Saved for a Purpose
You can listen to the entire message by clicking above or wherever you get your podcasts. On this post I will simply hit a couple of points that I found especially meaningful. I hope you find it helpful and gain a blessing form it.
I would like to share with you a note found in the Andrews Study Bible.
Along with Romans 3:21-26, Ephesias 2:4-10 is Paul’s most complete statement on the plan of Salvation. It contains the following elements.
People are naturally “dead” in sin (Ephesians 2:5; Romans 3:23; 6:23).
God brings them to life in Christ (Ephesians 2:5; John 3:3; Romans 6:4-5; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
In Christ they have a place and standing in heaven (Ephesians 2:6; Romans 3:21-26).
They are saved by the free gift of God’s grace; they do not receive what they deserve (death, Romans 6:23; Galatians 3:10), but what they do not deserve (grace) costs them absolutely nothing (Ephesians 2:8; Romans 3:24).
They most certainly never earn it by their effort, and impossibility (Ephesians 2:9; Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:10).
But even though they are not saved by works, their new relationship to God and Christ will lead to a transformed life that works for God (Ephesians 2:10; Romans 6:1-11; 12:1-2; 1 John 2:3-6). Thus they live a life characterized by “obedience to the faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26) and they exhibit a life of “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6, 14).
You can listen to the message in the audio but I would like to also share a quote that really spoke to me.
Three times has He uttered that prayer. Three times has humanity shrunk from the last, crowning sacrifice. But now the history of the human race comes up before the world's Redeemer. He sees that the transgressors of the law, if left to themselves, must perish. He sees the helplessness of man. He sees the power of sin. The woes and lamentations of a doomed world rise before Him. He beholds its impending fate, and His decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself. He accepts His baptism of blood, that through Him perishing millions may gain everlasting life. He has left the courts of heaven, where all is purity, happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world that has fallen by transgression. And He will not turn from His mission. He will become the propitiation (atonement, appeasing) of a race that has willed to sin. His prayer now breathes only submission: “If this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.”
- The Desire of Ages p690 (bold is mine, also the parenthesis and the words between them were added by me)
