You don't want to run around trying to make God like you better. If you're a Christian, he loves you totally. You couldn't be any better positionally. But oh man, when you understand positionally what you have in Christ, when you understand all these resources that you were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, when you realize that all of that is yours and that's who you are, I don't ought to do something about how you live. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You've probably read news articles about how common it is for Americans to describe themselves as middle income, even though statistically their wealth puts them in a higher category. Of course, it really doesn't matter how much or how little you have in the bank. The fact is you could be broke financially and yet have riches beyond compare. I'm talking about the treasure that's yours if you're a Christian.
the unfathomable riches available to you right now. But specifically what are those riches and how do you use them? Find out how to leverage this amazing portfolio. John MacArthur shows you how, today, on Grace to You. Here he is now to continue his study from Ephesians called Richer Than You Think.
Ephesians 1.15. This is a prayer by the Apostle Paul. It is a prayer in response to the great statement of theology in verses 3 to 14.
Now the truths in verses 3 to 14 are really beyond the possibility of the human mind to grasp. Frankly, our human mind cannot reach that deep into the truth of God. That is something we cannot do. We cannot mine that kind of truth out of our humanness. In 1 Corinthians, There is a very important text in this regard, chapter 2, verse 10.
Verse 9 we could start with, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. In other words, empiricism or experiment can't see it, eye or ear. And intuition and rationalism can't see it, neither has it entered into the heart of man. It can't be known externally. It can't be really known internally.
the things that God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things. Watch the next line. Yes, even the deep things of God.
You see, in order for us to even understand this incredible legacy that's ours in Christ, we must depend upon the Holy Spirit. For what, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 2.11, For what knoweth the things of a man except the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. In other words, we must depend upon the Spirit of God for an understanding of the deep things of God. And believe me, Ephesians 1:3 to 14 are the deep things of God.
Tremendous truths. Deep truths. that our human mind cannot conceive.
So Having delineated something of these truths that are ours in Christ, Paul then moves to pray for us that we would understand these truths. It doesn't do any good to know them if we don't understand them. Because if we don't understand them, we can't live them. See?
So In chapter 1, Paul begins with describing our position in Christ. Then he prays that we'll understand it. In chapter 2, Paul describes our position in Christ. Then in chapter 3 again, he prays that we'll understand it. Finally, in chapter 4, he says, Now that you've got it and you understand it, here's how to live it.
So twice he describes the believer's position. Chapter 1, chapter 2. Twice he prays that we'll understand it. Chapter 1 and chapter 3. Finally, in chapter 4, he says, Now that you've got a grip on it, live it.
Now the point is this, people, you cannot live what you do not what? Understand. Understand. You can't live it. You cannot function on principles you don't know.
No Christian has ever yet lived the Christian life who didn't know what it was. You gotta have it. You Christians all over the place are frustrated no end, trying to live a life that's never been defined for them. And Paul knows, as a man of God, that it is not just a case of telling people, you've got to pray that God will energize the information.
Now, I believe that that's why in Acts 6. The Bible says that the apostles said, We will give ourselves continually to the ministry of the word and prayer. Why? Because the ministry of the word must be energized by the Spirit of God, and that is sought in intercessory prayer on behalf of the people. I don't think that the man of God's job is just to pray for the broken legs and the broken arms and the bad backs and the diseases of his people.
I think he is to pray that they, as it says in verse 17, would receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened, that they would know what is the hope of their calling. It's not enough just to teach. It must be taught and then prayed in, as it were, by the energy of the Spirit of God released as a response to intercessory prayer.
Now What really is going on here is simply this then. Paul is describing our position and praying we'll understand it before he tells us how to live it. In chapter 4.
Now knowing your position is important. You know, if you take a new job, usually at some point they give you a description of what you're supposed to do. Same thing is true in athletics. As a former athlete, one of the things that I can remember coach after coach talking to me about was my position. And I had to learn my position before I could play it.
I remember when I was in college, we had a great athlete on our football team. The guy was just physically super quick, fast, tremendously strong, really could pump weights, and very, very, very aggressive. You know, the kind of a guy that you could get in the locker room to go full blast and put his head into a locker. You know, just that kind of a guy. Just, you know.
Well, that used to be a big thing when I was in college. See if you could find the space between the two by fours on the plaster wall and put your head through it, you know. Those were not the Phi Beta Kappa athletes, incidentally. But anyway. That was part of it, see?
Well, so Kurt was this guy's name, and I mean he was tough as nails. And they decided to make him a middle linebacker. That's what he'd been in high school. And of course, he was all over the place. When you get to college, he gets a little more sophisticated, and you can't run amok.
