The Two Made One

August 17, 2025 Background Scripture: Ephesians 2:11 - 22 Lesson Passage: Ephesians 2:11 - 22 The Apostle Paul was the perfect servant of God to pen the words of today's lesson. His name was Saul, but after his encounter with Jesus, Jesus changed his name to Paul. As a Pharisee of the Pharisees, Saul had in-depth knowledge of Judaism. He was thoroughly familiar with the Levitical laws that govern the Jews as the people of God. Saul was also knowledgeable of the covenant promises God made to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The creation of Israel as a sovereign nation was according to the covenant promise God made to Abraham. Saul became confused when the risen Jesus Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Saul was traveling to find Jewish Christians and persecute them for their teachings that Saul thought was blasphemous and counter to Judaism. Jesus interrupted Saul's journey. Jesus identified Himself - but even more than that, He let Saul know that He identified with the group Saul was persecuting; it was personal for Jesus. Saul was confronted with irrefutable evidence that what the Christians proclaimed was indeed true. Jesus was crucified because the Jewish leaders rejected His claim to be the Son of God. Now, this same Jesus is risen from the dead and had interrupted Saul's effort to destroy the Christians. If Jesus was indeed risen and declaring Himself to be God, what would that mean for the covenants God made with the patriarchs? This was a major concern for Saul. If Gentiles who did not receive the Law were now being saved without the Law, what does that say about Israel who was separated in the world as the people of God? Did God abandon Israel and His promises to the patriarchs in favor of Gentiles? Saul's knowledge of Israel's history and the covenants prompted many questions for him—and Israel! As a result of questions such as these, Saul engaged in much prayer to seek God and understand what it all meant. The answer God gave Saul is the heart of this lesson: in Jesus Christ, God brings both groups, Jews and saved Gentiles, together into one new person. God had not abandoned the Jews, neither did He leave the Gentiles outside of His plan of salvation for all people. Therefore, the Jews who were separated from other nations in becoming the people of God should no longer despise the Gentiles who are being saved by God through faith. Likewise, the Gentiles, who were once without hope of salvation, should not think themselves to be more than the Jews. In fact, through Jesus Christ, the two groups must accept that they are spiritually joined together as one. This is not a matter of tolerating each other but rather seeing themselves as united together in Christ. Gentiles who are saved and Jews share a common foundation which has Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. They are both members of one household, the household of God. This one entity containing Jews and saved Gentiles is the earthly temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The theology behind this union is so profound that Paul used the analogy of the institution of marriage, as God had established it, to describe this new theology. Like marriage, this is not one plus one equal two. This is one plus one equals one. That means if one hurts, the other hurts. If one is elevated and prospers, the other is elevated and prospers. What Saul and the Jewish leaders thought was a misguided cult of Jews, was the eternal plan of God to bring salvation to mankind as He promised Abraham in His covenant. God promised Abraham that He would bless all nations through his descendant. Jesus is the human descendant of Abraham. God does not have two groups He considers His children, the Jews and the Christian church. In Jesus Christ, the two have been made one. Robert C. Hudson July 31, 2025

Our Bodies Belong to God

August 10, 2025 Background Scripture: Romans 12:1 - 21; 1 Corinthians 6:12 - 20 Lesson Passage: 1 Corinthians 6:12 - 20 I believe in the free moral agency of mankind. The book of Genesis makes that clear. Mankind is created in the image and after the likeness of God. God gives directions to His own will. He created mankind with the same ability. Adam was created by God and given the ability to make decisions, or to have a will and not to live based on his instincts. Other lifeforms in this world live and survive based on their instincts. On the other hand, mankind was not created to be independent of all. Mankind was created to be submissively dependent on God. Submission is necessary because being dependent is an act of the will of mankind. When Adam followed the guidance of the serpent, he was led away from the will of God and unintentionally became enslaved to sin. It was an act of his will to follow the serpent, but his dependency on whatever he submits to was not under his control. When sin entered this world through Adam, mankind became enslaved to sin. We are born into this world enslaved to sin and remain so unless we are delivered from it through salvation. Because of His love for mankind, God offers us salvation through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Salvation frees mankind from the dominion of sin and death. However, we are not set free to do as we please. Salvation frees us to submit to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation restores to us the ability to be submissively dependent on God. God purchased our souls with the blood of Jesus Christ for this purpose. For those of us who are in Christ, we belong to God. Just as we were slaves of sin when we were unsaved, we are now the servants of God because of salvation through Jesus Christ. God expresses His will to us so that we might serve Him sincerely. As slaves of sin, we sought to please our flesh in every way; sin demanded that we be disobedient to God's will. As children of God, we are admonished to serve God and not to please our flesh. This choice causes Christians to be confronted with a dilemma. Because we still live in our flesh, we still have an overwhelming desire to please our flesh. This feels natural to us because we were born this way. However, after we are saved and learn the will of God for us, we desire to please God, but it doesn't feel natural to do so. Our lesson today is a reminder that Christians are obligated to submissively serve God. Pleasing our flesh is rebellion against the will and dominion of God. We have been delivered from sin so that we can submit to God. Submission brings us under the power of the one we submit to. We were saved and spiritually joined as one body to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives each of us a gift to use as part of the body. Some gifts are for the building up of the body, and some gifts allow the body to serve others. The use of spiritual gifts brings glory to God. When the entire body of Christians functions as one to do God's will, then are we an expression of God's image and likeness in this world. This is in accordance with God's will for humanity, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion ..." Through mankind who has been made holy, God exercises physical dominion in the physical world He created. His will is done through the creature He created for that purpose. An unsaved person cannot fulfill this purpose because of sin's dominion. Neither can saved individuals fulfill God's purpose if we rebel against God by embracing sin. Christians have a dilemma because our flesh craves sin, but our bodies belong to God. Therefore, through submission to God, we receive the help we need from the Spirit to do God's will. Robert C. Hudson July 31, 2025