The Fourth of July celebrations yesterday bring to mind the words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”.

Interestingly, Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian and philosopher, observes in Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind (2015: p.109), that the equality of humanity is not self-evident: ‘The Americans got the idea of equality from Christianity which argues that every person has a divinely created soul, and that all souls are equal before God. However, if we do not believe in the Christian myths about God, creation and souls, what does it mean that all people are “equal”?’, he asks. According to Harari who writes as an atheist, ‘Homo Sapiens has no natural rights, just as spiders, hyenas, and chimpanzees have no natural rights’ (Sapiens, p.111).

Harari rightly observes that Christianity teaches that all men and women are equal before God. We often forget that the opening chapter of the Bible describes humanity as being created in the image of God – the climax and glory of God’s creation. And as we read on into the New Testament, we find that Matthew includes non-Israelite women in Jesus’ human bloodline: Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute and Ruth, the Moabitess. Both came to trust Israel’s God (Matthew 1:5).

Furthermore, Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles, records a meeting between Philip and an official from the court of Queen Candace of Ethiopia – ancient Cush, the region south of modern Egypt, into Sudan (8:26-38). While the Bible doesn’t refer to skin color (and so doesn’t note that the official from ancient Ethiopia would have been black), it is vitally interested in our relationship with God. In this instance, Luke tells us that the man responded to Philip’s gospel presentation and was baptized.

Significantly, recent researchers such as Vince Bantu (in A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity’s Global Identity) record the strength and vitality of African churches from the very earliest years. Why did this happen – especially given the antipathetic attitude towards Christianity’s founder amongst the Jewish leaders? We find an important clue in chapter 3 of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians where he writes of the revelation of God’s mystery.

Mystery revealed. Paul uses the word mystery, not as secrets that are only revealed to the top level ‘insiders’, but rather to refer to God’s plan that had been hidden in the past but is now openly revealed to everyone. He says it has to do with Christ who has opened the way for the non-Jewish world to enjoy full and equal benefits of all God’s promises (3:4, 6). This is radical. He is saying that a unique relationship between men and women and God’s Messiah is now available, and that this relationship removes the barriers and hostility between all peoples, no matter their skin-color or race and includes Jewish and non-Jewish peoples.

Through the years the Jewish people had understood that God would bless the nations through them – as he had promised Abraham (Genesis 12:3); they also knew Isaiah had said that Israel would be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). But there is no hint, either in the Old Testament or in Jesus’ teaching that God planned to involve the non-Jewish peoples of the world as equal beneficiaries in a new international community he is building – a community whose head would be the Jewish Messiah, Christ Jesus.

Mystery proclaimed. In verse 7 Paul writes: Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.

Saying he is the very least of all the saints, Paul speaks as one of God’s emissaries in announcing the boundless riches of Christ to the non-Jewish world (3:8). The boundless, unsearchable, inexhaustible, incalculable riches of which he speaks is one of the most profound ideas in the Bible. Paul wants us to know we shall never come to the end of the wealth of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.

An important theme permeates this as he brings together the ideas of revelation and commission: God’s truth is to be passed on! Just think: if we were sure that the gospel is God’s truth and the riches of Christ are for all men and women, not one of us would be able to keep quiet.

The story is told of a conversation between a prominent Russian communist leader and a Western church leader at the height of the cold war. The Christian was bemoaning the fact that the USSR was closed to Christianity. The Russian leader’s response was immediate: ‘You don’t know what you are talking about! We envy you. Look at the vast resources you have to get your message out: you have people.’ When the first Christians came to faith their lives were changed and they talked their faith – gossiped the gospel.

Light and Truth. To make everyone see (enlighten) what is the plan (administration) of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Paul continues (3:9).

Plan or better, administration refers to the implementation of God’s plan – which is revealed in Bible-believing and teaching churches. So that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (3:10).

The mystery of God was no abstract idea. Now revealed, it takes shape as men and women from all walks of life, from all cultural and racial backgrounds, are brought together as one people. It reveals the rich tapestry of God’s grace, power and wisdom. And as the story of this work of God continues to unfold, Paul tells us that there are supernatural watchers, the angelic world, spectators to the drama of God’s astonishing work.

