Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
This passage makes me so excited, I can't even try to contain it and try to describe why it's so important. This is the very essence of the truth of the gospel. If anybody's ever asked you what's so good about the good news of Jesus? This is it, this is the good news. What we're seeing here is this verse that is transitioning from one idea into another. Hence the two words that it begins with: But now. Now that’s a phrase that you want to write down on a sticky note and put in your car, or carry with you, or keep on your mind—it's But now.
Living Differently
This phrase is so important because it's moving from one idea to the next. This is what it's saying in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, which is a few verses back. It tells us that we are dead in our sins and transgressions. Now, I know that sounds heavy, but that's actually the best description of what our life is like apart from Jesus.
The thing that we need to remember about Christ is He didn't come to earth to make bad people good, or to make life better for those who were lagging. He came to earth to make dead people live. We are alive in Christ because of His work on the cross.
It is by grace that we have been saved through faith. It's a gift from God, not from our human work, so that no one can boast about it. (Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8-9)
He gives it to us as a gift, and we receive freely when we believe who He is as Savior. It goes on to say in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 that we are God's workmanship, His poema, His artistic expression here on earth because of what He has done. We live differently here because of His power and authority being exercised in our lives.
We’re Brought Near
Then, when we get to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13 it says, but now we who were far off have been brought near. This is the greatest thing to celebrate if you're a follower of the way of Jesus, and if you're listening to this and you've been wondering what it means to know Christ, here's what you need to know.
We do our life on our own, in our own strength, under our own power, and with our own ideas. At some point, we all realize that does not cut it. We know no matter how much we strive and strain, even in the things that we achieve here on earth, in our own strength, there's a fulfillment that we're longing for that we can never reach. It's an itch that we can't scratch.
That is because God made us, from the very beginning of our story, with a longing in our souls that can only be satisfied by Him alone. It's when we realize that it's the work of Jesus Christ that brings us to a place where we—who are doing things on our own, in our own strength, far off from God—can be brought near because of His blood and His broken body on the cross. Then we realize what it means to experience the fulfillment we were designed for.
Jesus Changes Everything
We were dead, but now we live. We were blind, but now we see. This is what it means to celebrate the gospel. I pray that today, as you go away into whatever this day has for you, you remember what it means to experience the "but now" kind of life and know that Jesus changes everything.
