3-D Church

And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:22 TNIV).

There is an interesting principle laid out for us in Scripture regarding the dwelling place of God.  In the one sense – as in our verse today – it deals with the collective body of Christ.  We are all knit together as living stones into a temple not made with human hands –

you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5 NIV).

Yet in another area of Scripture, it is clear that we are each individually a temple of the Holy Spirit:

¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV)

And, to add even one more layer to the concept, the Bible tells us that as much as He is in us, we are in Him:

for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ (Acts 17:28 NKJV).

This is the 3-D design of a God’s temple – God, the church, and us.  We need one another.  Without the accountability of others, we can fall prey to deception. Sin is deceitful and has a temporary pleasure that allures.  When we lack the input of someone outside our own thinking, we are able to go a good way down the path of sin, thinking all the while that we are fine with God, when we are, in fact, eating the forbidden fruit instead. 

That is why God places such an importance on unity and relationship. He did not intend for His family to be dysfunctional and non-relational.  If we think we can have a relationship with God, apart from a relationship with His church, we have fallen into the trap of deception and the Apostle John states very plainly:

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20 NKJV)?

While we must guard our hearts because they are the inner sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, we must also make sure that we are part of the bigger building – for our own safety and protection.  This, of course, is not a church building, but a body of believers.  We need the eyes and ears of our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us spot the deceiver in our midst. 

Lord, grant me the wisdom to graciously accept the input of others in my life.  I need them to help me see clearly when I believe a lie instead of the truth.

Building Strong, Not Just Pretty

The whole building is held together by him. It rises to become a holy temple because it belongs to the Lord (Ephesians 2:21 NIRV)

Christ is the chief cornerstone that holds together my life in Him. He is directing the construction of the building day by day, month by month, and year by year. All of the significant and mundane moments of my life are under the watchful eye of the Master builder.

The verse speaks volumes to the sovereignty and providence of God. We tend to feel that when everything in our lives is spinning out of control that Jesus has somehow lost sight of us or forgotten us. Yet, we often forget what goes into the construction of a building. There is a lot of digging into the foundation to set the floor, sawing of wood to perfectly fit and fashion the walls and roof, and the pounding and piercing of nails to make sure that the structure stays together. It is not until the painful, tedious, and not as much fun work is accomplished that the glorious moments of the project can be enjoyed - when the paint goes on a wall, transforming it into a beautiful, warm room and when the crown molding turns a simple line into a work of art.

It is Jesus Christ Himself who holds my entire life in His hands. He is digging, sawing, pounding, and piercing His truth into the very heart of my building, all for the purpose of putting on the finishing touches of grace, mercy, faith, and love.

When I am tempted to think that God has forgotten or abandoned me, I need to remember that He is in every detail of the project – from start to finish – making sure that the house is not just beautiful, but strong enough to withstand the storms it will certainly encounter.

The whole building is held together by him. It rises to become a holy temple because it belongs to the Lord (Ephesians 2:21 NIRV)

Christ is the chief cornerstone that holds together my life in Him. He is directing the construction of the building day by day, month by month, and year by year. All of the significant and mundane moments of my life are under the watchful eye of the Master builder.

The verse speaks volumes to the sovereignty and providence of God. We tend to feel that when everything in our lives is spinning out of control that Jesus has somehow lost sight of us or forgotten us. Yet, we often forget what goes into the construction of a building. There is a lot of digging into the foundation to set the floor, sawing of wood to perfectly fit and fashion the walls and roof, and the pounding and piercing of nails to make sure that the structure stays together. It is not until the painful, tedious, and not as much fun work is accomplished that the glorious moments of the project can be enjoyed - when the paint goes on a wall, transforming it into a beautiful, warm room and when the crown molding turns a simple line into a work of art.

It is Jesus Christ Himself who holds my entire life in His hands. He is digging, sawing, pounding, and piercing His truth into the very heart of my building, all for the purpose of putting on the finishing touches of grace, mercy, faith, and love.

When I am tempted to think that God has forgotten or abandoned me, I need to remember that He is in every detail of the project – from start to finish – making sure that the house is not just beautiful, but strong enough to withstand the storms it will certainly encounter.

Positioned by Christ

You are a building that is built on the apostles and prophets. They are the foundation. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone in the building (Ephesians 2:20 NIRV).

In another version, the Scripture states that Jesus is the cornerstone.  We derive much greater appreciation for the imagery when we know that the cornerstone was the most critical point of the entire architectural plan.  Wikapedia describes it this way:

The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.

So, the Apostle Paul is stating that we are a building whose foundation is set upon the apostles and prophets, with Jesus being the reference stone, which determines our position.  As a believer, I don’t have to wonder what I believe.  The story is literally set in stone.  Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified for the sins of the world, buried and rose on the third day.  The Prophets declared it before the fact and the Apostles declared it after the fact.  The message is so simple that it can easily be missed.  It takes the faith of a child to believe the simple, yet profound story of the Gospel.  It takes the faith of a mature saint not to mix any unnecessary details into the message.

