New Armor for Battle

May 31, 2009


Background Scripture: Ephesians 6:10 – 18
Lesson Passage: Ephesians 6:10 – 18

Today, there is much said about cyberspace and the possibilities of harm being done on a massive scale by terrorists that might attack computer driven enterprises around the world. These enterprises range from those with heavy individual consequences such as personal identity theft to international concerns about national militaries that are subject to be compromised by the new techno-terrorists. One conclusion that is constantly brought to the forefront of the discussion is that conventional anti-terrorists methods are insufficient and ineffective to protect against the many threats that exist in cyberspace. There is worldwide large scale development underway even now to find methods to counter these perceived as well as already demonstrated threats. Cyberspace is a very new reality and systemic of a society that has become heavily dependent on information technology to function.

Christians are also confronted with a new reality. We are beings that have been made spiritually alive through Jesus Christ. Our spiritual life is fraught with the possibilities of harm being done on a massive scale by spiritual beings that we are unfamiliar with. Our old methods of dealing with physical threats are insufficient and ineffective to protect us from the many threats that exist spiritually. Our lesson today shares with us some very good news. We don’t have to start a large scale development to find spiritual solutions to these threats. God provides us with all of the protective armor and weapons we need to be successful. This armor and weapons have been proven to be effective in spiritual warfare. We are admonished to take all of these spiritual tools, the whole armor, and use them for our benefit and protection. They come with a warning that the enemy we fight is very different from us. Spiritual enemies are not flesh and blood. That quickly eliminates using our “five senses” to aid us. Our hearing of God’s word is used to give us faith and faith is used instead of sight to guide our movement. When one examines the armor, it can be noted that the armor is what should constitute the character of a Christian. This includes truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, and salvation. If these principles of character are missing or violated, the person is exposed to spiritual harm. The Christian’s weapon is the word of God—the sword of the Spirit. As with any weapon, care should be exercised in its use to avoid unintended harm or collateral damage. All of these address the individual saint. It is not enough to simply be one in the number but each saint must be equipped to be capable of fighting the good fight of faith. The fight is made universal for all saints through prayer and supplication. The Christian’s strength and power come from God. The saints are successful in spiritual warfare because of the power of God working in their lives. We have new armor because this is for us a very new fight. However, the warfare itself is as old as time and the armor is battle tested and proven.

Robert C. Hudson
May 21, 2009

New Life in the Home

May 24, 2009

Background Scripture: Ephesians 5:1 – 6:4
Lesson Passage: Ephesians 5:21 – 6:4

Where exactly does “the rubber meet the road”? This phrase is often used to indicate the point of significance that should matter the most. When we think of religion, “Where does the rubber meet the road?” I believe religion matters the most when religious conviction effects a change in the believer. A change of this significance should be the most obvious to those who know us best. This places a person’s home at the top of the list. Those who live with us out of the public’s view know us on a different level. This is not to suggest that they are the most sensitive to characteristics of our personality but they are the ones exposed to those characteristics in their unrefined state. This statement could probably use a little additional clarification. When we are not dressed up and trying to remember to say “amen” or “praise God” as signs that we agree with statements, we are more likely to live as we are and not as we hope to be. How we are to be is prescribed in the text of our lesson today. With what we have discussed in the three previous lessons concerning new family, new works, and a new message, today we add a discussion concerning relationships in the home. All of this is brought about because of what God has done through Jesus Christ. The more the mystery of God unfolds the more newness we behold. God did not simply clean up the old but he is, in fact, bringing about the new. The newness in individuals begins on the inside and works its way to the outside. We refer to this process as sanctification. Unlike justification which is a once for all times act of God on behalf of and in the individual, sanctification is a spiritual evolutionary process. Through sanctification, Christians are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. It is this transformation that leads to changes in personal relationships for the individual. Ultimately, it will show up in the home life of Christians. The new relationships in the home will transform the environment into one that conforms to God’s will. And what is God’s will for the home? That it be a physical model of the spiritual union between Christ and the church. Husbands should be imitators or emulators of Jesus in their love for their wives. Wives should reverently be in subjection to the leadership or headship of her husband as the church is to Christ. Their children should reflect honor for them as Christians should reflect honor for Christ and the church. Fathers should raise their children in the nurture and admonition of Christ. This description of relationships could easily cause one to believe that the relationship between Christ and the church is modeled after the family. However, a review of Chapter 1 of Ephesians will show that the church was indeed ordained of God before the foundation of the world and therefore it is the family that is modeled after the relationship between Christ and the church. So as far as religion is concerned, the home really is the beginning of “where the rubber meets the road”.


