Building The Body Study 8 - Nature of the Body

Ephesians 2:1-10 NIV 

[1] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, [2] in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. [3] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. [4] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. [6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. [8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast. [10] For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.1-10.NIV)

If you have anyone in your household with an allergy or an intolerance, you will be well used to reading the ingredients of products to see what they are made of. It can be a challenge in your own country. Often manufacturers don’t really want to come clean about what’s in their product and hide the ingredients away in small, nearly legible print. 

It can be an even bigger challenge when you’re overseas and need to use online translation tools to check them out. 

What something is made of is important. We often assume an object or a product is made of something, but it isn’t. Pool balls, for example, are often assumed to be made of stone, but they’re actually made of resin. We often talk of pencil ‘lead’, but it isn’t made of lead. Of course isn’t! Lead is toxic. Instead, it’s made of graphite and clay. 

Perhaps the most spectacular misapprehension is around baby oil. We assume that it’s a one hundred percent natural product. Well, it is, but not in the way we might think. 

It’s actually a petroleum by-product. 

Yep, that’s right: for decades we have been smothering our beloved babies in something produced from a petrol refinery. 

These mildly unsettling facts aside, we spent the last study looking at things Paul was thankful for in the Ephesian church. That led us to note aspects of what the church is – in particular, who runs the whole shebang. 

In this passage we see something equally as fascinating: we see what the church consists of – what it is made of. 

This is an important observation. We often think of churches as historical buildings. The Christian church is much more than that. But think for a while about an historical building. If you want to restore it, you have to use the same materials that were used when it was built – the same stone, the same wood, the same stained glass – otherwise your restoration will ruin it. You need to understand the nature of the materials. 

In the same way, to truly understand the nature of God’s church, we need to know what it is made of. Once we understand that, we will be able to tell apart the real thing from the myriad of fakes and imposters we see around us. 

A church is, of course, made up of Christians. That goes without saying. But in this passage, Paul said that every genuine Christian has gone through four phases. The first of these might surprise you, in that Paul said they were Dead. 

Dead 

Ephesians 2:1-3 NIV 

[1] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, [2] in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. [3] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.1-3.NIV)

In the folklore of the northern Romanian region of Maramureș, beliefs of the Dacian people who once populated the land bled through in how they approached their dead. They believed that if a person had not been good enough to enter their version of heaven when they died, then they could rise from the dead in various forms to haunt and harm the living. It reached the stage where if someone was believed to have done this, they would exhume the body and drive a wooden stake through their heart, just to make sure. They would sometimes bury their dead with cloves of garlic, just in case they felt like rising up. 

This is, of course, stuff and nonsense – the same stuff and nonsense that inspired much of our horror movies about zombies and the undead and the like. 

But there is zero truth in it. Absolutely zero. 

However, Paul taught something here about us that is equally as striking. 

He said that we were dead. 

Now, normally the sequence of things is that we are born, we live and we die. But here Paul describes a sequence where we are dead and then we come alive. 

How can this be? 

What Paul was teaching here, and in other places in the New Testament, is not that we were physically dead, but spiritually dead. Take a look at these verses too: 

Colossians 2:13-14 NIV 

[13] When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, [14] having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.2.13-14.NIV)

The concept is simple, but profound. I’m the past year I have had the unfortunate experience of twice going to graveyards to watch as relatives are laid to rest. Believe me when I tell you it’s not an experience I wish to repeat too soon. All of the dead bodies in a graveyard have something in common: they cannot choose to cone back to life. They don’t get to wake up and realise that they’re getting splinters from the wooden casket or the worms are making them itch or they miss their families and somehow decide not to be dead anymore. That’s not how it works. 

Paul’s point was that when we were sinners, we had no choice in the matter. We had no agency. We could not choose to no longer be sinners and lead a worthy life. We were alive to sin and dead to God. 

