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Colin Smith: What happened when you became a Christian? What happened? If we underestimate the human problem, we will miss the full extent of what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, because shallow views of sin do lead to shallow views of salvation.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, I think what we just heard is really insightful. Shallow views of sin leads to a shallow view of salvation.

Colin Smith: Yeah, it's easy to get the idea that sin simply means there are things I've done wrong that I need to be forgiven for. And And so salvation then becomes well, God must forgive me. Well, of course that is true. We need to be forgiven, but it's so much more than that. Sin is a power. It gets a grip of a human life. There's a whole deliverance and a change that needs to take place. That's very a different matter.

Steve Hiller: And I think some of us have this idea that when we become Christians, this change that needs to take place is things like, well, I need to start going to church and I need to start reading my Bible and I need to start praying. There's so much more than that.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and and then the Christian life becomes something that I'm doing for God. You know, I now have this list of things that I've built into my life. And actually, salvation is about what God does for us. And so the Bible is constantly speaking about God giving you life, God imparting power, God securing heaven, God saving you, giving you faith. So um there is this mighty deliverance that's going on in salvation in which God is actually stepping in to a real person's life.

Steve Hiller: And many of us may feel like we need to make these changes and do these things because we ought to, we have to, we owe God something now. But what is ultimately behind these things for the Christian?

Colin Smith: Well, this is how the Christian life is a response to grace. It's not simply a bunch of rules and things that I got to add into my life. It is God working in my life so that I come to love what I used to hate, hate what I used to love, and then begin to move in a different direction because I've become a different person.

Steve Hiller: Well, we're going to continue to look at what it means to become a different person. We're in Ephesians chapter two. Hope you open your Bible and join us there as we begin a message entitled what happened when you became a Christian? Here's Pastor Colin Smith.

Colin Smith: We begin today by looking at this question, what happened when you became a Christian? What happened? And I want you to see today. I hope this will become clear that if we underestimate the human problem, we will miss the full extent of what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, because shallow views of sin do lead to shallow views of salvation. But when you grasp the extent of the human problem, as we tried to do from Ephesians over these last weeks, when you see that the human condition is to be dead towards God, spiritually dead and pulled along by the sinful nature and under the wrath of God, when you really take in what that means, then your eyes begin to open to the weight and to the wonder of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

That 's why the first stage of the triathlon has been so important to get a proper grasp of the extent of our problem so that we may be able to see the glory of our salvation in Jesus Christ. So I've been looking forward to inviting you to get on the bike this morning for the second stage of our journey. And it's actually quite a good analogy because the swim you progress rather slowly. The bike you move much more rapidly. And today we're going to as it were cycle past some of the most marvelous views that a person can gain of God's love for us in Jesus Christ.

So I hope that you will have your Bible open at Ephesians chapter two, beginning at verse four. You notice there that it says because of his great love for us. Pause. In other words, everything that follows now is a display of God's love. We're going to take in seven glimpses of the love of God. We're going to see what actually happened when you became a believer. What happens whenever a person becomes a true Christian, a believer in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I don't often encourage folks to take notes, but just these seven headings that come directly out of these verses of scripture may be worth just noting down and maybe keeping in your Bible or some other place as a reminder to you of what happened when you became a Christian.

What God has done for you in Jesus Christ, because it is absolutely glorious. So here we go then. What happened when you became a Christian? Number one, God gave life to you. Verse five, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. Once you've seen what it means to be dead towards God, then you have a whole new glimpse of this miracle by which he has made us alive with Jesus Christ. You were dead towards God, Paul is saying. But life came to you. It didn't come from you.

How could it come from you if you were dead? No, nothing in you was reaching out towards God. God reached out to you and he created within your soul what did not exist there before. This is wonderful. God created new affections within your soul. You began to love God. You began to have a hunger and a thirst and a desire for God. God created new convictions within your mind. You began to trust him. You became aware of your sin. You were drawn to Jesus in a way that was not so before. You saw a beauty in him that you did not see before.

And new desires were created within your will. You became dissatisfied with the way that you were living. You wanted to be clean. You were done with living for yourself. You You saw that it was a shallow thing to live for your own comfort and for your own pleasure. And you began to feel that the greatest thing that you could do with your life is lay it fully and unconditionally at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. All this you experienced and all this God did. What an amazing transformation that was. You used to feel that God was against you, but you came to know that he was for you.

Your old instinct was to hide from God and always to retreat from him. Now you find yourself moving towards him and seeking him. There was a new hunger and a new thirst that was in your soul. Something that was not there before was becoming alive. You wanted more of him in your life and you wanted him to have more of you as well. It was for you as if you were awakening from a deep sleep and rubbing your eyes. You were saying, well, now what have I been thinking about all these years? What have I been doing?

