SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/12/2018 11:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1
“Salvation is From Sin”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 2:1-3
Message of the verses: “1 And you were
dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in
which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the
sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of
our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Today
we begin the first in what will probably be many SD’s under this topic of
“salvation is from sin.” Paul is writing
to believers and is telling them exactly what happened to them when they were
saved. Notice words like “you were,”
“you formerly” “formerly lived in.”
However as we look over these words that is in these verses we will
learn exactly what happened to us when the Lord called us to be one of His
chosen children.
When
we look at the title of this first sub-section, “salvation is from sin,” we
learn what characterized life before Christ.
We will learn from these three verses that there is perhaps no clearer
statement in the entire Bible on the sinfulness of man apart from Christ.
Romans
6:23 states that “the wages, or payment, for sin is death, and the Bible
teaches us that everyone who has been born with an earthly father is actually
born dead, (spiritually dead). Man does
not become spiritually dead
because of the fact that he sins; he is spiritually dead by his nature the
sinful nature that he is born with because of the fall which is spoken of in
Genesis chapter three. I have told this
story in a number of SD’s about a friend of mine who unfortunately decided to
end his life by killing himself. His
nickname was “Bear” and when you looked at him with his full beard he looked
like a bear. I had the opportunity to
witness to him on a number of occasions, but to no avail. What I remember about him was what he said
when I talked to him about something he had done wrong and his reply was that
“I was born wrong,” and that was the truth not only for him but for everyone
who has been born of a human father.
Jesus Christ was born through the Holy Spirit to a woman who was a
virgin, and believe me the virgin birth is very important to us as
believers. The sin nature is passed on
through the man. In Genesis chapter three
we read “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel’ (Genesis
3:16).” This is the only time in all of Scripture that we read about the seed of the woman,
and it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, as this is the first prophecy about our
Lord found in the Bible. A former Pastor
of mine told a story about the fall of man as seen in Genesis chapter
three. We read that the Lord spoke to
the man about eating the forbidden fruit, and he promptly blamed his wife, and
when the Lord spoke to the woman she promptly blamed the snake, but the snake
did not have a leg to stand on. Well the
story does have some truth in it, but the fact is that the serpent probably had
a different look when Satan caused it to speak.
Man
has a basic trouble and it is not being out of harmony with his heritage or his
environment, but being out of harmony with his Creator. The principle problem is not that man cannot
have meaningful relationships with other humans but is that he has no right
relationship to God, as man is alienated by sin as seen in Ephesians 4:17-18 “17
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just
as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their
heart.” What I want to look at is
verse eighteen, as verse seventeen is there to help us understand what verse
eighteen is there for.
Man’s condition has nothing to do with
the way that he lives, no, it has to do with the fact that he is dead even
while he is alive. I see an
advertisement for a TV show called “The Walking Dead,” and although I have not wanted
to look at this show there is a truth to that show and the truth is that every
person born is walking dead, because he is spiritually dead, while not being physically
dead, and because man is dead to God, he is dead to spiritual life, truth,
righteousness, inner peace and happiness, and thus ultimately to every other good
thing.
We
will continue to look at this subject in our next SD and in that SD I want to
quote a very sad, but interesting story from John MacArthur as I listened to
this story from the sermon that he preached on these verses back in 1978.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for looking at the truth that
salvation is from sin. I sin because
that is the way that I was born, and even now because I still have what is
called the “old nature” or “the flesh” I still sin, but thanks be to God that I
am now a new creation in Jesus Christ and know the truth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue going over these facts of salvation,
and continue to learn from them.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “His enemies” (Hebrews 10:13).
Today’s Bible question: What ruler of the Jews came to Jesus by night
seeking the way to eternal life?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/12/2018 11:53 AM
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