Robert C. Hudson
May 18, 2009

New Message from God

May 17, 2009

Background Scripture: Ephesians 3:1 – 13
Lesson Passage: Ephesians 3:1 – 13

The message of our lesson today is not new; the message is older than time—in fact, it is eternal but the revealing of the message at this time is new. This revelation of God’s purpose in Jesus made known by the Holy Ghost breaks God’s eternal silence concerning what he purposed before the world was created. The Holy Ghost, acting as agent for Jesus Christ, is a revealer of the mysteries of God. Jesus spoke of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Truth. He declared to his disciples that the Holy Ghost would guide them into all truth. The message in today’s lesson is one of those previously unrevealed truths that were hidden in God before the world was formed. The message is that both Gentiles and Jews are a part of the same body and both share equally the promised blessings of God in Jesus Christ. The Jews were privy to some of this knowledge through the many covenants God made with their Hebrew forefathers. The mystery unknown to the Jews included Jesus in his two advents, the church age, and the inclusion of the Gentiles as fellow heirs.

The church is God’s wisdom on display for the heavenly host. How can a holy God commune with those who by their very nature are unholy? Although we were conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, yet because of our faith in Jesus Christ, God grants us access into his holy presence. We cannot imagine the depths of this mystery. We are still amazed at God’s salvation by grace. We can comprehend individually that God’s grace has overextended all that we once considered reasonable. This is made clear just by considering ourselves as the object of God’s grace. Who among us truly deserved to be saved? All are guilty before God. Yet, God saved us and made us a part of his divine family. That is well beyond reasonable considering what we deserved. The church, then, must be an even more astounding revelation for spiritual creatures who have known God in his holiness for an eternity already. How is this mysterious wisdom of God comprehended by cherubim and seraphim or archangels or demons? God’s wisdom is revealed through the church. Spiritual beings can behold the richness of God’s wisdom by observing God’s grace on display in the church by Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, God has both executed divine justice against sin and rescued the condemned sinner from eternal destruction through his faith in Jesus. All who make up the body of Christ are recipients of this amazing grace. The Apostle Paul counted it a blessing to be chosen by God as a vessel to deliver this revelation to the saints, especially the Gentiles who were the object of Paul’s God-ordained ministry. Paul proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ among the Gentiles as part of this new message from God, by way of the Holy Ghost, through the apostle, and to the Gentiles.


Robert C. Hudson
May 7, 2009

New Works in Grace

May 10, 2009

Background Scripture: Ephesians 2:1 – 10
Lesson Passage: Ephesians 2:1 – 10

Christians are living proof of God’s work in the earth. There is nothing about people born into this world through nature that equips them for self-reformation. Put another way, we tend to go from bad to worse naturally or by nature. Even well-intentioned people find it impossible to change themselves for the better beyond a given point. At that point, our nature, or that which is natural about us, will prevent any further changes. There is a natural balance within a person between the mind, the emotions, and the physical well being. We change ourselves by creating an imbalance in these and then we attempt to rebalance ourselves at a different norm than before. For those who have tried dieting, this whole process should sound familiar. We can be successful with some diets but habitual changes for the best are another matter altogether. This becomes too much work and we find that we are fighting ourselves. We don’t like to fight ourselves unless it is to avoid negative repercussions. It is much easier to do what comes naturally for us as long as we are not immediately punished for doing it. There is a spiritual problem with those things that are natural for us. What is natural for us is offensive to God. And God will have the final say on everything. The first step in receiving salvation is to come to the realization that what is natural for us is offensive to God. What I refer to here as what is natural for a person, Paul calls it walking according to the course of this world. Paul goes on to say that we all lived this way before we were saved. Our natural life, or normal way of living from birth, could never save us from the anger of God because our corrupt nature is offensive to God. Since we cannot bring about the necessary spiritual changes that would please God, salvation then has to be an act of God independent of human effort. The offer of salvation by God is an invitation for us to be spared God’s vengeance against us and instead become the recipients of God’s manifold blessings. What a wonderful turnabout that is! Through the salvation God offers us through Christ, we go from being God’s enemy to members of God’s family. And all of this is a gift of God. It is impossible for us to earn it. No saved person has anything to brag about concerning their salvation. The fact is God saved us in spite of ourselves. We are saved by God’s goodness as an unearned favor from God. We received salvation through our faith in God and the finished works he did in Christ Jesus. God gives us salvation because we believe God and we put our trust in him to save us.

We understand dimensions of God’s purpose in saving us as we continue to grow spiritually. Each dimension shows us some aspect of the lifestyle God has called us to live. That lifestyle involves doing work that glorifies God through us. The work that God directs us to do can only be done by receiving the strength from God to do it. We have been created to do this spiritual work. God set this in motion before he created the world. The works God ordains for us goes against our old nature. These are new works that are God ordained and directed through those he has saved. These works in grace are a part of our separation from the world and our old nature.

Robert C. Hudson
April 29, 2009