How does our individual Gospel identity shape our corporate Gospel Identity?

1. We are a connected community.

2. We are a considerate, caring community.

3. We are a compassionate community.

How does our individual Gospel identity shape our corporate Gospel Identity?

1. We are a connected community.

2. We are a considerate, caring community.

3. We are a compassionate community.

In Christ we have a fundamentally altered identity.

Walking as the Gentiles do is delusional. They are excluded from the life of God and callous.

However, this is not Jesus!

In Jesus, we walk in the reality of our new identity by taking off the new self, being renewed in the spirit, and putting on the new self.

We have all been equipped with gifts of grace so that we are all involved corporately in the building up of the body of Christ.

The results of us working together as the body of Christ are:

1. Growing deeper in faith

2. Growing up in maturity

3. Growing through the proper working of the body.

God has gifted each member of the church in such a way for promoting unity, and individual Christian maturity can only be accomplished inside unified Christian maturity. In this passage we see God's plan for implementing this unity. 

1. Christ sovereignly distributes gifts to the church.

2. Gifts are given for the equipping of every believer.

3. Every believer is to be actively involved in building up the church.

Our lives are to be the product and accurate representation of the power and purposes of God. We are to be a people striving to preserve unity because of the inherent unity of our faith, which will be accomplished by the possession of Christian virtues.

Paul's prayer at the end of chapter 3 of Ephesians contains three reminders for us.

1. The potential of redemptive work

God has unlimited ability and unlimited power, and it is the power of God working in us - our role is to submit to it.

2. The purpose of this redemptive work

God is to receive glory from and His glory is to be evident in His church and in Jesus Christ.

3. The proclamation of God's glory

To what extent is God’s glory then going to be proclaimed as God does His transforming work in our lives?

Jesus Christ died and rose again, and because of His love for us Paul shows us that we can be strengthened with power, strengthened to understand, and filled to the fullness of God.

Because of Christ we have boldness in the Gospel and access to the Father with confidence through our faith in Him.

Fully understanding what we gain with the gift of our salvation in Christ is very important. We gain our acceptance, our security, and our value.

1. In Christ we have full access to the kingdom.

2. We are held in a fortified position by our unity in Jesus.

3. Christ is forming us into a glorious temple.