But because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross and what God did by raising Him from the grave, we can now choose to be alive to God and dead to sin. He taught these verses: 

Romans 6:11-14 NIV 

[11] In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. [12] Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. [13] Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. [14] For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.6.11-14.NIV)

Every Christian – every last one – is not a Christian because they somehow earned it or did something to deserve it. That’s not the point of Christianity. 

No, we are Christians because we were dead to God and alive to sin, but thanks to God’s undeserved grace expressed by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die for us and then raising Him from the dead, we are now dead to sin and alive to God. 

It’s His work, not ours. We could do nothing about being dead to God. We could not make ourselves alive to God. We needed Him to do it for us. 

Every Christian without exception acknowledges that their salvation is not through their own effort or works, but through Christ alone. Hence what it says later: 

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV 

[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.8-9.NIV)

Admitting that we were dead in our sins is part of that. 

And this is what is the greatest leveller mankind will ever know: 

Romans 3:23-24 NIV 

[23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.3.23-24.NIV)

Romans 6:23 NIV 

[23] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.6.23.NIV)

We are saved by grace. Life is brought to the undeserving and helpless dead.  

We are all the same. 

That is the Gospel. 

But as these verses state, we are not just dead, we are also Raised. 

Raised 

Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV 

[4] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.4-5.NIV)

I have an autistic nephew who is a huge fan of elevators. In fact, one elevator on particular.

He is non-verbal, but he is able to communicate to his mother when he wants to ride the train from his home for twenty-five minutes into the city of Glasgow, where he goes to a certain shopping mall, rides the elevator, making sure it stops at every floor, eats the same food every time in the food court and then rides the train home, happy. 

I know others who are not so keen on elevators. I know one young lad who had a bad experience in an elevator when he was younger and now rides them with a little trepidation. 

Personally, I have no issues. Although when I was a student I sometimes had to ride one with a chain that rattled so loudly, you half-expected a crew from a late night TV show to claim it was haunted. 

The thing with elevators is that you have to believe in them. Not just that they exist, but that they will take you where you want to go. It’s not your faith in them that moves you. That would be the elevator. But without your faith, you will not be willing to go inside and ride it. 

There is something similar in these verses. We were dead to God but alive to sin. These verses tell us that God raises us from the grave so that we are dead to sin and alive to God. 

This is how Paul described it elsewhere: 

Romans 6:1-4 NIV 

[1] What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? [2] By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? [3] Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.6.1-4.NIV)

Christ was crucified. He was buried. Three days later, God raised Him from the dead. Because of that resurrection, we are raised with Christ just like we are raised with an elevator if we put our trust in Him. We are no longer dead. We are gloriously alive! 

But that had enormous implications for how we live our lives, as Paul explained to the Colossians: 

Colossians 3:1-10 NIV 

[1] Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. [3] For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. [5] Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [6] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. [9] Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.1-10.NIV)

This requires a mentality switch. We must no longer see ourselves as hopelessly addicted to sin without any freedom in sight. We must see ourselves as dead to sin, and sin as dead to us, and ourselves as alive to Christ. 

Yes, there is a bodily resurrection. There has to be. Without it, Christianity is utterly useless (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). But there is also a spiritual resurrection, when new life dawns on our souls and we realise that we are no longer dead to God and alive to sin, but are dead to sin and alive to God. 

We have been raised with Christ! Hallelujah! 

Sin and death and hell have no claim or hold over us! Hallelujah! 

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! Hallelujah! 

So, Christian, let’s live like it! 

Apart from having been dead and now raised, we also see that we are Seated. 

Seated 

Ephesians 2:6-7 NIV 

[6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.6-7.NIV)

I don’t get invited to a lot of weddings. Maybe some people don’t think I would look good in wedding pictures. I can’t think why... 

But last year I attended my sister’s wedding. She even asked me to be the MC. Now, that was risky! 

At every wedding celebration the time comes when the invited guests are seated and the servers are standing. The guests are seated because they have no work or responsibility except to enjoy themselves; the servers are on their feet because they are required to serve. 