How could I have lived so long and completely missed the point of what life is really all about and who it is for? And this wonderful miracle of grace that happened in the experience of every Christian. And we reflect it in one of the songs we sing here. I was blinded by my sin. I had no ears to hear your voice, did not know your love within. I had no taste for heaven's joys. But then your spirit gave me life. Opened up your word to me by the gospel of your son gave me endless hope and peace.

What happened when you became a Christian? God gave life to you. Second, what happened when you became a Christian? God imparted power to you. Notice what he says in verse six. God raised us up with Christ. Now something new is being added to being made alive here. What is added to made alive by this specific reference to being raised up? I think it is this that raised up speaks not only of life but also of action. When Jesus was raised from the dead, he did things. He moved, he walked, he talked, he engaged with his disciples.

He met with them. He forgave them. He restored them. He commissioned them. It's all action from the living Lord Jesus Christ. He's raised up. He does not only have life, but he has the ability to do things as the reigning Lord. And this is a wonderful thing that new ability, new capacity to act is given to the Christian believer in the very act of becoming a Christian. This is the gift of God. See, think about this. Becoming a Christian is more than a change of direction. It is a change of direction, but it's more than that.

See, let me give you an example of a change of direction. Suppose a man has an ability to make lots of money and he makes lots of money and he basically amasses it for himself. And then he has a change of mind and heart. He sees the needs of others and he decides that he's going to now use his ability to make a lot of money for the benefit of orphans. So now he makes a lot of money. He uses the same ability and he gives it all to the benefit of orphans and and so forth and so on.

Now that is a radical and a wonderful change of direction. But there is no change of ability. There is no change of capacity. He's merely he had a certain gift and he used it this way. Now he's turned direction and he takes that same gift, that same capacity and he moves it in another direction. That's a wonderful thing. But to become a Christian is much more than that. It's not just I used to be going this way and now I'm going that way. It's more than that. You see, what Paul is saying here about being dead and being raised clearly means that you are put in a different position and given capacity that you did not have before.

Now that friends is of huge importance. Paul says we are risen with Christ. He's saying that gives you the ability to act in a way that you did not have it before. You are no longer a slave to sin. You no longer need to be pushed around by the sinful nature as you were before. Take this in today. God has imparted power to you. The Holy Spirit lives within you. All we're going to see in this series that you face many battles, but the reason you're able to face them is that you have the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit of God within you that puts you in an entirely different position.

You did not have the spirit of God before. You do have the spirit of God now. Raised. So the Christian not only is a person who has changed direction, that's true. But the Christian is a person who is in an entirely different position. He has the spirit of God. So I've told you before uh how many times I've been in a conversation where someone has said to me, oh, this temptation is just it's just too strong for me. It's just too powerful for me. It's much bigger than I am. And I say to that person, well, let's pray together.

Let me lead you to Christ so you can become a Christian. And then the guy says, oh, you don't understand. I'm a Christian pastor. I've been a Christian for 20 years and I'm a member of the church. I say, well, now wait a minute. If you are a Christian, the spirit of God lives within you. And if the spirit of God lives within you, how are you saying here that this temptation is bigger? It may be bigger than you as you were, but are you telling me that it is bigger than the spirit of God who lives within you?

Then you can face this. It may be the fight of your life. You may fail many, many times, but don't repeat the devil's lies that this temptation is bigger than you are if Christ lives within you. You can go into this week and you can say because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. That's what a Christian can say.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called what happened when you became a Christian? It's part of our series called the Inside Story of the Christian Life. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. You can also listen through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store. Both the website and the app are great ways to stay connected to Pastor Colin's teaching when you're on the go. Well, if you joined us a little bit late, we're in the book of James, chapter one.

Let's get back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So what happened when you became a Christian? I I'm going to ask you to search your own life in the light of this, to to ask the question, am I then a Christian? God gave life to you. God imparted power to you. Wonderful. Wonderful. That's your hope this week, whatever you're facing. Third, God secured heaven for you. Look at verse six. God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. What an amazing statement. Now taking your place in heaven is obviously something that belongs to the future, but God speaks about it here clearly as something that is already happened.

What does this mean? Well, it means this that everything that needs to be accomplished for your entrance into heaven has already been done by Jesus Christ. This is wonderful good news. Christian, your entrance into heaven on the day that you die or on the day that the Lord Jesus comes, it does not depend on your performance in the Christian life. It does depend on the completed work of Jesus in his death and resurrection for you. And Paul says very wonderfully here that God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

You see, when you come into this living union with Jesus Christ through the bond of faith, there is a real sense in which because Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father and you're in him and he is in you, there is a real sense in which you are already there. You're there in him and he is there for you. And of course the joy of heaven is that the Lord Jesus Christ is there. And our foretaste of heaven is that even in this world with all of its difficulties, the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit is here.

He's present with you by his spirit. He's with you in everything that you face. I love the fact that it says here that the Christ is seated in the heavenly realms and that we are seated with him. And if you remember in the Old Testament before Jesus came, the priests served in a room in in the temple. And before that in an area of the tent structure in the tabernacle. And before Christ came, they served in an area where there was a table, there was a lampstand and there was a basin and no chair. Think about that.