It is the inclination of man to make things more complicated than they need be.  It is the inerrancy of Scripture that keeps us clarified and positioned correctly.  Jesus is our cornerstone, and as we look to His life as an example for our own, we will see that He embodied the perfect balance of grace and truth, without any complication or tension.  He never compromised the truth, but He always built a bridge of grace between the truth and those bound by lies.

I need to remember that the Gospel is not complicated and make sure that I am following the advice that James (the brother of Jesus) gave to the council of forefathers in the first century church:

It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God (Acts 15:19).

When I am rightly positioned in alignment with the cornerstone, I will have a heart for those who do not yet know Him.

Appropriating God's Provision

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19 NLT)

It is easy to miss the message of this verse when we approach it with a western concept of adoption.  We can quickly begin to apply the legal implications of becoming the members of God’s family and citizens of His Kingdom.  It entitles us to all the rights and privileges of those who are the original members of the family and citizens before us.  However, that would leave out the most important point that the Apostle Paul was striving to make.

In the culture to which Paul introduces this idea of being included into the family – adopted as it were – there was no such thing as child adoption.  That is a current trend, but was not part of the culture in the first century church.  The church had other provision for orphans.  Adoption in Paul’s day dealt exclusively with adults.  And the criteria for being considered for adoption had everything to do with the value placed upon the person being adopted.  Wealthy men would often look for someone to adopt that they felt were wise enough to act as overseers of their households after their death. 

When you consider this fact, it becomes all the more meaningful that God “adopts” us into His family.  He considers us valuable enough to offer us His Kingdom – with all the rights and privileges that entails and to place us side by side with His chosen children. 

The real question for me today is – “Am I walking in the fullness of God’s gift to me?”  When I stop to consider what it means to be a citizen of Heaven and a member of the family of God, I think I have to answer that question with a huge, “Not really.” 

Lord, allow me to walk in the fullness of your provision for my life.  Help me to have Heaven at the forefront of my mind and an underlying assurance that my Father has my back and can strengthen me to do whatever He has foreordained for me to do today.

Living From the Inside Out

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:18 TNIV)

This is a powerful verse when you truly grasp the implications.  The Apostle Paul is saying that we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  Who is the “both?”  No matter how we might want to spin this, you cannot read the preceding verses without coming to the conclusion that Paul is speaking about Jews and Gentiles.  That is the “both” that Christ died to reconcile to the Father.  And Paul is making it quite clear that the only way for either of the two previous groups to come to the Father is via the Spirit of God – it is no longer by rules and regulations, which were the foreshadow of things to come.

Not to jump ahead of the story, but it does beg the question, well, if we don’t come to the Father by the law any longer, then is the law of no further value to us who believe?  Paul will deal masterfully with this question in Chapter 6 of this book, so I’ll save the argument for him, but I do want to drill down on one thought that might help us realize just how related our faith is to its Jewish roots.  In his letter to the Galatians, Paul sets out the difference of what a life looks like when it is ruled by the flesh versus one ruled by the Spirit and after the list of attributes that a Spirit-filled life produces, Paul adds – against such there is no law.

The thought here is that when we operate in the Spirit of God, we do not need the law.  No one every says, “No, don’t do that – you shouldn’t love so much or you’ll be arrested.”  Or, “You better stop being so patient with me or I’m calling the cops.”  The law was never intended to govern righteous behavior, only unrighteous behavior.  It was completely designed to show how far from righteousness we truly were and to deal with the acts of the flesh that are what come all too naturally for us as fallen human beings:

. . . For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:21, 24-25 NKJV).

As one born of God’s Spirit, I have the rare privilege and grace to live a lawful life from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Waging War for Peace

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near (Ephesians 2:17 TNIV).

Near or far, the message is peace.  That is God’s will for our lives – to live in peace.  Interestingly enough, however, it takes great battles and waging war to attain the peace that God desires for us.  The reason is because we have two opposing natures – the flesh and the spirit and the Bible tells us that they are at war with one another. 

Paul’s own struggle so accurately describes the tension that exists in the life of every serious disciple:

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (Romans 7:18-20 NKJV).

As believers, we will also face the battle that Christ Himself faced in the Garden of Gethsemane – the battle of “not my will, but your will be done.” Paul tells us to “fight the good fight of faith” because only as we do, can we ever expect to have the peace in which God desires we walk. 

Paul gives the key to winning the battle to the Galatians in Chapter 5, verse 16:

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Lord, today I pray you fill me with your Spirit so that I will not fulfill the lust of my flesh and I can walk in your perfect peace.