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, Paul writes, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory (3:11-13).

Sadly, so many of us have lost sight of the wonder of God’s great cosmic plan. The very existence of healthy, vital churches growing across the nations of the world, reveals the global extent of Christianity and, when we think about it, the impact of the fundamental value that all men and women are created equal.

A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

© John G. Mason

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Alienation is a word often used to describe our human plight. Everywhere relationships are broken – between or within nations, in the workplace, between friends and within families. The phrase ‘the power of love’ or ‘love is everything’ is said to be the cure-all for brokenness and division. But what do these expressions really mean? What does real love look like?

Throughout the Bible, especially as it relates to God and his relationship with us, we find a radically different way that love is understood. As we touched on last week, in chapter 2 of his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks of our natural state as the walking dead: You were dead through the trespasses and sins, he says (2:1), … children of wrath (2:3).

However, God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us has given his people new life with Christ, raising us from death and giving us a seat beside Christ in his victory and rule (2:4f). God is truly just in judging us because we chose to divorce him. Yet at the same time, he has chosen to love us and reveal his grace to his people because his nature is to have mercy.

He goes on to explain what this means for his non-Jewish readers: Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (2:12).

Pointing out that they were once without Christ: they didn’t know the Messiah of the Jewish people and were thus separated from God and from God’s ancient people. They were aliens – implying that being men and women made in God’s image, a former relationship with God had been broken. They now lived without hope – something that is quite evident when anyone, especially a celebrity, dies unexpectedly. Then the focus is on the person and their amazing life with no reference to any hope beyond the grave. Similarly, these Gentiles were without God, living in the darkness of self-interest without the light of Christ in their lives. They had no hope beyond this life.

Barriers of power and greed, culture and class, color and race cause division everywhere. Broken relationships exist at every level, as we see exemplified across the political divide. We experience proximity but without community. Remember what you were, Paul says.

Yet how often do we forget and so write our Christian testimonies failing to remember that we were once without Christ, without God, and without hope – that we were saved by grace and now live by grace (2:8,9).

The peace-maker. God could have written off men and women in disgust. But that would have been an admission of defeat. Instead, at an extreme cost to himself, he chose a path that would enable peace between the Jewish and non-Jewish (Gentile) peoples, and also between both groups and himself (God).

Consider verses 13 through 16: You (Gentile peoples) have been brought near by the blood of Christ. In his flesh he has made both groups into one. So that he might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

The Bible tells us that from the very beginning of his creating work, knowing what men and women who were created in his image would choose to do, God determined on an infinitely more costly strategy. Instead of abandoning this evil and ungrateful world that had rejected him, he would provide a path to peace. He would rescue people from the consequences of their folly by dealing with the penalty of his own just anger. He would destroy the enmity without destroying the enemy and thus provide a way for peace.

The key is Christ Jesus and the blood he shed when he died at Calvary. It’s the first time in the Letter that Paul has developed the theme of the cross of Christ. And here he is telling us in beautiful words, that when we meditate on Jesus’ crucifixion we see what God has done. In an extraordinary gift of selfless love, he has opened the way to peace through Christ’s sacrificial blood shed on the cross.

Christ is creating a new society in which hostility gives way to harmony; alienation gives way to reconciliation. Of all the great teachers, prophets, mystics and all the isms of the world, Jesus alone has been able to achieve this.

This doesn’t mean that humanity is now united and at peace. Daily the news tells us it isn’t. But while at times it is difficult to believe, there is one group where true community is possible: amongst God’s people.

Citizens of God’s new society. In verse 19 we read: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,

You non-Jewish believers, Paul says, are no longer what you used to be— strangers and visitors without legal rights. Rather, you have a new status. Once you were without God, but now you have the same God and Father as Jewish believers: you are brothers and sisters together in Christ. Once you were without hope, now you are joined together with believing Israel and being built into a temple – the people with whom God lives. It’s an awesome picture of the future.

