Ephesians 2:14-22

My mind is boggled by the amount of grace that has been given to me through Christ. Along with the rest of humanity, I am so undeserving of a relationship with God, let alone undeserving of the life He has given to me. Day by day I see the hand of God at work in this world to reconcile the lost to Himself. In the words of Jeremiah the Prophet "You will seek me (God) and find me when you seek me with all your heart." and again, repeated by Jesus himself in Matthew 7:7-8 " ⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." (emphasis added)

To those who seek, you will find. God is pulling on the strings of your heart and mind. And when you do find, the blessings that come with that are innumerable. As the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:14-22,

¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

There is no distinction when it comes to those in Christ Jesus. There is no "holy man" or "priest." The cross has made both Jew and Gentile one, in Christ. Once this gift of God has been applied to our lives, we become one with the brothers and sisters. There is no hierarchy, no clergy-laity distinction, nothing that makes one believer in Christ better than the other. The man of God is chosen by his personal decision to receive Jesus into his life, no other way. The gospel is not just for the murderers, the prostitutes, the drug dealers, no, the gospel is for those who feel near to God, not just for those who are far away. We must receive and apply the gift of Jesus' substitutionary death on a cross to our lives. The law was never meant to save. By no means could we ever do enough good deeds to please a God who's very being is perfection. Christ set all of that aside. You are a child of the living God, a member of His Holy residence. Only by the work of Christ through the spirit can we work together to fulfill our duty as the Lord's temple. This work is never ceasing. From the day you start that relationship with the Lord and creator this work begins. As Paul writes in Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." You will be molded and sculpted into the person that you were meant to be. Your life will become more meaningful than you ever thought possible. You will begin to understand the purpose for humanity and, more applicably, the purpose of your very life.

The work is good. God is good.