Eph 2 is a wonderful parallel text to the first half of Romans 8. Christ fit both the old and the new together. He is the cornerstone of the kingdom of Heaven. Everything hinges on Him. He fulfilled the law and made it possible for us to do the same. Only through His Spirit and through His Spirit we fulfill the law and we are fellow citizens with the saints and the household of God. No longer is there enmity. We are free to become righteous. We no longer need to sin. There is no longer the need.
We can change. We may change. It is possible for us to change. We can change through His Spirit. We can change through the power of the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and brought new life. That power. That life. That very same Spirit enlivens and powers us today. That is the grace of God. That power. That life. It is the grace of God in our lives. We may change because our why can change. The reason why we live. The reason why we strive. The reason we want to change can change. It no longer must be about ourselves. It may be about Him. It must be about Him. That change changes everything.
No longer are we slaves to what we were. We are free to change. To become righteous. To become better. To become more like Him. Not because it is about us any longer. But because it is about Him. We are able to move forward and change. Change because it is who we are becoming. We are becoming more like Him. Jesus embodies perfection. We don’t want to be like Him because we want to be perfect. We want to be like Him because we are now a new creation and we are now meant to be like Him. We may be like Him. Let this same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus…
[Phl 2:5-11 CSB] (5) Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, (6) who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
(7) Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, (8) he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross.
(9) For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
(10) so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — in heaven and on earth and under the earth —
(11) and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The struggle will be with us to the end of this life.
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