Without the teaching of the apostles and the prophets we wouldn’t have a clue about what God has done. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the chief cornerstone of God’s work. Cornerstones were essential in ancient buildings, setting them and keeping them in line and steady. The glorified Jesus is the key to the growth and development of God’s new community.

Not there yet. This doesn’t mean that God’s people are yet perfect. Far from it. It does mean our being honest with God, turning to him in repentance and asking for new resolve and strength to live his good way. It means less self-interest and self-will and more of what God expects of us.

It means putting aside everything that stands in the way of developing true community as God’s people – getting to know one another, including those who are not normally part of our social network, caring for those in need, working at reconciliation with those we have hurt or those who have hurt us. Not bearing grudges or grievances.

Men and women everywhere are looking for meaningful, trusting relationships. In an angry, bitter, and divided world a powerful testimony to the truth of God’s gospel is the local church community where peace, not division, exists. What are we doing with this precious jewel God has given us?

A prayer. God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and divided world. Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all men and women and banish from them the spirit that makes for war; so that all races and people may learn to live as members of one family and in obedience to your laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

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In an article, ‘Our politicians and media are letting us down’ in The Weekend Australian (June 17-18), Chris Kenny observes: ‘When we see the open deceit and toxicity of politics and the media in the Canberra bubble (Canberra is Australia’s DC), it is tempting to despair … We see persistent tension between truth and lies. We are informed about political systems we do not trust by media we do not believe.’

He comments, ‘The depressing reality is that politics and media are manifestations of human nature, which is stubbornly flawed. Dante knew 700 years ago that the propensity to lie was our greatest flaw … More than 2000 years ago Aristotle warned that the only thing we “gain by falsehood” is to ensure we are not believed when we speak the truth. Yet in the here and now this same battle between truth and lies is the most important daily struggle.’

A little less than 2000 years ago Paul the Apostle took the notion of our flawed human nature to another level. In Ephesians chapter 2, he writes: You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived,…

Our real problem. In our natural state we are the walking dead in God’s eyes: our relationship with him is dead, non-existent. Our trespasses and sins – our self-interest and lies, our pride, covetousness and deceit, are all illustrations of this.

Furthermore, Paul identifies there is another layer behind our deeply flawed, self-interested nature when he says that in our natural state we follow the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient…

We are subject to oppressive influences – our flawed inner self, and from outside the prevailing secular culture. However, beyond both and actively working through both, is the ruler of the kingdom of darkness who holds us in captivity.

All too often, even so-called gospel churches fail to understand the depth of the abyss into which humanity has plunged because we’ve all turned our backs on God. It is an abyss from which we can’t extract ourselves. Humanity’s problem is not that it has simply taken a by-path in life. Rather we have chosen the path that leads to death. ‘Is there any hope?’ we might ask.

Mercy. All of us are by nature children of wrath, but God, who is rich in mercy, he continues (2:3, 4).

The contrast between verses 3 and 4 is astonishing. It is completely at odds with how love is understood today. God’s just anger in condemning us is not incompatible with his love. The two can be held together. God can be truly just in judging sin and at the same time choose to forgive because his nature is always to have mercy – choosing to love and to give life. Indeed, his justice reveals the depth of his mercy.

And consider what his mercy means for all who turn to him: … Out of the great love with which he loved us… he made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (2:4, 5b, 6).

Although we were dead to God because we had chosen to ignore him, he nevertheless chose to give us a new life with Christ, raising us from death and giving us a seat beside Christ in his victory and rule because we are now tightly linked in him through his Spirit (1:13).

God has done this, Paul tells us, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus (2:7). Out of God’s pure love he acted in rescuing the Ephesian Christians. He also planned that the overwhelming nature of his mercy he had shown would be seen in the ages to come.

‘Can all this be true?’, we might ask. Or is it another lie to promote the noise of the churches and to prop up the cripples of life? Two great themes in this passage provide an answer: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the witness and evidence of the changed lives of genuine Christians throughout the ages (2:6, 7).

