Kent Bailey
The concept, or principle, of implication is essential to drawing proper conclusions. When we refer implication, we speak with reference to logical deduction. That which is implied is thus a component of the essential essence of something just as surely as if it were directly stated. If I were to indicate that the keys to my vehicle are in my hand and my hand is in my pocket I have implied that the keys to my vehicle are also in my pocket. Such an implication is just as essential to the truthfulness and validity of this scenario as if I had directly stated it.
If one does not respect the rules of inference/implication he will not think properly and/or rationally. One of the great problems of society today is that Post-Modernism has influenced a multitude of individuals to divorce themselves from rational critical thinking. Resultant from this dangerous trend we note those, even in the religious world, who deny the rules of inference/implication and find themselves trapped in a prison of irrational thought that will lead them to eternal torment.
Implications of the New Life Found in Christ
Prior to obedience to the Gospel, an accountable person abides in a lost condition (Eph. 2:11-12). In calling upon the Ephesians to remember their pre-conversion state, Paul asked them to remember their former condition as alien sinners and remember the truth he had presented to them. It is indeed good for individuals to remember what it is like to be lost in sin.
We, who are Christians, need to remember what it was like to discover that at a former point of our lives we were alien sinners without Christ and were living without hope and without God in the world. One must come to this point before one has the capacity to obey the Gospel of Christ and be saved from past sin (Rom. 3:23; 6:23). Those who have never admitted that they were lost have never obeyed the Gospel. They are yet non-Christians, though in appearance only they may have gone through the correct form. They need Christ by true obedience to the Gospel.
New life in Christ brings one into a new fellowship (Eph. 2:13). By the term fellowship (koinonia) we refer to joint-association or participation. As a penitent, having confessed believer (Acts 8:37; 2 Cor. 7:10) we have died to sin, buried that old sinful person and have been raised to walk in a new life (Rom. 6:3-7). We are added to a new fellowship—the church—by the Lord (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 12:13). Because of that new fellowship, we must be careful with whom we fellowship lest we depart from the fellowship of Christ (1 John 1:3-10; 2 John 9-11).
New life in Christ brings one into a new future (Eph. 2:16-17). Our alien, sinful past has been destroyed. All things are made new in that we have been reconciled unto God in one body, the New Testament church (Acts 2:38-47; Col. 1:13-18; Eph. 1:22-23).
New life in Christ brings one into a new relationship with new friends (Eph. 2:18), even though we may have known individuals prior to conversion to Christ (both theirs and ours). Because we have obeyed the Gospel all things become new in that we have been changed from aliens to children of God (Gal. 2:20). Because of the truthfulness of this, we must take great care not to return to sin (Rom. 6:1-18; Eph. 5:1-17).
New life in Christ brings one into the new kingdom (Eph. 2:19) Christ spoke to Nicodemus about the importance of the new birth (or new beginning) prior to His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to heaven (John 3:1-8). Paul wrote of how a change of spiritual realm takes place when one obeys the Gospel of Christ—a change of allegiance resulting in a change of kingdoms (Col. 1:13-14). Obedience to the Gospel necessitates that, as God’s people, we now submit our total lives to the King of kings and Lord of lords!
New life in Christ brings one into a new family (Eph. 2:19). Prior to our conversion to Christ God was the Father of our spirits by procreation in that we are humans. Consequent to our conversion to Christ, God is our Father by adoption through the New Covenant (Gal. 4:1-9). The New Testament church is known by several figures. The church of Christ is the kingdom of Christ (Matt. 16:18-19). It is also the family of God (1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 3:14-21).
New life in Christ brings one into a new dwelling (Eph. 2:20-22). Members of the New Testament church comprise not only the kingdom and family of God; they also comprise the spiritual dwelling place of God. They are the material from which His sanctuary is constructed (1 Pet. 2:5). Not only are Christians collectively of the household of God, but we also comprise God’s dwelling place. We have been carefully built together as that material constructed upon the solid foundation of Christ.
While the foundation of God’s temple (the church of Christ) is composed on the truths taught about Christ, as was taught by the New Testament apostles and prophets, Christ himself is the chief cornerstone. In ancient times the cornerstone was the primary foundation stone of the entire structure. The architect fixed his standard for all the other measurements of the building on this stone. There was not a single line or angle of the building which was not determined by and adjusted to the perfect symmetry of that cornerstone. So it is with Christ and the church. Christians find their true place and usefulness in relation to Christ in the one true New Testament church as they live faithfully unto him. Indeed, there are very crucial implications of the new life that is found within Christ.
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