Truth For Life Daily Devotions

Alistair Begg: February 12. The key to unity. "In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit." Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 22.

When someone comes to Christ by faith, the transformation of their identity is comprehensive. In the language Paul employs in Ephesians 2, the dead sinner is now alive in Christ. The child of wrath becomes a child of God.

But the new identity is not merely individual. We are not each of us alone in Christ; we are in him with all of God's people. This is why Paul, in Ephesians chapter 2, moves from our individual experience of grace to the corporate work that God's grace accomplishes.

Paul tells us, "You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." The one new man that Christ is making is gloriously crowded with fellow heirs of grace.

This is not to say that our individual human identity becomes irrelevant. Our background and our makeup, our sex, ethnicity, and personal history are not obliterated in Christ. We are who we are, made in God's image, fashioned according to his purposes. But what unifies us in Christ, our union with Christ, transcends everything else.

We must beware the temptation to forget the reason for our unity. No one is immune from turning elements of their identity into barriers—barriers of status, of color, of class, of personality type, or personal preference. As Christians, we must be prepared to acknowledge how easy it is to get this wrong.

We must be prepared, if we find ourselves guilty of such wrong, to repent from and grieve over that which displeases God.

The key to Christian unity is the Gospel. Paul recognized that only God can soften hard hearts, only God can open blind eyes, and only God can bring disparate people together and form something truly, gloriously united.

God is making one new man, and he is making that new man in his church. In Christ, God is building a holy temple that is being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. Partiality based on race, class, or status has no place in the place where God dwells by his spirit.

One day you will experience the fullness of your union with Christ and his people for eternity, but that can and should begin now. You have the privilege of fostering that unity today in the way you use your time and in the way you think of, pray for, and speak to your brothers and sisters in your church.

We are building day by day,

As the moments glide away,

Our temple, which the world may not see;

Every victory won by grace

Will be sure to find its place

In our building for eternity.

Guest (Male): Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional, copyright Alistair Begg. It's published by The Good Book Company. This reading was digitally created by Truth For Life and is used with permission. For more clear, relevant Bible teaching, visit truthforlife.org.