In verses 8 and 9 Paul restates the extraordinary mercy and gift of God: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

Three foundation gospel words stand out – salvation, grace and faith. Salvation is more than forgiveness: it is the deliverance from death and the gift of new life in Christ in all its fullness. Grace is God’s free and undeserved mercy towards us. Faith is our response of trust by which we each receive God’s free gift for ourselves.

There is no place for asking, ‘How much penance should I do?’ God’s gift of forgiveness and new life is full and free. It echoes Jesus’ words to the repentant criminal as he was dying on the cross: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Good works. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life (2:10).

We are God’s work of art. Our salvation is God’s masterpiece in his creation. In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s masterpiece, ‘The creation of Adam’ portrays God reaching out to Adam. Paul wants us to know that God’s masterpiece is of a totally different order: salvation is not just creation, or re-creation. It is a new creation.

Furthermore, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works – good works that God prepared beforehand. Before God in his mercy brought us to Christ we walked in trespasses and sins in which self-interest and the powers of evil had trapped us. Now we live out the good works God has eternally planned for us to do.

There are many things happening around us today that are troubling. Our only hope is to be found in the depths of God’s mercy. Let me encourage you to reflect on these words of Paul and ask the Lord to awaken the riches of his love in you, stirring you to live out each day the good works he has prepared for you to do. When we do this, others will notice – especially if we wisely play a part in helping them to discern truth in the midst of the deceptions around us. Maybe then, they with us will come to know the hope and joy that only God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, can give us.

A prayer. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, like lost sheep we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts and have broken your holy laws. Going our own way we have not loved you as we ought nor loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your condemnation. Father, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, forgive us all that is past. Turn our hearts to love you and obey your will. Help us to live for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

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AA Milne’s, Christopher Robin’s prayer, ‘Little Boy kneels at the foot of his bed…’ has touched the hearts of millions. The poem is a picture of childhood innocence, a mixture of God language and the distractions of inner thoughts: ‘Wasn’t it fun in the bath tonight?’ and, ‘If I open my fingers a little bit more, I can see Nanny’s dressing-gown on the door’.

For adults it raises questions about prayer. Is it something we grow out of? If we do pray, what should we pray: ‘God bless the family, friends and me?’ And why are there all those distractions in our prayers? Will we ever grow out of them?

Paul the Apostle provides very helpful answers to questions we have about prayer in Ephesians chapter 1. Thanksgiving and prayer are two themes in the chapter, setting out a balance for our prayers. Our relationship with God is not just asking for things: it also involves thanksgiving for the riches of God’s love and the inexpressible joy we have in him. C.S Lewis once commented: I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to ‘rejoice’ as much as by anything else.

In verses 3 though 14, Paul thanks God for the faith and love and hope evident in the lives of the Ephesian church – features that have been awakened and made possible through the complex work of the triune God. This involved the calling, rescuing and sealing a vast company of people for eternity.

Now in verses 15 through 21, he prays for the Ephesians – especially that they might continually grow in the riches of all God has done for them. His prayer is not simply, ‘God bless the church in Ephesus’!

Know God. So what precisely does Paul pray for – a second blessing experience? No. The key to his prayer is verse 18: So that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know… Paul’s prayer that the Ephesians may know, isn’t simply about intellectual understanding – although this is present. Rather, it is a relationship word.

In verse 17 he writes: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,…

Knowing God involves wisdom and revelation. Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – the beginning, not the ending. We also need God’s self-revelation, and this is what the Bible says of itself: God breathing out (inspiring) his thoughts (2 Timothy 3:16). The Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles speaks of the Bible as ‘God’s Word written’ (Article XX). As in all meaningful personal relationships we need to reveal who we are and for others to do the same. In the same way we need God to reveal himself, otherwise we will only have conjecture, not relationship.

Adolphe Monod, a great Protestant French preacher once commented, Philosophy taking man for its center says, ‘Know thyself’; only the inspired word which proceeds from God has been able to say, ‘Know God’.

