Ephesians 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
I just read an article by Abigail Shrier about young people making a choice to be included in a social experiment involving gender and the treatments that follow that choice. The dangerous and unproven treatments don’t solve the problem, and are rooted in lies. She has written a book entitled Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Case Seducing Our Daughters.
Our choices make a difference in life. Some are irreversible. Some carry great weight that can’t be known when the choices are made.
Paul, the apostle, writes about the choice we make to be included “in Christ”, a phrase repeated many times in this short letter. This phrase “in Christ” and “in Him” shows us a place where the earthly differences disappear, and we can all be unified toward our common purpose.
Our text today shows us points out some of the markers along the road to being included in Christ. It starts with hearing the message of truth, that Jesus died for our sins, and that He rose again from the dead. We must hear this message, one that assumes we know we are sinners in need of a savior.
But too often today, we don’t believe we are sinners. We believe that we are basically good. I wish all those basically good people would show up sometime and fix this mess! The problem is, we aren’t basically good. We are fatally broken, dead from day one. We don’t need a little medicine to function, we need a full heart transplant.
But hearing the live giving message isn’t enough. We must believe the message for ourselves. We must see its relevance to our personal story, our own sin and need of a savior. And when we do believe the message for ourselves, then something happens. The Holy Spirit marks us.
Those of us who have had vaccines in the past have been marked. We carry around in our bodies markers that recognize viruses and gives us a head start on fighting off the invading foreign bodies. We are preprogrammed to fight when the viruses try to invade, setting off an immune response immediately.
The Holy Spirit sides in us and alerts us to invading error and pernicious sin that could take us down spiritually. He speaks to us from within, prompting us to do and avoid certain choices. His goal is to guide and direct us to live a more holy life, a life that better reflects God’s glory and purposes.
We hear the message and we respond. Then we are marked. From that point on, we have a passport that gives us access to God’s holy presence. He marks out our path with “do not enter” signs and “enter here” signs. Our journey forward becomes clearer as we follow Him faithfully.
The Arnold Journey 