The story of King Jesus is more than just a Jewish messiah, a Jewish savior coming to save one nation from an evil empire. It is about Jesus finally and perfectly doing what no one in the history of history has ever been able to do. 

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Ephesians 6:14-20 CSB

14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God. 18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.

This is Jesus.  Truth, righteousness, the good news of peace, faith, salvation, the word of God; this is Jesus. But these words should also characterize our lives by being transformed by the renewing of our minds. When we are renewed in our minds and saved, our lives should look different because Our identity is now formed with Jesus. 

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Our strength comes from our proximity to the one who is strong. It is through our relationship with the resurrected and ascended Christ that we find empowerment.

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Ephesians 5:22-33 CSB

“22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of his body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.”

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Ephesians 5:14-21

"Therefore it is said:Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 15 Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of Christ."

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Before we give our lives to Jesus, we are dead in our sins. We do whatever our flesh wants and this leads to a life of momentary excitement but ultimately pain and death and confusion. Out of that life flows depression and loneliness and anxiety and isolation from the things in life that truly matter.

But God who is rich in mercy showed us his grace by giving us what none of us deserve and gave us eternal life when we turn to and follow Jesus. This is possible only because Jesus gave himself up for us. He was perfect and innocent, yet became sin for us so that we could be made new.

As a result, we are now a new creation We are adopted into the family of God. We can have peace with God. We are chosen in Him before the foundations of the world.

What does God expect from us now? (Glad you asked) He expects us to live worthy of our calling. Our new life should reflect just that, that we are new.

But How? Ephesians 4:20-24 CSB “But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”

We take off our old life, and we put on our new life, that one that is created in the image of God, the one that looks like Jesus.

Well, what does that look like? It looks like taking off lying, and putting on truth. It looks like taking off stealing and putting on a generous heart. It looks like taking off uncontrolled anger and putting on God’s response. It looks like taking off foul language and bad jokes and putting on encouraging words. It looks like Jesus.

That’s why Paul tells us to imitate God by walking in love. Love always looks out for the best interest of others.

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Think about your current situation in your life. Are you where you wanted to be spiritually? Are you as close to Jesus as you want to be? Are you experiencing true peace on a soul level? Are you spiritually content? Or are you always in a hurry? Does peace rule your life or does anxiety?Does joy rule your life or does depression or negative thoughts? Do you find yourself regularly denying yourself or falling for temptations? Do you find yourself doing God’s will every step of the way or going on your own path? Do you find yourself becoming more like Jesus or forming your own identity?

The results you see in your life should not be a surprise.

You are living the exact life that you are practicing for. What you do shapes who you are. Your way of life reveals your habits. Everything from the shows you watch, the music you listen to, conversations you have with your friends, everything is shaping and changing who you are. So if you take a look deep into your soul and find that it is not where you want it to be, don’t be surprised. You practiced for that. You made that happen.

But that does not have to be how it always will be. You can change You can be transformed. You can have joy instead of depression You can have peace instead of worry You can react in love instead of anger All of these things are possible

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Ephesians time and time again is trying to get us to wrap our minds around our identity. As Christian’s, Our identity is no longer wrapped up in what we do, what we have, or who we hang out with. Our identity is firmly secure in Christ, so we should go back to him to find out who we are and what we are created for. And because we have a new identity, Paul is telling us to separate ourselves from the lifestyle we used to have and instead put on our new indemnity created anew in the likeness of Jesus.

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Ephesians 4:7-16

'We must believe the truth and speak the truth in love, and allow others to speak the truth into us'

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