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HOW MANY COLLEGE CREDITS FOR MY OBEDIENCE? #2

"YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT THEM, NOT ME. RIGHT, GOD?"

Isn't it wonderful that you and I aren't wicked like that chain-smoking druggie two cars over from you in the Tuesday traffic? Isn't that great? Before we get too proud of our Christian driver's licenses, though, Ephesians 2 tells us there's just one traffic jam, and we're ALL in it.

Isn't it fun to hear somebody ripping with great rhetorical power into someone ELSE? You're watching Crossfire on CNN, or maybe hearing your favorite preacher deliver a strong indictment against some group that is out of line with God's will, or with what's right for America. And then all at once, it turns around. The train of logic does an abrupt U-turn and you turn hot and cold all over. "What?!" you realize. "They're talking about ME." What a moment that is.

Maybe you remember reading about a political activist named John "Terry" Dolan. Born in 1950, he came of age during the Reagan Revolution of the early 1980s. Back in 1973, he ran for the presidency of a group known as the College Republicans, only to lose to another conservative candidate named Karl Rove, ironically now an advisor to President George W. Bush. But he rebounded nicely, and ended up forming his own PAC, the National Conservative Political Action Committee, a potent right-wing force during the Reagan years. NCPAC addressed a number of conservative causes, and was widely seen as hostile to things like Roe v. Wade and gay rights. By the time of the 1984 election, when Reagan ran for a second term, the name of Terry Dolan was right up there with Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguerie and Jerry Falwell as representing right-wing power. They certainly didn't own the franchise on Us vs. Them political might, but they used that tool effectively. Dolan once remarked with a satisfied smile, "The shriller you are, the easier it is to raise money." And his PAC's fundraising letters against feminists and gay activists brought in a steady stream of financial support.

Well, why do I bring up that 15-year-old story from the archives? Because in 1986, young Mr. John "Terry" Dolan, 36 years old, right-wing crusader against gay rights . . . died . . . of AIDS. All along, while he was crying out, "Them! — Them! — Them!", it was HIM too. The same struggles he had decried in others had been his own closeted battle as well.

Well, friend, there but for the grace of God . . . . But you know, here in the book of Ephesians, chapter two, there's a similar kind of epiphany, where you look in the mirror and say, "Oh. It's ME they're talking about."

Yesterday we studied together the intro to this chapter two, where Paul writes to people — struggling Christians and reprobates — who are spiritually numb. Notice:

"As for you," he writes, "you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air" — meaning Satan — "the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."

So who is the target audience here? And we say: spiritually comatose Christians. Hypocrites. Disobedient people. Unbelievers. Men and women who follow the Devil into destruction. In other words, Those People. OTHER people. The good guy is writing to condemn the bad guy.

But all of a sudden, in verse three, Paul raises his own hand and confesses that what he's writing here is a kind of spiritual autobiography. He's actually writing about himself! Listen to this:

"ALL OF US," he admits, "also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."

It would be like the preacher on Sabbath or Sunday morning, shaking both fists in the pulpit, and projecting huge PowerPoint graphics on the big screen, and blistering those people out there across the street for their godless, liberal, God-destroying attitudes. And then all at once, his voice softening, and a tear creeping in, he whispers: "And me too! I'm one too! I've hurt Jesus too, by my selfish heart, by my unkind words, by my attitude of spiritual superiority." Wow! What a moment that would be . . . and here Paul says: "Folks, it's all of us."

As you read through Ephesians, and especially here in the second chapter, we notice a laying side by side of two factions. There ARE two warring elements here in his sermon: the Jews and the Gentiles. Orthodox followers of all the rules and then the lawless riffraff on the other side of the train tracks. Those in tune with God and then those who aren't much hearing His voice. Two groups: Us and Them. And friend, the entire thrust of this chapter is to say: NO MORE! That's over with! That grouping is completely obsolete! When you get to verse 11 — and we'll study it all this week and next — the heading in our NIV Bible is this: ONE IN CHRIST. And Paul eloquently informs us that, because of the Cross, the boundaries are gone, the barriers are gone, the hostilities are gone, the old animosities are gone, the red-lining of neighborhoods is gone, and the dividing wall is gone. Because of Calvary, there are no longer two groups.

But PRIOR to that, here in the first half of the chapter, Paul sets that up by declaring that there aren't even two groups on the front end! "They're asleep, we're asleep," he says, referring to the pagans and the Christians, the Gentiles and the Jews. "They're spiritually dead, and we've gone into a coma too. We've ‘lived by the cravings of our sinful nature' just like our heathen neighbors have."

The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary for Ephesians is an excellent study resource, and the seminary scholars make this very point:

"Having addressed Gentiles in verses one and two," they write, "Paul now compares their status with that of the Jews and shows that he and his countrymen were also in the class of ‘children of disobedience.' The Fall brought all men down to a common level."

And they take us to several parallel passages right here in Paul's writing, where we do indeed find ourselves all in the same boat and sailing toward destruction. Notice this in Romans 2:1:

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning YOURSELF, because you who pass judgment DO THE SAME THINGS."

Can we say ouch to that? Let's go down just one page to chapter three, still in Romans, and read verse nine:

"What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike ARE ALL UNDER SIN."

Fourteen verses later comes this well-known indictment, and notice how many people are included in the court order:

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Now friend, it's true that there is a difference between a Christian who's awake in the Lord and a pagan who is asleep in Satan. There ARE two camps — awake and asleep, alive and dead — and praise the Lord if He's used an alarm clock like the Holy Spirit — or this radio program — to move you into the land of the living. But all of us certainly had our START — our default mode as sons and daughters of a sleepy, yawning Adam and Eve — right here in Ephesians 2. Here's just one more warning from Galatians 3:22:

"The Scripture declares," Paul writes, "that the whole world is a PRISONER of sin."

Listen, friend. And if you've ever been tempted, as all of us have, to think you're closer to heaven than any other person, any other group: then Ephesians two is sober but wonderful news. We are all together in our need. There aren't good people who only need a little salvation, and wicked sinners who need a lot. There isn't a favored class who almost make it into heaven with their own passports, and aliens who need all new paperwork. No, when it comes to the problem, there is only one group: lost sinners. And when it comes to the solution, there is only one group there too: redeemed sinners. That's all "saints" are: sinners who have placed themselves, after a relentless pursuit by the Father in the prodigal-son story, in a relationship of grace and redemption.

No wonder Paul, still here in Galatians, right next to his "the whole world is a prisoner of sin" speech, pens these great words:

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus."

One in our great need. And even more, one in our great joy, and great love, and great unity, and great worship . . . when we understand the good news of salvation.

The Bible tells us, right here in Ephesians 2, that Jesus Christ tears down those walls. He IS our peace, our eternal wall-destroyer. What do you say we help Him knock down a few fences?