This phrase ‘to be seated’ has two implications. 

The first is that there is a place for us. Jesus Himself told us as much: 

John 14:2-3 NIV 

[2] My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.14.2-3.NIV)

Like an invited guest at a wedding there is a seat for us. We are going to Heaven. We have a reservation. We have received the ticket. The boarding pass is in our hand. It is final. It is real. It is happening. 

There can be no more doubt about it. 

Our eternity is secured. 

But there is another way to think about it. 

Work in those days was very different to ours. It was agricultural. It was manual. It involved trading and buying and selling. People were literally on their feet all day long. They did not sit down until their work was done. 

And so there was a serious implication of this picture John saw of Jesus in Heaven: 

Revelation 4:2 NIV 

[2] At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.4.2.NIV)

Do you know what this would mean in the culture of the Ancient Middle East? 

His work was done. Nothing more needed to be done. He was seated because His work was completed. 

Now look back at our passage in Ephesians. Look again at Ephesians 2:8-9: 

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV 

[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.8-9.NIV)

We are seated with Christ in all eternity because there is nothing more for us to do to earn or achieve our salvation. Jesus Christ has done it all. There is nothing left to be done. And anyone who suggests even the faintest whiff of something else that should be done is hinting that what Jesus achieved by dying for us on the cross and rising from the dead is somehow deficient and somehow not enough. 

That is, quite frankly, absurd. 

More than that, it is blasphemous. Not to mention an incredible insult. 

This picture is of one who has assurance of salvation that comes not from their deeds, but the deeds of another. It is a picture of absolute faith, absolute security, absolute rest. 

And it comes from trusting in Christ and Him alone. 

But still Paul wasn’t done. He moved on from being dead, raised and seated to perhaps an intriguing last posture, that of being Deployed. 

Deployed 

Ephesians 2:10 NIV 

[10] For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.10.NIV)

Around the world people are putting retired airplanes to an unusual use: they are turning them into hotels. Now, I am a fan of travelling on wide-bodied planes. They give a sense of long-haul adventure, even if we once travelled on a new Airbus A350 just a few hours from London to Helsinki. However, even a wide-bodied aircraft does not provide a lot of room for turning it into a large luxury hotel. There is also the not inconsequential problem of what to do about the engines, the wings and the tail. Hotels tend not to need them. 

Planes were made to fly. It feels almost a waste to have them hanging around on the ground, even if the nose cone preserved in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is a nice photo opportunity. 

Christians too are made for a purpose – a purpose we often forget.  

Many of my generation remember The Muppet Show. It was around twenty-fove minutes of slapstick, song-and-dance, variety madness, but was highly entertaining. As the show descended into chaos, two ‘elderly’ muppets – Stadtler and Waldorf – would criticise and poke fun at it from a balcony in the theater. 

There are Christians who behave as if their calling in life was to be Stadtler or Waldorf. They love to complain and criticise those who put in a huge amount of effort to keep the church programme going. However, they forget one thing: Stadler and Waldorf were a pair of muppets. And to be honest, if all you can do is criticise others without lifting a finger to help, then you’re being a bit of a ‘muppet’ too. 

Every Christian is called to be active. As James said: 

James 2:14-26 NIV 

[14] What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? [15] Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. [16] If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? [17] In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. [18] But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. [19] You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. [20] You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? [21] Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? [22] You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. [23] And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. [24] You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. [25] In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? [26] As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jas.2.14-26.NIV)

We are saved by faith, not by works, but there is no faith without works. Faith cannot be only theoretical. It must be practical. 

I want you to notice three things about these good works here – three things that may surprise you. 

Firstly, that we are God’s handiwork. 

The word used here in Greek for ‘handiwork’ is poema – the root word for the English word ‘poem’. 

