HOW I LIVE

1. Living Up to the Gospel

Ephesians 4:1-3

Martyn Lloyd-Jones called the Paul’s letter to the Ephesians “the most sublime
and majestic expression of the gospel.” From the vantage point of this letter we get a
breathtaking view of all that God has done for us in — through — with — and by
Jesus. Ephesians 1-3 is like the Mt. Everest of Gospel Theology!

Election — Predestination

Adoption — Redemption

Forgiveness — The sealing work of the Holy Spirit

Imperishable Hope — Immeasurable Power

The Place of the believer in the Kingdom of God, the Family of God and the church.

Woven into the stunning theology of our redemption is the portrait of our new
and true identity — we finally discover WHO WE ARE because of all that God
has done for us in — through — with — and by Jesus.

Within the first three chapters Paul stops to pray two times. Both of those
prayers are staggering in what they ask. Chapter 3 ended with the second of
those prayers. The focal point of Paul’s prayer is the inner man because Paul
understood that the Gospel is an inside-out reality.

Paul was confident that the Christians in Ephesus understood and believed with
their hearts all that the Gospel declared about God’s adopting, accepting,
redeeming love. What makes his second prayer so challenging to everyone
professing faith in Jesus is this: Paul prays that they would have a very real, very
personal, experiential knowledge of Jesus!

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from
whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the
riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through
his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have
strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length

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and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

J. Hudson Taylor — who pioneered the advance of the Gospel into the interior of
China would pray the short form of Paul’s prayer every day:

"Lord Jesus, make thy self to me a living bright reality.”

Knowing Jesus in that way is not only something God wants to do —

He has the power to do it!

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than
all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him
be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
forever and ever. Amen.

REMEMBER — This is a letter. Paul didn’t write it with chapter breaks or verse
numbers. We have chapter breaks and verses added by translators to help us
locate and cross reference truth throughout the library of 66 divinely inspired
volumes. The Amen of Paul’s prayer led right into I therefore.

Paul doesn’t end his letter there at the close of what we know as Chapter 3
because the life, death and resurrection of Jesus can never go without response!
THIS IS HUGE STUFF! By way of that simple phrase Paul transitioned from
doctrine to application. The letter moves from the theological to the practical.

Here’s what a lot of people think and even say: “Doctrine is boring — I want to
know how to live.” Or, “Doctrine doesn’t matter — what really matters is that
you live right.” As a rule people don’t come to church to hear about doctrine.
They come to church wanting someone to tell them how to live.
But Gospel living grows out of the Gospel! Paul wanted the Christians in
Ephesus to know that HOW WE LIVE for Jesus is rooted in all that God has
done for us in Jesus, with Jesus, by Jesus and through Jesus.

Beginning in Ephesians 4 through Ephesians 6:9 Paul tells us that Who We Are
in Jesus determines How We Live for Jesus. He wants Christians to know that
there is a way of living attached to the rescued life. NOT the drudgery of a
religious life, but the responsibilities of the redeemed life; responsibilities that are
viewed as privilege and undertaken out of love for Jesus.

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With simplicity and clarity Paul spends the next 2½ chapters telling us tells us
how the Gospel connects to life between the already and the not yet.
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I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of
the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Here we go!

Ephesians 4: 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you (some

translations read – beg you)

The man who was a prisoner for the sake of Jesus doesn’t send them a command
— he urges them, begs them

to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

“Walk” = “to conduct yourselves — order your behavior.”

“Worthy” = “in a manner worthy of.”

FIRST — We don’t walk worthy so that God will love us, but because He does
love us. We don’t try to live a certain way in the hope of being accepted by God.
Paul urges us to live a certain way because we’ve already been by accepted by God
in Jesus. How We Live flows from Who We Are.

SECOND — There is a way of living attached to the rescued life. NOT the
drudgery of a religious life, but the responsibilities of the redeemed life — that
are viewed as privilege and undertaken out of love for Jesus. For the next 2½
chapters Paul is going to say, “Look at these responsibilities! — What a privilege to
undertake these responsibilities out of love for the one who loved you and gave Himself for
you.”

