Alive in Jesus Christ

(Ephesians 2:4-7)

When you read these few verses you get a sense of the joy that awaits all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ. You begin to see the power of God’s grace because through His never ending grace we are made alive in Jesus Christ.

God does not see us as we see ourselves. He looks upon us as spirit and not people of the flesh, and we see how He sees us in these few verses.

And the only reason God does see those who come to Him through Jesus Christ is because God the Father has made it so and has poured out His love and His grace so that we may come to Him and be saved in Jesus Christ.

How God made us Alive in Jesus Christ

When God looks upon us He does not see us as the weak, stained and sinful creatures we were before we came to Jesus Christ.

All of mankind began in that same place for we were all born into sin and destined for destruction because we fell short of the glory of God. That was the lot for all mankind, but God changed all of that when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins.

When Jesus died, His death was not an ordinary death like the rest of mankind.

When men or women die it is because of sin. Death is the payment and penalty for committing sin in this world, and all of mankind is subject to the same fundamental principle: If you sin, you die.

But Jesus’ death was different because He did not sin during His life and so the punishment for sin, which is death, did not apply to Him. That is why He was able to retake His life and live again through the resurrection. He overcame the power of sin and death.

But where it becomes particularly interesting, is that His death was not merely a death but a sacrifice for others.

The principle of sacrifices was already well established under the law where a sin offering was made each year on the Day of Atonement. There was also a sin offering, which was always a male goat, offered during all of the different festivals and important days, (e.g. Passover, Feast of Booths, Festival of Weeks, etc.), as well as part of the monthly offerings.

On the Day of Atonement there were several offerings made. First a bull was offered for the sins of the priest and the priestly family to prepare them to do the offering for the people in the Holy of Holies before the Lord. The high priest alone is permitted in the Holy of Holies and only once a year on the Day of Atonement for the purpose of the sin offering.

There also two goats brought in for the sin offering for all the people of Israel. Lots were cast over the two goats and one of the goats was offered as sacrifice on the altar for the sins of the people. However, the second goat was kept alive and the high priest prayed over the head of this goat, confessing all the sins of the people and laying all of the sins of Israel onto that goat. The goat was then led out and released into the wilderness of Aza’zel to carry away the sins of the people. This goat is often called a scape goat.

This is a brief overview of the atonement for sins, and it is important for this is the same process that we as Christians go through when we come to Christ.

Jesus died in a similar way as the various animals that were offered. He bore our sins like the scape goat and He died as a sacrifice for our sins. His death was also likened to the sacrificial lamb of the Passover that enabled the angel of death to pass over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, so that the firstborn children would not be killed.

What God has done in His grace is allowed us to take on the death of Jesus Christ to take away our sins. Just as the scape goat was sent away with all of the sins of the people, so too Jesus takes away all of our sins like the scape goat. And as the goat offered for the sins of the people on the altar, Jesus offered His own blood as a sin offering for all of us on the altar of the Lord God in heaven.

In the same way His death was like that of the lamb offered at Passover so that death would “pass over” us as we take on His death as our own.

Taking on the Death of Christ as your own

So the obvious question that arises from all of this is: How do we take on the death of Christ Jesus as our own?

The simple answer is by baptism with faith.

Baptism is the act that we participate in where we are lowered into the water, which symbolises the death and burial of Jesus, and we are lifted back up out of the water, which symbolises the resurrection of Jesus.

But faith is the key to what baptism means and how it all works. By faith we believe that in baptism we die with Christ and we take on His death as our own. This requires faith, otherwise our baptism might as well just be a quick bath. And likewise by faith we believe that we are resurrected with Christ, being born again as new creations in the Spirit, no longer subject to the things of this world, or sin, or the laws of Moses.

Through baptism we leave the kingdom of the world and enter the kingdom of God, and as we grow in faith and continue walking in Jesus Christ we learn to see and live as citizens of God’s kingdom. This is what these verses today are pointing towards when they say:

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6)

Through our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ when we take His death and resurrection as our own by faith, God now looks upon us as new creations, made alive in the spirit with Christ by grace, and seated with Christ in the heavenly places as citizens of the kingdom of God. This is where we as Christians are today and we need to remember this always. God no longer sees us as being dead in the trespasses and sins of this world, but He sees us as being alive in Jesus Christ.

Why God makes us Alive in Jesus Christ

This then begs the question: Why? Why did God show us this grace and give us this incomparable opportunity to find salvation to be alive in Jesus Christ?

The final verse in this section gives us an inkling as to why God has done this.

“…that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7)

We have not yet seen what God has planned for those who choose to follow Jesus Christ and who receive His eternal salvation. We see the promises of what is to come, which includes eternal life that is free from sickness, disease, sin, evil and all of the bad things that plague the people of the world today.

Indeed the “immeasurable riches of his grace…” are so astounding that we cannot even begin to comprehend what the fullness of those things might be, as Paul wrote, quoting the old prophets:

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

It is God’s great pleasure and joy to bless those who choose to love His son and to do what please Him. And perhaps the greatest of the gifts He chooses to give us is life in abundance.

What greater gift can be given than the gift of life? What can any person give that is even remotely close to the gift of life?

When God created Adam and Eve, it was never His desire that they die. It is not the desire of God that anyone should perish through death. He wants people to come to Him so that He can give them the life that He wished for mankind from the beginning of His creation.

But He left the choice up to us. He wants people who will choose what is right and will choose to go with Him and with Christ Jesus, rather than following the ways of this world. He does not want people to perish and He gives every person on earth every opportunity to come to Him and do right. But in the end the decision is ours. This is the free will that God gave man.

Those who choose to come to Christ Jesus, He will grant to be alive in Jesus Christ. Those who choose to reject Christ Jesus will have this life only and nothing more.

So to all who read this I say: choose life. Choose to get to know Jesus Christ and believe in Him for salvation. Get baptised and receive His death and resurrection as your own so that you too can receive the grace of God and the blessings that follow. Choose to be alive in Jesus Christ and not be lost to the evil of this world.

You might also like:

Where There Is Life There Is Hope
The Great Commission Part 2
The Christian Value Proposition
Conditions To Receive Eternal Life
The Hope Of Eternity Is In Christ
Jesus And John The Baptist
What Does It Profit A Man To Gain The Whole World And Lose His Life
Inherit Eternal Life
What Shall I Do To Inherit Eternal Life
You Must Be Born Again
Food For Thought Food For Life
Eating The Flesh And Blood Of Christ
The Truth Will Make You Free
I Am The Door
Life In Abundance
Unstoppable
I Am The Resurrection And The Life
You Are Clean
Why Jesus Died
Receiving Eternal Life
Jesus Could Not Be Held By Death
This Life
All Have Sinned
Christians And The Law
The Power Of One
The Law Ends At Death