So Paul prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, (or the glory) may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. While most translations spell spirit with a lower case ‘s’, it’s more likely that Paul’s reference is to the Holy Spirit, since the Bible speaks about him as the Spirit of Truth – the agent of God’s self-revelation.

It is because of his confidence in the Spirit’s ministry that Paul continues his prayer: so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know… The eyes of the heart is a reference to the whole of the inward self – mind and emotion. Our natural bias is to turn away from God and thus from truth. This is the reason the world is in the state of turmoil and conflict it is.

It is the Spirit who opens the eyes of our heart and turns us to God. It is that same Spirit and the Word of the Spirit that continue to bring us more and more into the fullness of God’s truth. It is for such ongoing enlightenment that Paul prays.

Hope. Paul continues his prayer: So that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,… (1:18a). God has called us to something and for something – something rich, exciting and worthwhile.

Features of knowing God include freedom (freedom from the judgment of God’s law) and peace (in Christ we experience harmony across the barriers of age, gender and race). Paul prays that, now enjoying fellowship with God and with one another, our eyes will be opened to the hope that lies before us.

Glory. So that you may know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,.. Inheritance refers to what God plans to give us – one that is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (1:14).

While our inheritance is beyond our wildest imagination, there are moments when the New Testament lifts a corner of the curtain for us. We’re told we shall see God and his Christ, that as this vision unfolds we will worship him with great joy in our hearts.

When Christ appears we shall reflect his glory, not just outwardly but in our inner character. God’s plan for his people will include a great banquet for the vast multitude – far too great to number. His people will be drawn into his presence from every nation throughout time. Clearly Paul doesn’t think it is presumptuous for us to think about this future or even to anticipate it with joy and gratitude. On the contrary, he prays that we may know it and know the riches of glory and live with the joy of it in our hearts.

Power. Paul continues: So that you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power (1:19).

Paul knows we need the energy and strength of God’s power in our lives if we are to come safely to our final inheritance. We know the reality of our human weaknesses: our tongue or our temper, malice, greed, lust, jealousy or pride – things that are beyond our power to control. But are our weaknesses beyond God’s power?

Paul answers this by reminding us of God’s supremacy. Jesus’ resurrection, enthronement and headship over all things are examples of God’s power (1:20 – 23).

It is because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead and his absolute lordship over all other authorities including the powers of evil that he’s been given headship over the church. The resurrection and the ascension were decisive demonstrations of divine power. Paul continues his great prayer saying that Christ fills the church in the same way he fills the universe – empowering his people with wisdom and understanding, inspiring and motivating us to a new way of living.

What a far cry this is from the vesper prayer of the young Christopher Robin. Like any good parent, God wants us to grow up – to know him and to enjoy him forever. But he also knows that we need his help – his power at work within us. And this he promises to do.  All we need to do is ask.

A prayer. Teach us, gracious Lord, to begin our works with reverence, to go on in obedience, and finish them with love; and then to wait patiently in hope, and with cheerful countenance to look up to you, whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

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With the anticipated arrival of summer in the northern hemisphere, the Word on Wednesday will offer a series of reflections on the Letter to the Ephesians entitled, ‘Summer Growth’. The substance of the Letter goes to the heart of quintessential Christianity and plumbs the depths of biblical truth, providing riches that shape the mind and warm the heart.

The Letter was written to be read in churches in the region of ancient Asia Minor, modern Turkey, starting with the church in Ephesus. It may be helpful to imagine yourself sitting in church with the first eager listeners when the wonders of this Letter unfolded – after all we are members of the same family.

Consider the opening lines: Paul, an envoy of Christ Jesus by the will of God ­– commissioned through God’s decision – to the holy ones in Ephesus – regular people whose lives were separated from God through sin, and who are now walking a new life of faith in Christ. Grace to you and peace – being reconciled with God, may the rich kindness and favor of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ rest on your minds and hearts.