We are God’s masterpiece, His work of art, the intricate expression of His creativity. As David sung: 

Psalms 139:13-14 NIV 

[13] For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. [14] I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.139.13-14.NIV)

More than that, we were created to do good works. 

That is, the reason we are on this earth is to glorify God by contributing in a positive way to our community and our society as a whole. That good contribution is not necessarily to get a bunch of people off the streets for a few hours on a Sunday and to lecture then on how to behave. It’s more than that. For that reason, we see the early Christian community making a positive impact by supporting those who could not support themselves (Acts 6:1-7). 

It’s also why Paul taught this: 

Galatians 6:10 NIV 

[10] Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/gal.6.10.NIV)

It’s not just our job to ‘do Jesus’ on a Sunday, but to ‘be Jesus’ all week long. 

Then we come to the most incredible part of this: God gives us the opportunities to do good works. 

I once heard a football team manager talking about how his strikers needed other people to make opportunities for them to score. We are the same. We exist to do good works. What we need is the opportunity to do them. 

Now, I have to say that I used to be someone who didn’t see this. When I came back from Romania as a missionary, I could not see where my opportunities were. I was a fluent Romanian speaker. I was no longer a missionary so my preaching opportunities were drying up. I struggled to find my place in the church. 

But maybe it was because I was looking in the wrong place. I was looking for the ‘big ticket’, ‘up-front’ ministries, when there were plenty of ministries where I could serve in a lower, background level. 

Could God be creating opportunities for us to do good, but we are turning away from when because we won’t get the glory? 

That’s a tough question to answer. 

A church is made up of people who recognise that they are deployed to do good works that glorify God, not themselves. 

I wonder, is that who we are? 

Conclusion 

Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV 

[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast. [10] For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.8-10.NIV)

I’m getting older. It feels like my advancing years and my spectacle prescription are in a race to see which will be the highest. Occasionally bits of my body don’t work properly and need a little bit of encouragement to drop into gear. 

It happens to us all. 

But it can be very frustrating. 

Paul told the Corinthian church this truth: 

1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV 

[27] Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.12.27.NIV)

We are not a group of passengers or entertainment critics or even an audience, we are the Body of Christ hare on earth. That ought to come with some pretty serious responsibilities.

And it does. 

But to fulfil those responsibilities we just first fully understand who we are and why we are here. That is what these verses are all about. 

We must first understand that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and were saved from that death even though we did not deserve it. There used go be an old maxim: ‘If the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future’. And that has a ring of truth. But allow me to provide you with a different maxim: ‘If your ego is overinflated with where you are now, remember where you came from’. 

When we find ourselves in prominent, valued ministries, it’s all to easy to think that we are someone special. Believe me, I’ve been there. But reminding ourselves that we were dead and were saved from it by grace rips all foolish pride from us in a second. 

We also need to remember that we were raised from the dead, and that it wasn’t us that did it but God. The battle against death was His and His was the victory. 

We are also seated with God on high. Our future is secure. We will be saved. We will enjoy eternity with Him. There is nothing more we need to do. We cannot earn it. We cannot achieve it. Jesus Christ has done it all for us. 

And lastly, we need to remember that we are deployed to do good works. We are not backseat drivers. We are not armchair critics or keyboard warriors. Our calling is to be active in work and ministry, to seek out the opportunities God gives us to do good work and to take those opportunities. 

This is the Gospel. This is the essence of what it means to follow Jesus. 

It’s often said that a team is so much more than the sum of its parts – which is true. The same can be said of the church. 

But only when every one of us understands, believes and applies these core truths. 

Because then the church really fulfils the reason for it’s existence. 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, thank You for these core, but utterly mind-blowing truths. Help me to believe them, apply them and live them out in my life and to be an active and committed member of Your Body the church. Amen. 

Questions for Contemplation  

• What core Gospel truths does Paul outline in these verses? Why are they important? 

• What difference do they make to how we relate to each other and how we see ourselves in the church? 

• Are there any that you struggle with? Why? What can you do to fix this?