The ONE Thing God Is After in You: Understanding Your True Identity in Christ

Okay? So, we’re going to do a lot of shifting. Sometimes you’re going to be a church. You’re going to be in the first century, and sometimes the first century will be in the 20th century. And sometimes you’re going to be the church in Constance, and I’m going to be Gene talking to you, and sometimes I’m going to be Paul talking to you, and sometimes you’re not going to be the church in Constance; you’re going to be a girl. One woman. The bride of Christ.

Now I’m not speaking just to this morning, but I’m speaking to the rest of the week. So, can you follow me when we shift continuums? And when we not only shift continuums but also shift realms. At times, we will be in the future, and at times in the present. Sometimes we will not only be in the past, but we will be in eternity past. Now, if that’s a tall order, if that sounds difficult to you, just remember that I’m only doing what Paul of Tarsus did to us when he wrote this letter, and that’s not all. All of these places belong to you. You own today. You own the past. You own the future. You have ownership of the present. Most of all, and the most difficult perhaps, is to realize that you have ownership of eternity in past times.

We will just try to deal with all of this, but I think that if I had one request, I would ask the five of you to let yourselves be more than what you consider yourself to be, and once more seek to see yourself as one person. But not you…the individual. I have never spoken to a group of five people and put as much on them as I’m putting on you. Now I have to tell you that there are a lot of roads crossing right here in my own heart that profoundly affect what I have to say to you. I’ll talk a little bit about that perhaps tomorrow.

Now then, if you are all ready for this stage, not clearly set, but set. I’m going to try to unravel Ephesians. I’ve been working on this since I was 17, and I still don’t have any idea what the book of Ephesians, chapters 1, 2, and 3, is about. I understand 4, 5, and 6 perfectly. Shucks, I even understand Ephesians 7. Didn’t anybody ever teach you the Bible at some point in your life? Okay. This is what I think is going on here. I want you to get out a pencil and paper. Everybody, please, if you’ve got a notebook…and if not, make notes in your Bible. Emily, is that right? Honey, any time you want to go out and play, please do so, will you? Okay, good. I want to thank the brothers for this stool. This is going to help a great deal.

Okay, I want you to write down this is what you used to be, but right beside that, I want you to write down your second state before God. This is your second state or predicament, or this is the second state of your life. And it’s described to you in Chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, and Chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. This is your second state: your fallen state. Paul refers to it as “formerly.” F-O-R-M-E-R-L-Y. Formerly. This is what you used to be, and the word “formerly” is beautifully used here. This is not what you are; it’s what you used to be.

Okay. Secondly, or number two, the process of redemption to get you out of your second state. That’s 1:7, and it has a parallel passage in 2:13. The rest of the process of your redemption is in Chapter 2, verses 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, and 14. I’ll do it again: the process of redemption is in Chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, verses 8 and 9, and verses 13 through 14. That is your process of redemption.

Number three: I’m not going to give you the verses. I’m going to see if you can figure them out between now and tomorrow or tonight. This is your first state.  Did you look up here at the top? It says your second state. See if you can find your first state, and then, if you want to, try to find your present state. Strange that I would start with your second status before God, the process of redemption, then your first state, and finally your present state. See if you can find your first state, and then see if you can find your present state. Now I’m going to tell you something: every one of you, while I have been talking, has been thinking personally. Individually. Now confess it. I don’t want you to do that. That’s not what’s in the book of Ephesians. That’s not what’s in the book of Ephesians.

Now, you four folks, I’m going to tell you about your second state, your former state, and what you were formerly, but you’re just one person. Gerhard, if y’all can do this forever, it will change your lives. It’ll give you the strength you can never have as an individual. Grasp this. I cannot think of anything that will transform your life more completely. So, I will talk about that just a little bit before we go any further.

Every person in this room is carrying with them a headache of guilt and a headache of inadequacy. We also come to scripture looking for me, my relationship to God. I’m kind of in there looking for God and me, and probably unconsciously, I am saying, “Okay, God, what do you want out of me that I can do that will make you happy? What can I do to get me on your good side? What can I do to get in favor with you, Lord? What can I do to make you feel good about me?” Now, does anybody want to confess that to being the truth? Or do you want to just sit there and kind of… not admit to it. Huh? I have one honest Spaniard here. Every one of you knows what I’m talking about.

I’ve come to the scripture. I’m totally, completely an individual, and what makes it worse is that somebody gets up in front of you and preaches to you, the individual, and lays so much on you that it is just awful. You’ve got to do this, or you won’t be a good Christian. You’ve got to do that, or you won’t be a good Christian. This is what God expects of you. This is what God wants. This is what God wants, and you’re sitting there with your headache, your headache of guilt, and your headache of inadequacy, and you’re sitting there. Have you Germans ever heard of the Lone Ranger? William Tell’s Overture? He has a horse, and he wears a mask, and he’s all alone. Okay, this is the Lone Christian Syndrome. You’re out there all by yourself trying to be a good Christian, trying to make God like you. Give it up. As an individual Christian, you’re bound to fail, and that’s wonderful news. In fact, that’s marvelous news. Christian life cannot be lived individually. God did not construct the Christian life that way. Now you are an individual. You are a member of the body, but you have never had emphasized for you what we’re going to emphasize this week, and that is: you’re also part of a people. You’re part of a body. You’re part of a church. An ekklesia. And you’re also part of Christ. We’re going to go through this again and again and again, and I’d like for you to be able to just kind of mesh. This is perhaps the very weight of the book of Ephesians. Find out what you have as a body that you don’t have as individuals. You cannot have and never will.

We’ll clear up some of the distortions we have in Christendom, but that, to me, is not so important as you’re discovering what you are and what you have as a body of believers. And five is awfully small, but we are building a foundation here. May the Holy Spirit of God ingrain this into you and become your very thinking. You will survive. And you will do more than survive; you’ll flourish. Lay hold of this, for it is your inheritance.

Now, I just want to say the same thing here to Helga and Charles. You have a group of nine people. You need this. Nine people, that’s a good number. I wish they were nine. Nine’s getting big. In our world, nine is big, and when we get up to 20, we start throwing our chest out. We get up to 40, we start dividing. I mean, literally just taking people and moving them. That’s too big. We don’t know how to handle 40 adults. And you’re all alone there. Or with some other Christian, some other Christians. We won’t ask who they are. We just assume they’re a bunch of Heretics, and you’re ashamed to admit it.