Then in one long sentence, from verses 3 through 14, we are drawn into God’s awe-inspiring presence and cosmic plan – a plan that reveals the extraordinary grace of the triune God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the realm of spiritual realities – Paul begins. He continues by breaking out what this looks like – in terms of God’s pre-cosmic plans for his people which includes their redemption and remission of their sins in Christ (verses 4-6), and their inheritance in Christ (verse 11), a relationship and hope that is sealed by the Spirit of God (verses 13f).

The theme of God’s grace is palpable, dominating the whole scene. God is the subject of almost every main verb: It is he who has blessed us … ’; He has freely bestowed upon us his grace (verse 6); He has made known his will and purpose which he set forth in Christ… to unite all things’ (verses 9f); He accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will (verse 11).

Contrary to a stereotyped view, the God of the Bible delights in giving life, is kind and generous, warm-hearted and loving – so different from the impersonal Force of Star Wars and the cold-blooded, ruthless rule of human dictatorships.

How easy it is to nod sagely at Paul’s words and yet fail to consider their substance, especially what they teach us about God’s grace. In verses 5 through 8 we learn what that grace cost God: He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.

God’s glory is revealed in his grace, his extraordinary love for the unworthy: and despite what we like to think, none of us is worthy. And that glorious grace is supremely seen in the costly death of his Son.

At the turn of the 5th century AD, Pelagius, a popular preacher, challenged the immorality of his day and urged people to live pure lives. His preaching seemed biblical until the north African theologian and bishop, Augustine, began to review his teaching. He pointed out that Pelagius was saying that it was only through ‘right living’ that we had any hope of eternal life – in other words, our hope of eternal life lay in using God as the one who sells us heaven.

Augustine rightly commented that the Bible teaches that we are designed to love, but the tragedy is that we have turned love in on itself – from loving God to loving self. Our hearts need to be changed – something we can’t do ourselves.

In our western world today there’s a culture of victimhood that blames the ills of the world on others. Underlying it all is the rejection of any sense of my personal failure. It’s what happens when self-love dominates. And, if there is life after death, most people reckon that they’re good enough to make it.

Tragically, many professing Christians and churches have not grasped the reality of the meaning of God’s grace. They tell us Christianity is about love, but the focus is on loving one’s neighbour and caring about the injustices of the world. They have no vocabulary for the cost of God’s grace that required Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. In turn they don’t have a ministry or a liturgy that calls for repentance for sins and the assurance of God’s forgiveness.

God’s plan is to build a vibrant, new community of forgiven people. Eleven times we read the phrase, in Christ or in him. And in verses 9 & 10 we learn that God’s ultimate plan is to bring everything and everyone under the rule of Christ.

Assurance. Having believed, you were marked in him (in Christ) with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession— to the praise of his glory.

God seals us as his own by putting his Spirit within us. Long before, he had promised his people that he would take up residence with them (Jeremiah 31:31ff). Ephesians is now telling us that the presence of God’s Spirit within us is a down-payment on our future inheritance.

When one day I am asked why I should be given entrance into God’s presence, I will ask that the Book of Life be checked. The presence of the Holy Spirit within me now, assures me that my name will be found in the great Register of God’s people – listed as an adopted son of the Father, signed in by Jesus Christ, embossed with the great seal of the Holy Spirit of God.

It is with humble, heart-felt thankfulness for the humility of our great and wonderful, all-glorious and loving God, that I look forward to that day with joy, because he has honored me with a part in his epic story.

A prayer. Lord God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: mercifully accept our prayers, and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do nothing good without you, grant us the help of your grace, so that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in word and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

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‘Do you want to live forever?’ was the catchy question leading into an article, ‘From Here to Eternity’ in The Weekend Australian magazine, (May 27-28, 2023). ‘Coming back from the dead, then living as an immortal?’ the article begins. ‘It sounds like science fiction,’ the article continues, ‘but the pioneers behind this wild venture are true believers’.

The article takes up personal stories of a small number who believe in the science of freezing their body at death, and holding it in ‘cryonic suspension’ until they are revived. This will be at a future time when science and medicine will have permanently addressed the issues of aging, disease, and death.

