What is the most difficult truth in all Scriptures for us to believe?
Some might suggest the incarnation, an infinite, all-powerful God becoming a finite man. Some others might suggest the trinity: God is one, but there are three distinct persons in the Godhead. Both of these truths challenge our understanding; they are far beyond our ability to comprehend. But I would like to contend that the most difficult truth in all Scriptures for us to believe is the one we are considering this morning: You were dead in your transgressions and sins. You are by nature objects of wrath.
If your goal is to win friends and influence people, you are unlikely to go around making such statements. But as difficult as this truth may be, as unpopular as it surely is, this truth is absolutely fundamental if we are to gain:
- an understanding of human history
- an understanding of the true nature of salvation
- or an understanding of the incredible love of God.
You cannot grasp who God is, you cannot worship God for who he is, unless you understand who you are, unless you understand the true depravity of the human race. But once we accept this most difficult teaching, once we understand that there is absolutely no basis on which we can approach a perfectly holy God, then we can begin to understand the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love, we can begin to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. This most difficult truth is also one of the most important truths in all Scripture. So prepare your heart!
But to understand this passage we first need to remind ourselves of where we are in this letter. Remember that Paul writes this letter to Gentile believers in Ephesus and other towns in Asia Minor. In his opening, masterful statement in verses 3-14 of chapter 1, Paul praises God for the spiritual blessings he has lavished on all believers, both Jews and Gentiles. Throughout this sentence, Paul presents God as the actor:
- Choosing us,
- redeeming us,
- revealing mysteries to us,
- granting us an inheritance,
- sealing us.
God the Father does all this by means of, through, because of, or in Christ Jesus, and then He seals us with the Holy Spirit.
If we are chosen, redeemed, and sealed, what more could we hope for? Paul tells us this in the prayer he offers for the Ephesians in the latter half of chapter 1. We may be sealed, we may be chosen, we may be guaranteed to have a part of the summing up of all things in Christ, yet we may not know God intimately. So Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts might be enlightened so that we might know our hope, the riches of God’s inheritance in us, and the resurrection power of God that is OURS now, today.
So chapter 1 identifies these blessings of God, and tells of our glorious privileges as Christians to be a part of this body of Christ. Chapter 2 lays out two reasons why this is so amazing: First, in verses 1-10, the people chosen to receive these blessings and privileges, all of them, are by nature objects of God’s wrath, deserving punishment, not blessings. That is amazing, isn’t it? God chooses to bless in this incredible way the very men and women who deserve his condemnation.
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 