A room where there's a table for eating and there is a basin for washing and there is a lampstand for lighting and no chair. The temple featured a chairless room. And the chairless room was a statement, because people sit down when their work is done. And before Christ came, the work of the priests was never done. Another sacrifice always had to be made. Another confession always had to be heard. Another offering always had to be given. But then the Lord Jesus Christ came as the sacrifice and as the offering. He lived and then laid down the perfect life.

Then he took it up again. And rising, he then ascended to the right hand of the Father. And when he arrived there, what did he do? He sat down. That's telling us something of huge importance. No priest could ever do this, but Jesus, our great high priest, did. Why? Because he says, I go to prepare a place for you and that work is done. It's been done by his dying on the cross, his rising from the dead. And at the right hand of the Father, there he intercedes for us. Your Jesus is there and that's the security of heaven for you.

So what happened when you became a Christian? God gave life to you. God imparted power to you. Christ secured heaven for you. Here's the fourth thing. God showered grace on you. God showered grace on you. Verse five, it is by grace that you have been saved. And you see, it's so important that he repeats it absolutely again in just a couple of verses later, verse eight. It is by grace that you have been saved. Then in verse seven, he goes at it again. He says he speaks about the incomparable riches of God's grace that are expressed to us in his kindness in Christ Jesus.

The incomparable riches of his grace. That word that's translated incomparable is a combination of two words, one that means throwing out and the other that means over the top. It's the word from which we get our word hyper. And over the top throwing out of grace. Isn't that beautiful? And indeed God's grace is over the top, isn't it? That it would come to us who were his enemies, making us his friends, that it would come to us who were dead in our slavery to the sinful nature. And that while we were still sinners, Christ should die for us, it would come at the infinite expense of the son of God taking flesh himself.

The over the top distribution of God's unmerited free favor. And it's yours. If you are in Jesus Christ, by whom all these things come to us, what happened when you became a Christian? God gave life to you. God imparted power to you. God secured heaven for you. God showered grace on you. And grace means that which is unmerited, unearned, undeserved. Number five, God saved you. It is by grace that you have been saved. Wonderful word. And he repeats it not only in verse five, but also in verse eight. The same words, it is by grace that you have been saved.

Now that word gets tripped around a lot in our culture, doesn't it? Saved. And sometimes it can lose its meaning. Saved from what? Well, saved from everything that we were learning about in verses one to three, saved from spiritual death, saved from being dragged around by the sinful nature, saved supremely from the fearsome prospect that hung over you and me of an eternity under the wrath of God. You've been saved from that, saved from that. Divine wrath burned itself out on Jesus Christ at the cross as far as you are concerned if you are in him today.

That is glorious. You will never know what it is like. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Steve Hiller: Unfortunately, we do have to pause the message right here, but a great look at what happened when you became a Christian. We began to look at a sevenfold description of how God gave his life to you, imparted power to you, secured heaven for you. Just three of the things that have happened. And we're going to continue to work our way through the sevenfold description next time here on Open the Bible Weekend. But if you know you can't be by your radio for our next program, you can always be listening online. Our website is openthebible.org. Another way to listen is through the Open the Bible app.

Both are great ways to stay connected and listening when it fits your schedule. Well, Open the Bible is listener supported. It's your generosity that allows us to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching whether you listen on the radio, online, through the app or any other way you've connected with this ministry. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Tim Keller's book called What is Wrong with the World? And Colin, what's one thing that you'd like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, there are so many things. I found it to be compelling and a marvelous read and a really easy read. But you've asked me for one thing. I think I'd go for the chapter that Keller has written on true repentance. It's marvelous. It's pure gold. He says that he became a believer in 1970 and for some time made little or no progress in his Christian life that he wasn't really seeing the change that he thought. And And he comes to the startling conclusion. After a period of time, he concluded the problem was I didn't know how to repent.

And so he gets into what it really means to repent. It is so foundational. You think that everyone knows what this is, but actually that's not the case. And he gets into speaking about how we need to see our sin, how we need to confess our sin, how we need to mourn our sin and then how we need to hate our sin and how real change follows genuine repentance. And he makes the point that's pretty challenging stuff. If there's not significant change happening in your life, perhaps the root cause is that you've not really understood what it means to actually repent.

So here's a book that tells us what sin is, how it operates in the life of a person and what we can do about it. It leads us to God's marvelous grace, which of course is found as we draw near to him in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in repentance. So I think it would be really helpful, really practical and commend it to everyone to read.

Steve Hiller: Well, I look forward to reading that chapter myself, but we'd love to send you a copy of this book, What is Wrong with the World? as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. Give online at openthebible.org or over the phone when you call one 877 673 6365. Again, that's openthebible.org or one 877 open 365. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time. Open the Bible Weekend is a listener supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in. Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you.

They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children. And where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.