BP 132
Have you ever wondered what happens to you when you hear the good news of salvation and believe it (Ephesians 1:13)? Yes, we become a new creation as seen in 2 Corinthians 5:17, but what does that mean exactly?
Today, we are going to look at one aspect of what it means to be born again, to be a new creation, and how you can apply that transformation to your life psychologically to help with things like depression or anxiety. Let’s begin with the words of Ephesians 1:15-20.
Eyes Full of Light
15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places . . .
“Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened . . .”
I am drawn to this phrase for several reasons. First, it refers to the spiritual eyesight humans possess. We all have an innate ability to see beyond our physical sight, a spiritual sense which I believe is hardwired in us as a consequence of being made in God’s image. How awesome is that? We have eyes in our hearts that have the potential to see beyond the material world.
Meditate on this truth, O believer: You have been given a whole set of new senses that includes the ability to see and hear and taste and smell and feel spiritually!
Second, this phrase tells us that for those who have faith in Jesus, our spiritual eyes are characterized by light instead of darkness. Everyone has spiritual eyesight. But only those who believe can see with non-physical eyes because light fills their spiritual corneas. Those who do not believe, have only darkness.
Matthew 6:22ff says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Third, what follows this enlightening of our spiritual eyesight is amazing, namely, we have a special knowledge that the natural person (unbeliever) does not and cannot possess. See 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 once again where it describes the difference between the eyesight of the spiritual person and the natural person. This special knowledge can be summed up by the truth that we have the mind of Christ (v 16)!
The words in 1 Corinthians 2 that I want to briefly highlight in reference to Ephesians 2 are, “’What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him,’ these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”
A wonderful gift of grace for those who love God is that we have been given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17). This third person of the Trinity who is a Revealer reveals to us things that no [physical or unenlightened spiritual] eye can see or ear hear because as new creations our spiritual eyes have been opened to see what natural eyes cannot see. The Spirit of revelation enlightens our eyes. He brings light into us that the natural person cannot receive.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17.
I am beginning to digress since there is so much encouraging news for those who love Jesus in these passages. Let me get back on track.
The Spirit of Revelation Lives in You
The main point I wish to emphasis in this post is that those who hear the word of truth and believe in God (Ephesians 1:13) receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Accompanying this gift of the Spirit for those who believe is the additional gift of “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.”
In the Greek, the verb in this phrase (it appears in the passive perfect participle form) means that the moment you believed in Jesus, your eyes were enlightened and that that enlightening is an ongoing consequence of being a new creation. So, Ephesians 2:18 could be translated, “your eyes have been enlightened and they continue to be enlightened.”
So, rejoice, believer in Jesus, that you have been given new eyes that see spiritual truths and realities that you did not see in the past.
Also remember that at one time your eyes were darkened and that currently the old self within you fights against the Spirit (see Galatians 5:17) because a veil remains over his or her eyes. As a believer, you are no longer walking only by physical sight and–you are also experiencing a war within you between the enlightened eyes of the new self and the darkened eyes of the old self.
So, what does this ongoing spiritual war within you mean? It means that you must continue to practice seeing with your enlightened eyes because the flesh wants to pull you back into darkness and dark practices. The word used in Ephesians several times is walk. We must daily—hourly—choose to walk/live in the light and not in the dark.
7Therefore do not become partners with them; 8for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them ~ Ephesians 5:7ff.
We are called to be wise instead of unwise, and to walk as children of light because we have been filled with the Spirit of revelation and the eyes of our hearts are now characterized by light.
Application
I know all these passages of Scripture are a lot to digest. In summary, let me say this:
Romans 1:21 tells us that before we heard the gospel and believed in Jesus, our “foolish hearts were darkened.” But now that we have become a new creation in Christ, the eyes of our hearts have been and continue to be enlightened.
So, know that you have spiritual eyesight. Know that this spiritual eyesight is accompanied by the mind of Christ. You now understand what the natural man or woman cannot understand because they are spiritually discernable only to eyes that have light.
Practice this eyesight. Walk in faith and not by sight as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says.
What are the benefits of having the eyes of our hearts enlightened? Ephesians tells us that our spiritual eyesight will help us know three benefits: the hope to which God has called us, the riches of our glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.
In other words, as seeing believers we will know/experience the future hope of being with God forever; we will experience the glorious inheritance of the ongoing Presence of God as we fellowship with the other saints; and we will have immeasurably great power, might, and strength available to us.
As we walk with God day in and day out, we will learn how to appropriate this spiritual power. It will not come to us by being good or by our human efforts. This power will incrementally be internalized as we look into His face daily; as we practice His Presence; as we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.
Great psychological peace will come to those who turn their spiritual gaze to God instead of the temptations and anxieties of this present darkness of which there will be many. Deep-seated depression may linger longer than we wish, but as we walk in the light as children of the light, the eyes of our hearts will be increasingly enlightened, and joy will be our close acquaintance.
Seek Jesus with all your heart. Run to Him in your deepest sin and shame. Lament in His Presence over the fallenness of your flesh and this world. Grieve deeply over the suffering and losses you have experienced.
Rejoice in Him in your private room and worship Him with all the saints. Do not trust in men or in chariots, but in the Lord of Hosts. Cry out to Him for power and strength to live in this world as a victorious overcomer even when you feel like the weakest person on the planet.
Be thankful that you have eyes to see! Rehearse the future hope that lies before you not as a possibility but as a certain promise and truth!
He has not forgotten you, child of God. His eyes are on you and . . . He is coming for you.
Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes with the morning
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed [metamorphosized] into the same image from one degree of glory to another ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18.