In Christ, redeemed mankind can boast more blessings than Adam ever had.   That is a remarkable statement.   This is what God planned for us always.   Time and time again we are told in Scripture that God has purposed grace in Christ, “from before the foundation of the world.”   Even in its fallenness, and sin, and sorrow, this world with its promise of redemption, regeneration, and renewal in Christ is the “best of all possible worlds.”   Nothing has gone amiss with God’s plan and purpose.  There is no waste, not “gratuitous evil” in God’s economy.  The world is not “off the rails.”   God’s perfect and gracious plan is unfolding, just as He intended it.  And in this we have hope.   He is the God who does all He pleases, and all He promises.  Join us as we examine Ephesians 1:3-10 and Galatians 4:4-7 and consider God’s eternal, unbreakable, and effective plan to save us from the power of our own sin. 

The first chapter of Ephesians is a literary masterpiece.   In one long breath, Paul extols the amazing beauty and richness of God’s grace to those who are ‘in Christ.’   The Ephesian church faced severe crises internally and externally.   False teaching and persecution were leading many to ‘abandon their first love.’  So, God pulls back the curtain to show them the truth of their situation ‘in Christ.’   And to drive the point home, he reminds them of what life was like outside of Christ.  And in this great contrast we find a clear and concise picture of our lost condition.

Join us this season as we walk through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Questions 19-23, and consider, ‘why and how Jesus became man in order to save us from ourselves.’  This week we begin in Ephesians 2:1-3, 12 by examining the misery of the condition into which the Fall and our own sin have brought us.