

God’s purpose is to “bring many sons to glory” through Christ “for whom and by whom all things exist.” (Hebrews 2:10) God’s purpose is for us — the sons of glory — to “enter His rest.” (Hebrews 4:1) “For we who believe enter that rest.” (Hebrews 4:3)

Now God “desires to show convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable nature of His purpose, [so] He guarantees it with an oath.” (Hebrews 6:17) He swears by Himself in that “it is impossible for God to lie.” (Hebrews 6:18) Therefore, “we have this sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.” (Hebrews 6:19,20)

Who can annul God’s purpose; who can turn Him back?

“The Strength To Comprehend” ( Ephesians 2: 4-5, ESV ) by Carley Evans

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, makes us alive together with Christ — by grace you are saved.” Paul says, God is rich in mercy and filled with great love for us. God “makes us alive” and seals us “with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14) God “raises us up with Him and seats us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6) “For we are [God's] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) I pray you “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)

Lord, make us strong so that we may know the gift of Your grace, the richness of Your mercy, and the immensity of Your love, so that we “may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Amen.