And so they tried to design for Kurt some limitations to what he could do.
Now, the idea was, you got this much territory, this is your position.
Now, stay there. Because when you leave there, we're in trouble. But invariably what would happen Was that the quarterback would make a fake somewhere, and Kurt would be long gone after the first fake. The counter would come back and goodbye because nobody was home where Kurt was supposed to be.
Well, this went on for about four games, and finally, this guy, who was probably the best athlete we had on the team, wound up on the bench because he couldn't play his position.
Now, this is just part of it. In anything you do, you're given an assignment, the parameters are defined, and you're asked to fulfill those. Number one, you must hear the definition of it. Number two, you must understand it, then you can do it. But you can't do it without the first two.
Same thing is true of the Christian. You can't just try to get people to behave in a certain manner unless they understand the parameters and definition of what it is that they're asked to do. And yet, you know, it's a sad thing, but it's true. Church after church after church after church, people will get up and they'll tell people what to do, but they never give them the parameters or an understanding of what it is that they're really doing. You know, you get up and you exhort people to live the Christian life and do what's right and live for God and get dedicated, consecrated, irrigated, whatever it is, and, you know.
Goes on and on. And trying to get them to live it up, and you really are working on them from the standpoint of sort of a halftime pep talk every Sunday to try to jack them up again and get them rolling, see? Or else you put them under a guilt trip and they begin to feel like they're just really, they gotta do this, or God is gonna be right on them. See?
And so they get to feel guilty, or you intimidate them, or there's a certain peer pressure exerted on them, and if they don't function, they're not one of the in-groups. And all of this bypasses the real motive for living the Christian life. The real guts of it, the real heart of it, the real base of it is simply understanding who you are in Christ. That's the base. Knowing your position.
I remember as a little kid. that people were always reminding me who I was because my father was a preacher. And my father was one who was also always reminding me who I was. Because he felt that I should live in a certain manner so that it wouldn't reflect on his ministry. And I had some trouble with that because I was kind of a rambunctious little guy.
And I remember, well, there's a lot of things I remember. I'm not going to go into all of them, but I can think of a couple of things. When I was a relicant, I used to tell stories sometimes. I remember one thing my dad, I bit for a while when I was little. I bit other little kids.
And um I don't know what I was lashing out at, but my father finally put a sign around my neck: do not play with me, I bite. And I had to. Yeah. I wore that sign every day for a week and never bit another kid. It worked.
He was very concerned that I live up to the standard that he had set. See, I'm just like the rest of you, right? But I remember one time I got into a situation where I was prone to tell fibs. And I could make up some really good ones. And I remember in the second grade, I told my teacher that my dad was chopping wood and he chopped off his legs.
And uh In fact, I carried it on day after day. I had the teacher really concerned, and so forth, and so on. I was giving him a day-by-day description of the hospital and how everything was going. And we had an open house at the end of the week, which I hadn't forgotten about, and my father came. The teacher looked at my father and said, Oh, Reverend MacArthur, you're doing so well.
He said, huh? And there were several things in my life. I remember one time when I did something very bad and I wound up in deep, deep trouble. And my mother said to me, Don't you know who you are? Don't you know who you are?
Don't you know what that does to your father? And his ministry and so forth and so on.
Well, you know, in a sense, that was okay. I mean, you say, well, you shouldn't scold a kid on that basis. Yeah, it's all right to do that, I think. We do have a certain responsibility to honor our parents, that's biblical. But you know, I always think back on that, and I think about the fact that, by the way, I don't do those things anymore, just want you to know that.
But I. But I just think back about the fact that, you know, that's a great basis for a Christian life. You know, I am who I am in Christ, therefore I behave the way I behave. See?
This is basic to Christianity. You must understand who you are in Christ. That and that alone is the foundation upon which you operate. And if all you do is just get in the pulpit, or all you do is just try to challenge yourself to live the Christian life, whimsically beating yourself sort of into it emotionally, you're going to miss it. You've got to understand the foundation principles.
This is who I am. This is my position. This is my understanding of it. And Paul is praying, oh God, may they deeply understand who they are. May they get a grip on this incredible reality that they are one with the eternal God through Christ.
That all of the blessings of the heavenlies are theirs. That this is the standard of their existence forever. And may they live like it, see? That's what he's after. And so I tell pastors all the time, man, when you get into the pulpit, teach positional truth.
Teach people what their position in Christ is. Then tell them how to act. If they don't know who they are, they don't know why they ought to act that way.
So important. Position and practice.