While almost all scientists reject such a development, two features stand out: only a very tiny number would benefit; second, given the world’s history of conflict and war, there is little hope that anyone ‘waking’ in fifty or three hundred years will find a world of just and lasting peace. Would we really want to live forever in such a world?

Come with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28 where, following his own resurrection from the dead, we read these astonishing words of Jesus: ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’.

He then laid out what we might call his royal mandate to his disciples that, going, they are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you’ (28:18-19).

Significantly, embedded in Jesus’ commission is that disciples in all the nations are to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. These words provide the key to a more assured hope of life everlasting in a world where true and lasting peace exists. Why do I say this?

Significantly Jesus uses the singular word, name in speaking of the three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This tells us that three persons constitute the one God. Everyone who is baptized is to be instructed in the existence and the triune nature of God. It’s important we think about this.

In his introduction to his Gospel, Matthew records that Jesus is of royal human lineage – a descendent of Israel’s King David. Furthermore, before Jesus was born, an angel had appeared to Joseph who was wondering if he should marry Mary because she was pregnant and he wasn’t the father. The angel informed him that Mary’s baby was conceived from the Holy Spirit and that the boy was to be named Jesus for he will deliver his people from their sins (Matthew 1:20f).

We also learn that even though Jesus was conceived in a way no other human has ever been conceived, he was born in the same way we were. His flesh and blood were conceived by the Holy Spirit, so that even when there was only one cell of him in the womb of his mother Mary, that cell was fully human and fully divine.

He wasn’t some spiritual hybrid, half man and half God, like the mythical centaur, half horse and half man. Rather, Jesus was 100% human, and 100% divine — or as the Nicene creed puts it: Very God of very God; begotten not made…

And as Matthew’s Gospel unfolds, we learn that at his baptism the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove… and a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’ (3:16, 17). Furthermore, when the imprisoned John the Baptist asked if Jesus was truly the promised Messiah, Jesus responded with words from a messianic prophecy in Isaiah 35: ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me’ (Matthew 11:4-6).

Furthermore, when Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus responded, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven…’ (Matthew 16:17).

We can see why Jesus taught with the richest understanding of the Old Testament law and its application – as we find in his Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7). We can understand why he taught with power and authority and could heal the sick and overcome the forces of evil with a word of command. He could walk on water, still a raging storm, and even raise the dead to life.

In every situation throughout his public life, Jesus revealed a profound understanding of God and the true nature of humanity. When challenged by the finest theological and legal minds, he outclassed them – and not least when they tempted him with a ‘Gotcha’ question.

His teaching and his miracles, the profundity and power of his words, his compassion for the poor and the sick, reveal someone who stands unique in history.

Indeed, HG Wells, author of The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine observed, ‘I am an historian. I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.’

Throughout his public life Jesus also revealed a power and authority that are not simply unique but are signs of the supernatural. Supremely his resurrection from the dead testifies to this. He alone has broken through the barrier of death thus opening a future for all who truly turn to him.

That the life beyond the grave he offers will be one of true and lasting peace is assured by the nature of the relationship between the three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Throughout eternity they enjoy perfect harmony and peace with one another, for unlike the relationships amongst the pagan gods, there is no envy or jealousy, tension or conflict between them.

In our world of ongoing injustice and conflict, sickness and death, the remarkable advances of science and medicine seem to offer us some hope for a longer life. But do they offer what we really long for – a life for ever in a perfectly restored world where peace reigns?

It is the triune God who made us to enjoy him who, in his love holds out the key to our future. It is Christ who has opened the way for us to enter God’s presence; it is the Spirit who, working with the word of the gospel, opens our eyes to this wonderful truth, and now lives within us (Romans 8:9). It is in coming to know this triune God that we find a sure hope for life beyond the grave – a hope that awakens within us a true joy and an inner and lasting peace.

A prayer for Trinity Sunday: Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and by your divine power to worship you as One: we pray that you would keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

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You might like to listen to, Holy Spirit Living Breath of God from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.