“Worthy” — The adjective form of this word means, “having the weight of
(weighing as much as) another thing.”

Paul says that the way we live should weigh as much as the truths we believe
In other words: Live up to all that God has done for us — Live up to the Gospel.
Up to this point Paul has already prayed for the Ephesians two times twice in this

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letter. In both of his prayers we’ve seen that God has not saved us and then left
us to our own resources to pull off the Christian life.

Ephesians 1:18-20 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know….
….what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to
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the working of his great might 20which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we
ask or think, according to the power at work within us

Gospel living is not a matter of trying your best to live out the teachings of Jesus
in the same way someone tries their best to live out the teachings of Buddha or
Mohammed. The Christian life is a supernatural life. It begins with a
supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. He shows us that we are sinners. He shows
us Jesus — shows us that Jesus is God who became man to die for our sins. The
moment we fully trust Jesus to save us, He causes us to go from being dead in our
sin and makes us alive to God. The life that began with faith in Jesus is lived by
faith in Jesus: This life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and
gave Himself for me. The life that began with the power of God is lived out by the
power of God; the same power of God that raised Jesus from the dead!

BOTTOM LINE — For you and me to lead a life worthy of the calling to
which we have been called demands way more than mere human resources.
Both of Paul’s prayers assure us that God has everything we need

Paul starts to explain HOW WE LIVE for Jesus in this world in the context of
our relationship with other Christians.
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I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the
calling to which you have been called, 2with all lowliness and meekness,
with patience, forbearing one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

BIG PICTURE — My new and true identity that is derived from my personal
relationship with Jesus is inextricably wrapped up in my relationship to the body
of Christ. Jesus died for YOU. He rescued YOU as an individual. The Holy Spirit
pursued you, drew you to Jesus, and convinced you of your need for Jesus, and the
need for YOU to believe with your heart on the Lord Jesus. Every day, YOU
must live by faith in the Son of God who loved YOU and gave Himself for YOU.
Salvation is personal! Life in Jesus is personal. But every individual believer has

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been saved to ekklesia! You are a fellow Citizen with the saints in the Kingdom of
Jesus. You are a member of God’s family. You are a building block in the living
temple God — fitted perfectly with other living stones in the living Temple of
God.

HERE’S THE POINT — Living up to the Gospel involves UNITY. That is a

big deal to God! Unity is not some wimpy, cumbaya, serendipitous, sentimental
thing. It involves and requires character and actions shaped by connection with
the heart of Jesus.

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
love

The motto of my life before Jesus — the motto of my flesh is pretty simple:
Priority number ONE is ME! How can I manipulate every situation to make me
look good? How can I use others to make me feel good? What is it going to take
for me to look good and feel good right now?

But living up to the Gospel — living in a way that is worthy of all that God has
done for me — involves concern for others; concern that is rooted in humility —
and expressed in gentleness — and begins with willingness to suffer long and
bear up under the failures of others — because of love for Jesus and love for
others! In a walk worthy of the Gospel — OTHERS trump ME.

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
love

Those are the terms that Paul uses to define HOW I LIVE. Every word
challenges me! Are these the words that describe HOW I live for Jesus?

with all humility — The original word means “modesty,” that is, an utter lack of
self-assertiveness. This word is found only one other time in the New Testament

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others
better than yourselves.

Philippians 2:3 NKJV 3Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in
lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

lowliness of mind — a mind brought low.

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WHAT is it that can cause my mind (your mind) to be brought low?

GOD’S HOLINESS — It is in the light of His absolute moral perfection that I

see myself as I truly am. Isaiah 6 describes this so perfectly

Isaiah 6:1-5 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. 2Above him stood the seraphim…
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And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole
earth is full of his glory.”…. 5And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen
the King, the LORD of hosts!”