Now, you have to make a distinction in all of your study of the Bible between those two things. People who don't distinguish between those two things really get confused. If you don't understand what statements in the Bible are positional and what are practical, or what deal with your standing before God and what deal with your experience, you'll never interpret the Bible right. For example, In one passage in the Bible, it simply says this, Now you are holy. You say me?
That's right. You're holy. In another verse, it says to the very same people, cleanse yourselves from all filthiness.
Now wait a minute. You just said we're holy, and now you say cleanse yourselves from filthiness. But you see, if you don't know the difference, you're going to go like this and think in one minute you're holy, and one minute you're filthy. The fact of the matter is, you're holy in your position before God and Christ, and you're not in your practice.
So, that this is the way the Christian life goes. Here is your position in Christ: perfect holiness, perfect righteousness, one with Christ, an eternal, unchanging, invariable reality. But your practice is down here, and the Christian life is making your practice equal your what? Your position. That's it.
That's it. It's making your practice equal your position.
Now the Apostle Paul Wants us to understand our position because he knows that unless we do, we're not going to have the right motive to live the life. I'm a child of the king. I am one with Jesus Christ. He lives in me and through me.
Now, that demands out of me a certain kind of behavior, right? That's the essence of his thought.
So, he has shared in the first 14 verses the great, deep, rich truths of what is ours in Christ, and now he prays that we would understand it. He prays that we would get a grip on it. And people, I want you to understand this. Christian growth has nothing, I'll say it again, Christian growth has nothing to do with your position in Christ. Nothing.
When you were saved, you were in Christ. How much of your sin was forgiven? All. You receive eternal life. You're made perfect.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you. God sees you as absolutely perfect and righteous. That's your position. Christian growth has nothing to do with it. But your practice is where the growth comes.
I've often said that the Christian life Is the process, watch this, of becoming what you are.
Okay. becoming what you are.
Now let me illustrate for a minute. There are a lot of people who think. That Christian growth, like when you grow and mature as a Christian and you develop, makes God like you better. You know, we're kind of like this, we're this way humanly. You know, we say to our kids now and then.
Well, mommy won't love you if you do that.
Well, I'll like you a lot better if you do this. God is not like mommy. What you do or don't do has absolutely no effect. on your position. Before God, you can't do anything to make Him like you better.
You can't do anything to make Him like you less because He loves you totally and perfectly in Christ, right? You can't do anything to make him forgive you more or less. He forgave you already everything. You can't do anything to earn more salvation or to give up some of it. You can't do that because you already have it total and complete.
There's no more or no less. You see, positionally, it's all yours. You are already accepted in the beloved one, verse 6 says of chapter 1. Already. We're already in God's favor.
We're already in God's grace. For Christ's sake, everything is settled. We are one with Christ, He sees us just as He sees Jesus Christ. Nothing you do can increase you in God's favor. Nothing you do can decrease you in God's favor positionally.
Your standing is perfect. Colossians 2.10 says, and you are. R. complete in him. Hebrews 10 says, and he has perfected you forever by the one offering of Jesus Christ, positionally perfect, positionally complete.
2 Peter 1, he says that you have been made a partaker of the divine nature. Perfection again. Positionally, you're in Christ. He doesn't see you anymore as an individual in that sense. He sees you in Christ with His righteousness.
You are a partaker of the divine nature. Peter says, You have all things that pertain to life and godliness. You have received great and precious promises. But then Peter goes on in 2 Peter 1, verse 4, to say, verse 5: Now that you have that position, here's how to match up your practice. Add to your faith, virtue, to your virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, patience, to patience, so forth, goodness, to goodness, brotherly love, to brotherly love, kindness, etc.
In other words, he's saying now get your practice moving toward your position. This is who you are. This is how you act like it. You know, it's kind of like the difference between a baby and a polywog. You know, when I was a little kid and you were too, you used to collect polywogs.
And a polywog was a little blob with a tail. And you'd get a little polywog in a coffee can or something or a jar, and you'd watch that little polywog, and you'd drop in some grass or something, and pretty soon that little polywog would spoil, and a couple of legs would come out in the back, right? And a little while later, you didn't have a polywork.
Something else would pop out of the front, and pretty soon you had a frog. But babies aren't like that. When a baby's born into the world, it's not a blob with a tail. And you don't wait three months and boing, boing, two legs pop out. A little later, little arms.
Oh, Ethel, he's growing an ear finally. No. Doesn't happen.
Now, the difference is this: when a baby comes into the world, it has all the parts. It's perfect, it just needs to grow, right? Same thing is true of a Christian. When you were born into the family of God, you were not a spiritual polywag. You weren't incomplete.
You are complete. You are all there, all the parts, totally, completely there. It was simply a matter of maturing. And that's the way it is spiritually. What the preacher says in Ecclesiastes 3:14 is dead right.
