There is a question that all people have to answer at some time in their lives.
The Question: Who am I?
If we are going to really answer that question, we have to know first where we have come from.
In Ephesians 2:11-11 Paul tells us who we all once were, what changed that, who we are now, and what is no longer true of us.
Ephesians 2:11
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcised” (that done in the body by the hands of men).
We at one time were not connected to God. We had not been brought into the Kingdom of God.
We are told in 2 Peter 3:9 that God does not desire for anyone to perish. God’s desire is that all people come into His Kingdom.
Ephesians 2:12a
Remember that at that time you were separated from Christ,
We were separated from Jesus.
We had no life and no access to God the Father.
Ephesians 2:12b
Excluded from citizenship in Israel.
We were not citizens of Israel.
In Romans 9:8 Paul makes it clear that being part of Israel is not about physical descent, but of being children of the promise. It is about being spiritual descendants of Abraham.
Ephesians 2:12c
And foreigners to the covenants of the promise
We were not experiencing the covenant promises of God.
The promises of God are based in the covenants of God and the covenants of God are based in the person of God. In reality, by being foreigners to God’s covenant, we were not experiencing the presence of God.
Ephesians 2:12d
Without hope
We had no hope.
In Romans 15:13 God is described as the God of hope. If we don’t have God, we don’t have hope.
Ephesians 2:12e
And without God in the world.
We didn’t have God in our lives.
We live in a violent, evil, harsh world because the world is fallen because of sin.
If we try to live in this kind of world without backup, we will get eaten alive. That is the exact description that Satan is given in 1 Peter 5:8, a lion seeking to devour us.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is remembering who we were before Jesus.
What can possibly change those truths about us?
Ephesians 2:13
But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
The blood of Jesus has made all those things that were true of us not true of us any more and we have been brought near to God.
The word near means access. We have direct access to God the Father through the blood of Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being changed by Jesus.
We have also been given some awesome gifts through the person of Jesus.
Ephesians 2:14a
For He Himself is our peace
We have in Jesus security and rest.
Ephesians 2:14b-15
Who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace
We have unity.
We have oneness with God.
We have oneness with the Body of Christ.
Ephesians 2:16-18
And in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
We have been reconciled to God.
We have been brought into harmony with God.
We are singing the same song as God does.
We are in agreement with God.
Ephesians 2:19-20
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.
We are part of God’s family.
We have a Father, God the Father, and big Brother, Jesus, who loves us and is always with us.
Ephesians 2:21-22
In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
We have direct, intimate access to God.
We don’t have to go through any:
People
Rituals
Traditions
We only have to call to God because we are the dwelling that His Spirit lives in.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing who we are in Jesus and living out that truth.
There are three great advantages we have as people who have submitted our lives to the rule of Jesus.
We are not strangers to God; we are His children.
We have a foundation in God’s Word and Jesus that will never change.
We have the Holy Spirit living in us.
Not Who I Used to Be Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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