It is in the light of God’s absolute moral perfection that I discover I am spiritually

bankrupt — in fact, in the red — owing God a debt that I can’t pay — deserving
judgment. The Holiness of God causes my mind to be brought low! Jesus
described it as being “poor in Spirit.” In Matthew 5-7 we find one of the most
famous teaching moments in the public ministry of Jesus. Most refer to it as “The
Sermon on the Mount.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones called it “The Manifesto of the
Kingdom of God.” Jesus began by describing the character traits of the citizens of
His Kingdom. He began with this

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In other words — only those who see themselves in the light of God’s holiness
can become citizens in the Kingdom of God

GOD’S GRACE causes my mind to be brought low. When my rebellion and

idolatry left me spiritually bankrupt before God, deserving nothing but judgment,
and incapable of saving myself — God HUMBLED HIMSELF — joined us in
our broken world — lived the life I should but have filed to do — died in MY
place to pay the debt for MY sin HIS blood — then changed my status as rebel to
citizen in His Kingdom — changed my identity from orphan by adopting me as
His child — and invites me to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him on this side of
heaven. GRACE — He became poor so that through Him I could be made rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

WHO I AM in Jesus has nothing to do with me and everything to do with

GRACE. When I get that — I understand that life is not about me! Above all, it’s
about Jesus — and it’s about others before me. This lowliness of mind is essential

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to unity. Pride always undermines unity because it promotes self at the expense of
others — it gives me a distorted view of others: I see them as inferior to me.
Humility serves and preserves unity. When I see myself in the light of God’s
grace I don’t see others as inferior. I don’t need to push my agenda, fight to get
my way, push myself into the spotlight.

with all humility and gentleness — Some translations read it as meekness.

Meekness is not weakness. It is power under control. Moses was a meek man
(Num. 12:3), yet he was no wimp before Pharaoh; he was no wimp when he came
down from Mt. Sinai. Jesus Christ was “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29),
yet He turned over the money changers’ tables and drove them out of the temple
precincts. When He was brutally beaten with the Roman scourge He never
uttered a word — and when Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd he said, “Ecce
Homo” — “Behold the man.” From the cross Jesus looked upon the men who had
just driven wrought iron spikes through His hands and feet and said, “Father,
forgive them.”

In the Greek language, this word was used for a soothing medicine, a colt that
had been broken, and a soft wind. Power, but that power under control.

Like I said — each of these traits challenge me. When someone speaks harshly to
me or about me, when someone offends me — I want to return fire; even if they’re
right. Why? Because I am not meek. In Mark 15 we read that “the chief priests
accused [Jesus] of many things: but he answered nothing.” In Peter’s first letter
he said this about Jesus —

1 Peter 2:23 “When he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he
threatened not.”

Paul was a man uniquely called and appointed by God to be an apostle. When
Paul’s apostolic authority was being challenged within the church in Corinth he
said

2 Corinthians 10:1 Now I, Paul, appeal to you with the gentleness and kindness of
Christ—

Power under control.

with all humility and gentleness — Paul is following the same line of character
traits set forth by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

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 Matthew 5:3-5 Blessed are the poor in spirit , for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5Blessed are the meek ,
for they shall inherit the earth.

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
love

This is so essential to HOW WE LIVE for Jesus because the church is made up of
rescued rebels who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus; reconciled to God
by His death on the cross — but we are all works in progress.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet
appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see
him as he is

We are a people in need of change who are called to love on and help others who
need to change. THAT makes it inevitable that life on this side of heaven is going
to have its share of hurtful words and attitudes and actions. We will be the one
hurting others, and we will be hurt by others.

I’ve always loved the KJV rendering of this word because I believe it captures the
essence of what it means to be patient. It renders it as longsuffering. In the
famous 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians it says: “Love suffers long.”

to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart

to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles

to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others

to be mild and slow to punish

QUOTE: John Chrysostom (the early church father) — "It is a word used of the
man who is wronged and who has it easily in his power to avenge himself but will never
do it."

