The Vision (4.4.25): The Problem with the Life-Preserver Analogy

 

Note: Vision devotional article taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 2:1-7.

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

In Ephesians 2:1 Paul offers an inspired description of man’s spiritual state apart from God in Christ as one of spiritual deadness. It captures man’s spiritual inability apart from God’s grace.

We must be clear, Paul is not talking about a biological state, but a spiritual state. One can be physically alive but spiritually dead. In fact, apart from faith in Christ we might well say that men are all dead men walking.

In R. C. Sproul’s brief commentary on Ephesians, he debunks a misguided analogy of salvation that fails to consider fallen man’s state of spiritual deadness (inability):

Another analogy goes like this: a man is cast into the sea who doesn’t know how to swim. He is clearly about to drown; he has already gone under the water twice, and is sinking for the third time. His head is beneath the surface of the water. All that is left above the water is his outstretched hand, and the only way he can possibly be saved is if God would throw him a life-preserver. God is so accurate in throwing this life-preserver that he throws it right up against the palm of this man’s hand. But for that man to be saved, he must close his hand upon the life-preserver in order to be pulled to safety (Ephesians, 48-49).

Sproul then observes that this view reflects an ancient error known as Semi-Pelagiansim, in that it teaches, “man must cooperate with God in order to be saved.” He then adds:

The Reformed [Biblical] view is that man is not going under the water for the third time, but is already drowned, spiritually. He is at the bottom of the sea, he is dead. The only way he can be saved is if God dives into the water and pulls the corpse up out of the water and brings him back to life (Ephesians, 49).

The problem with the life-preserver analogy is that it is not miraculous enough. Conversion is a sovereign and miraculous life-giving act of God alone.

As it says in Psalm 3:8a, “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 326: Confessional Subscription & the Septuagint

 

Read the article reviewed here.

JTR

The Vision (3.28.25): The Gospel of Your Salvation

 

Image: Ruins of ancient Ephesus, Turkey.

Note: Devotion taken from Sunday AM sermon on March 23, 2025.

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13).

Paul founded the church at Ephesus (see Acts 19), so in Ephesians he is a spiritual father speaking to his spiritual children.

I’ve noted that D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called Ephesians the most “mystical” of Paul’s writings.

To this we can add R. C. Sproul’s observation that “the tone of Ephesians is so contemplative at points, that it sounds more like a prayer than a letter, more like a doxology [praise of God] than a sermon” (Ephesians, 15).

In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul reminds the Ephesians of the gospel they had received. The word gospel means “good news.” Paul summarized the gospel he preached at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: the death, burial, resurrection, and risen appearances of Christ.

In Ephesians 1:13 Paul places the phrases “the word of truth” and “the gospel of your salvation” in apposition. They are the same thing.

Notice also Paul’s emphasis upon the fact that the Ephesians had heard this gospel as it was preached to them. In Romans 10:17 Paul notes that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). In 1 Corinthians 1:21 he says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Paul also stresses here the necessary response of faith: “in whom also after that ye believed.” Explicit belief and confession of faith is essential (cf. Acts 8:37; Romans 10:9). There is no salvation outside of faith in Christ.

Finally, Paul reminds the Ephesians, “ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise.” A seal was set to ensure that something was left undisturbed or secure. The soldiers went to the tomb where Christ’s lifeless body was laid, in vain, “sealing the stone” (Matthew 27:66), but it would be rolled away. Letters were often sealed with wax and marked with a signet ring to ensure it had not been opened and its content changed.

This is Paul’s inspired analogy. Believers have the seal of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit of God ensures that they will not be disturbed or corrupted or dislodged, but they shall be preserved, kept, by God’s grace, in the faith.

This is the gospel that Paul preached, that the saints in Ephesus heard; and believing, they were sealed.

It is the same gospel of salvation that has saved and preserved every believer across the ages.

The gospel comes with the heat of spiritual power. An old adage says heat can both melt butter and harden clay. When we hear the preaching of the good news, is our heart melted (the experience of the elect) or is it hardened (the experience of the reprobate)? Are we butter or clay?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Preview Video: 2025 Reformation Bible Society Meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday, August 2, 2025

JTR

Theology in Particular: The Administration and Administrator of Baptism

 

JTR

The Vision (3.21.25): Ephesus: Yet Here God Has His Church

 

Image: The Library of Celsus, ruins of ancient Ephesus, Turkey.

Note: Devotion based on sermon on Ephesians 1:7-12.

The Puritan minister Paul Baynes (1573-1617) said this about the ancient city of Ephesus to which Paul addressed the epistle of Ephesians: “This was the mother city, famous for idolatry and conjuring, as the Acts of the Apostles testify… This people were so wicked, that heathens themselves did deem them from their mother worthy to be strangled; yet here God had his church.”

Indeed, no place in this sinful world deserves to have a church planted within its borders. Yet God would have his church in all such places, so that the gospel might be faithfully proclaimed.

The apostle Paul was used by God to plant this church (see Acts 19). He then wrote this letter to the church from prison to encourage them in the faith. He twice refers to himself as a prisoner (3:1; 4:1), and in 6:20 he calls himself “an ambassador in bonds.”

The genre of Ephesians is quite different from what we encountered in Genesis, the last book we were expositing.  Genesis Is a historical narrative. Ephesians, however, is propositional, didactic teaching. Our minds and our faith need both kinds of teaching. We need to learn holy history, and we need to learn holy truths.

The apostle continued to catechize the believers, and through the inspiration and preservation of this book, that mission persists. The apostle is teaching and catechizing all of us, and every believer who reads and listens to it.

There are at least four great truths placed before us in Ephesians 1:7-12:

·        In Christ “we have redemption through his blood” (v. 7).

·        In our salvation the Lord makes known to us “the mystery of God’s will” (v. 9).

·        God is working out “the dispensation of the fullness of times” to gather all things together in Christ (v. 10).

·        As believers “we have obtained an inheritance” (v. 11).

Finally, Paul says, “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ” (v. 12). We have a reason for living. To give praise and glory to God.

Yes, the gospel continues to go out and in every dark place, the Lord continues to have and establish his church.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

"Makebate"

Note: From X post:

Prepping to teach midweek Bible study yesterday on the 18 items in Paul's vice list in 2 Timothy 3:2-4, which, he says, will be prevalent among men in these "perilous times" of the "last days" (v. 1), and was struck by the alternate translation suggested in the KJV margin for "false accusers [διαβολοι]" in v. 3.

The suggestion is "makebates." An online dictionary defines a "makebate" as "one that excites contention and quarrels." It describes the term as "archaic" and notes its first known use as 1529.

It is pronounced as one one might expect a compound word to go: "make" plus "bate," long "a"s and silent "e"s. This is another word we need to make great again and not let slip out of usage. I pledge to start using it in sentences like this:

"The internet troll made himself a makebate in the comments section."

JTR