He was right on center when he said it. He said, I know this: that whatsoever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. He was dead right. When God does a work of salvation, it's a total thing.
It's complete. And you're perfect before God. And it's just a matter of growing. to match your practice to your position. Just like that little baby learns to use all of those facilities and resources that are that baby's at birth.
So instead of seeking more favor with God, Instead of trying to make God like us better, instead of trying to be more fit for heaven, we should just thank God who has already made us, Colossians 1:12, listen to this. He has already made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. You're already fit for it. Nothing you do would make him like you better. He loves you so much already, it's impossible to love you more.
So Christian growth has nothing to do with your position, it has only to do with your practice. And you need to understand that. And you don't want to run around trying to make God like you better. If you're a Christian, he loves you totally. You couldn't be any better positionally.
But oh man, when you understand positionally what you have in Christ, when you understand all these resources, that you were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, that you were redeemed and your sins were forgiven, and he has granted to you to be a part of his eternal plan and to call you into that great unity with which the whole universe ultimately ends up. When you realize that this inheritance is planned for you, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, when you realize that all these things are yours in Christ, that you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. When you realize that all of that is yours and that's who you are, I don't do something about how you live. Really should. And that's the bottom line.
You cannot exhort people to a certain behavior unless they understand who they are. And so Paul here is praying. that we and the Ephesians will understand. Constant exhortation without theology just brings people under guilt. It doesn't.
Motivate them.
So the mature Christian understands his privileges, his possessions, checks out his resources. lives consistent with who he is. In fact, over in chapter 4, verse 1. Paul says, I therefore The prisoner of the Lord beseech you, now watch, that you walk worthy of the vocation to which you are called. He has spent three chapters, now watch me, three chapters describing the calling, and now he says, Therefore, here is how you live.
That's a principle all through the New Testament. All through the New Testament. You go into the book of Romans, you've got 11 chapters of theology, and then in chapter 12, therefore, here is how you live. In Galatians, you've got four chapters of theology, finally, chapter five. Therefore, here is how you live.
Colossians, the first section, theology, therefore, here is how you live. That's the way it always is in the New Testament. Because position is the predicate, the basis. on which practice. is built.
Now let's look at his prayer then. Wherefore I also After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you. Making mention of you in my prayers. Stop there.
Now, in this, he just introduces to us the idea that he is praying. Wherefore, it takes us back on the basis of this tremendous inheritance that we have in Christ. I pray for you. And he says, I pray for you because I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all saints. You say, well, what does that have to do with his prayer?
Just this. Those two things are the indicators that their salvation was genuine. He says, I hear you have the two things that prove true salvation: faith in the Lord Jesus and love to all the saints.
Now, how did Paul hear this? It had been four years about since he had ministered in Ephesus. But sea travel was relatively easy in those days. Because of the ships and so forth. And so there was great accessibility to that little small part of the world around the north and west part of the Mediterranean.
And additionally, there was a liberty that Paul enjoyed even while he was a prisoner, and that was that they allowed people to come and visit him.
So there was a constant flow of Christians, no doubt, coming in and out of Paul's life. And they would be bringing him reports. And as I told you when we first studied the beginning of Ephesians, this letter was not only written to Ephesians, but no doubt all the churches of Asia Minor. And so it's probably that he has in his mind. He says: Of all of you churches in Asia Minor, I have been hearing about you.
People visiting, coming by ship, perhaps walking on some of the great Roman highways that would give them access to Paul's location. And so Paul says, I've been hearing good things. In fact, I hear two things. I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints. And those, beloved, are the cardinal things.
Those are the basic aspects of a true Christian. A true Christian is marked by faith in the Lord Jesus, which gives evidence of itself in love toward all saints. In fact, in 1 John chapter 2 and verses 9 to 11, it says there: If you claim to have saving faith and hate your brother, you're a liar. Those two go together. By this will all men know you're my disciples, John 13 says, if you have love one for another.
And love, as we've defined it so many times, is sacrificial selflessness. Serving others sacrificially, unselfishly. True faith always springs. into love.
So he says, I've heard about it. It's genuine. I see it. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is titled Richer Than You Think.
Now, back to a point John made a moment ago. He said, the Christian life is predicated on what you know. In other words, our walk with Christ never really rises above what we know of His Word. Of course, that gives a whole new sense of urgency to what Grace TU is doing on a daily basis in this community every day, putting God's Word into the hands of people. And that ministry is made possible because of the faithful support of friends like you.
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Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to U television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378, and then be back next week as John MacArthur continues his encouraging study called Richer Than You Think. It's another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on Monday's Grace to You.