QUOTE: H.A. Ironsides — lovingly putting up with all that is disagreeable in other
people

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with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in
love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

DON’T MISS THIS — Paul doesn’t say that we live up to the Gospel by
endeavoring to CREATE unity. We do not and cannot create the unity of the
Spirit. We live up to the Gospel by recognizing the unity of the Spirit and
endeavoring to maintain it.
FIRST — Some people think that unity means uniformity. More than once in the
history of the church Christians have worked against the unity of the Spirit by
insisting that Christians should look a certain way – do church a certain way –
hold the same views concerning the creation account, eschatology or spiritual
gifts.

More on that in a bit — but let’s start with this

Here is the basis of the unity that we’re to endeavor to maintain:

We are united by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of the Holy Spirit.
1.

He indwells every authentic Christian — causing them to be made alive to God

— causing them to be part of a new kind of humanity. Because of that all
Christians share the same citizenship in the Kingdom of God with all the saints;
they’re united because they are all members of the household of God; they are,
each one individually, and all of them collectively, living stones in the living
habitation of God on this earth.

CHRISTIANS — Doctrine matters! The truth of Scripture is our reference

point for unity. Some say, “Forget doctrine, we just want to love one another.” I’m not
always going to feel like loving my brothers and sisters in Christ. I might not
always feel connected to some of my brothers and sisters in Jesus. If we’re
completely honest, most of us would have to admit that there are some Christians
we don’t want to be connected with!

THIS IS HUGE — To do verse 3 requires verse 2.

Unity based on feelings instead of facts is going to be impossible to preserve.

Doctrine matters! Understanding all God accomplished by the virgin birth,
sinless life, sacrificial death and bodily resurrection of Jesus
matters! Understanding Who We Are in Jesus matters!

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 Ephesians 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

Authentic Christians are united by the regenerating, indwelling presence of the

Holy Spirit. They’re also united in their common faith. I’m not talking about
believing the exact same way concerning creation (literal six days / young earth –
old earth). I’m not talking about believing the exact same way concerning
eschatology (Millennial - Amillennial / The Rapture of the Church Pre - Post-
Mid Tribulation). I’m not talking about believing the exact same way concerning
the baptism of the Holy Spirit or gifts of the Holy Spirit. I’m talking about being
united on the non-negotiable truths.

Ephesians 4:4-5a There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the
one hope that belongs to your call— 5one Lord, one faith

Jude v.3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common
salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that
was once for all delivered to the saints.

Here is the faith — the one faith that the early church held in the closed hand of
faith. We refer to this as the Apostles’ Creed.

QUOTE: J.I. Packer — “the Creed itself was born…. as a declaration of personal
faith for converts to use at the time of their baptism.” 1 You owned these truths —
when owning those truths could cost your life!

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth,
 and in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin
Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into
hell [Hades]; The third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and
sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
 from thence he shall come to judge
the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the
communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life
everlasting. Amen.

1. The Trinity — “I believe in God the Father... and in Jesus Christ, his only Son,
our Lord... and... in the Holy Ghost [Spirit]”

1
J. I. Packer. “Affirming the Apostles' Creed.”

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2. The creation — The Creed starts with God as Maker of everything, including
ourselves. “The Father Almighty” points to God’s loving care for what he has
made, and to his sovereign lordship over all of it.

3. The Incarnation — The infinite condescension of the Son course (virgin birth,
crucifixion, death, and burial). He descended into hell [Hades] is to make the point
that life left his body and he died as really, truly, and completely as you and I
must expect to do. 2

There was no authentic Christianity apart from these truths! THAT is the ONE
faith — That is THE faith delivered once and for all. We are to be eager to
maintain THAT unity. We are to endeavor to maintain THAT unity.

QUOTE: Spurgeon — “We want unity in the truth of God through the Spirit of God.
This let us seek after; let us live near to Christ, for this is the best way of promoting unity.
Divisions in Churches never begin with those full of love to the Savior.”

Paul tells them how God set up the church to help the believer GROW UP so
they can LIVE UP to the Gospel. That’s where we’ll pick up in our next study

2
J. I. Packer. “Affirming the Apostles' Creed.”

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