Thoughts From Ephesians 2 - Part 3

 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Eph. 2:10

         We were at an outdoor church service yesterday in Honolulu on the beach, and the pastor taught about fire insurance Christianity which was referring to getting saved just to get out of Hell. (I was impressed at the boldness to talk about Hell in a multidenominational outdoor open-air service) I refer to this as the Monopoly "Get out of jail free" card. People hear that they are headed to Hell without Christ so they "pray the prayer" and claim Romans 10:9,10 that they confessed with their mouth and believed in Jesus, and they are in Heaven and out of Hell in the future. What they miss is the part where it says in Romans 10:9,10 "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord". "Lord" means master. You are confessing with your mouth that Jesus is master over your life.

       We are told throughout the gospels that repentance is necessary for salvation. Repentance is a 180-degree turn - we were headed one way and now we are headed the opposite direction. I think a lot of people get this wrong when they think you need to turn from all your sins and live righteously. While that is certainly the target goal, I think that is more the process of sanctification than repentance. The 180 shift that repentance requires is submitting to a new master or Lord. Once we were led by self, now we are led by Jesus. Salvation is being born again by the Spirit who is given to enable us to transform our behavior. Without Him we can't so to ask an unsaved person to stop sinning is behavior modification not transformation.

       Getting back to Ephesians 2:10, once we submit to a new master, it's like going to your boss at a new job and saying, "What is my job description?" or "What did you hire me for?" God has a unique job for you to accomplish in the story that He is weaving commonly called HIStory. He is accomplishing His will on the Earth until He ends it all and He gives us the privilege of being part of that story based on the unique person you are, the spiritual gifts He has bestowed on you and your unique abilities and interests and background. So if you only were saved to get out of Hell, you really aren't saved. You haven't submitted to a new master and gotten your "job description" which by the way is more like a soundtrack to dance your life to. It's fun!