18 Pages

The Apostle Paul took 200 words and conveyed a life-changing, revolutionary message to the Gentile believers in Ephesians 2:11-22. On the heels of one of the most memorized passages about our salvation in Christ, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God..." (Ephesians 2:8), Paul goes into an amazing argument about where we were before Christ, what Christ did and the ramifications of his saving grace.

In my studies at Dallas Seminary I am currently taking NT104, otherwise known as Greek 4, other-otherwise known as "a beatdown," and our most recent assignment was a 20 page exegetical assignment dissecting and breaking down Ephesians 2:11-22. My paper is currently 18 pages and almost 8500 words. It took Paul 200 words to convey a life-changing message and it has taken me 8500 words to dissect it.

One of the things I remember from High School biology is that sometimes when we dissect things (frogs for instance)- it gets messy, and because we've cut things open we damage the body, maybe even forget some of the parts that we just cut, and usually someone in the class is more excited about cutting things open then actually learning something from the assignment. I've spent up to 40 hours on this assignment over the last month and feel kind of like I've dissected a frog- its messy and at times I've kind of forgotten the point of it. I talk to people in my class who are so excited about it and argue with each other over the proper interpretation of this participle or over that clause in heated debate. But what I haven't heard much of is: HOW is this life-changing? HOW do we APPLY this to our lives? I don't think Paul wrote it so we'd dissect it, he wrote it to be applied and put to use.

This passage is life-changing and eye-opening, not a frog to be dissected. I am in awe of the clarity and brevity in which Paul was able to communicate some deep issues in only 200 words. So from 18 pages to some quick life-changing applications:

- Jesus didn't just come to die for YOUR sins so YOU could go to heaven- Jesus came so that he could renew relationships both vertically (between God and humanity) and horizontally (amongst men).
- Jesus' death on the cross purchased not just our freedom but unity & peace among all people. If you are living in disunity over racial or cultural differences- you are living in opposition to what Jesus died for.
- Jesus is our peace, Jesus is our peacemaker & Jesus preached peace-   Therefore we should be peaceful amidst a violent and troublesome world, we should be peacemakers in personal and corporate conflict, and we should preach peace in all circumstances. 
- And in the end- we serve a God who dwells amongst us in the Spirit- not a high and lofty disconnected God, and not a God who is confined to a temple built by human hands- but a God humbled himself to die on the cross, and God who through the Spirit, now indwells those who have placed their faith in Christ.