Lord, I Want to Be a Christian
February 28, 2021
Introduction
- Today is the last lesson in our series on Ephesians.
- Depending on where we were in the series, we gave groups of messages within the series different titles.
- Today is the last message in the series. It’s titled, “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian”
- “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian” is also the title of an African-American spiritual, appropriate given that this is the final day of black history month.
- The title is also important because it distills the essence of Ephesians, which really is a brief manual on what it means to be a Christian.
- Today, I want to sum up what we’ve learned about Christianity over the course of the series and then expound on the final sections of the letter.
Review
We started our series talking about Roman family law.
- Paul used language that would have been familiar to the Ephesians.
- Family law centered on the paterfamilias (oldest male in family)
- The paterfamilias had legal ownership of everything (even wife and kids)
- The paterfamilias sought the glory of his legacy though his heirs.
- If the paterfamilias had no children or if his birth children were not worthy, he would adopt an heir.
By way of analogy, Paul presents God as our heavenly paterfamilias.
- God did not need to adopt an heir because He already had one eternally in Jesus.
- God adopted us and gave us the status of His favored Son.
In Christ we are. . .Blessed, Chosen, Predestined, Adopted, Sons, Redeemed, Forgiven, Wealthy, Wise, Heirs, Sealed, Seated, Poetry
Believe Before You Behave
Ephesians 2:8-9
Sit Before You Walk
Ephesians 2:6
Walk in a Way that is Worthy
Ephesians 4:1
A Word on Sexuality
You don’t have to be straight, cisgender or have the felt sense of being sexually binary to be a Christian.
- Straight: “ ‘straight’ means you’re attracted to the opposite sex. . .in a sexual or romantic way” (https://www.healthline.com/health/cisgender-vs-straight#straight-defined)
- Cisgender: “The prefix ‘cis’ means ‘on the same side as’. . . . people who are cisgender remain on the same side of the gender they were initially identified as at birth.”
- Binary
- Most people who have the felt sense of being sexually binary way don’t identify this way formally because they presume their sexual identities and expressions are normal.
- The term “nonbinary” can mean different things to different people. At its core, it’s used to describe someone whose gender identity isn’t exclusively male or female. (https://www.healthline.com/health/transgender/nonbinary)
Authority and Submission
(Ephesians 5:21 – Ephesians 6:9)
A word on the Roman cultural reality:
Three key relationships in Roman family life:
- Husbands and Wives
- Parents and Children
- Masters and Slaves
If you were married to a paterfamilias, you were related to your husband in three ways:
- You were a (virtual) . (Legally, you had the same status as your children)
- You were his wife.
- You were a virtual slave. (Legally, your husband owned you).
God is related to us in the same three ways:
- God is our father.
- God is our . (We are married to him, not individually, but collectively)
- God is our master.
The Divine Conspiracy
Empowerment through Submission
Take-Aways
Ephesians 6:10-18
© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2021