Made Alive by God (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Introduction

When my daughter was in high school, I would occasionally pick her up from campus at the end of the day. On the drive, I would pass by a weight-loss center that was covered on the front of the building with ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of their clients. Portly men and plus-sized women, dressed in shorts or bathing suits, were pictured ‘before’ the start of their training and then ‘after’ several months of effort. The center was selling transformation. Come to us; we can do the same for you. Transformation is big business. While these transformations have their benefits, they are not the transformation that we need most. We need the transformation that only God can work.

The Apostle Paul describes this transformation in his epistle to the Ephesians. Speaking of Ephesians, John Mackay, a former President of Princeton Theologian Seminary, declared that he owed his life to the letter. When he read Ephesians as a young boy, Mackay professed, “I saw a new world… Everything was new… I had a new outlook, new experiences, new attitudes to other people. I loved God. Jesus Christ became the centre of everything… I had been ‘quickened’; I was really alive.” Mackay never lost his love for Ephesians. Towards the end of his career, he described the epistle as “the distilled essence of the Christian religion, the most authoritative and most consummate compendium of our holy Christian faith… This letter is pure music… What we read here is truth that sings, doctrine set to music.”[1]

Context

Ephesians is different from many of Paul’s other letters in that there is no conflict or heresy to settle. It reads like a sermon. It’s a simple letter, but deeply profound. Francis Foulkes summarizes the message as, “the eternal purpose of God which he is fulfilling through his Son Jesus Christ, and working out in and through the church.”[2] In chapter one, Paul describes God’s eternal plan of salvation. God works all things according to His plan and purpose from eternity. His plan includes the predestination of a chosen people, redeemed through the blood of Christ, to be holy and blameless before Him. His purpose is fulfilled in Christ, in whom we obtain an inheritance and through whom we receive every blessing. God guarantees our inheritance through the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. God’s goal is that we should live to the praise of His glorious grace. Having thus described the work of the trinity in the plan of salvation, Paul turns to God’s work in transforming His chosen people. Please turn to Ephesians chapter two in your bibles.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (ESV)

2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

In this passage, Paul presents our hopelessness, our transformation, and our thanksgiving.

Our Hopelessness (Ephesians 2:1-3)

In verses one through three, Paul levels us with the gravity of sin. This is our ‘before’ picture. We were “dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked” (Eph. 2:1-2a). The Greek word Paul uses for dead is νεκρός, from which we get words like necromancy. It means “dead,” like a corpse. This is not The Princess Bride. We were not mostly dead, which means slightly alive. No, spiritually we were ‘all dead’. Yet, Paul does not mean that we were passive or inactive, like a dead body lying in a tomb. Spiritually dead sinners are quite active in their rebellion against God. The dead are alienated from the One who gives life. In Colossians 2:13, Paul writes that his readers were once dead in their transgressions (Col. 2:13). Being spiritually dead also means being a slave to sin. Jesus declares in John 8:34 that “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). In Romans 6, Paul tells us that we were “slaves of sin” (Rom. 6:17, 20). To demonstrate sin’s power, Paul shows its control through three enslaving areas: the world, the devil, and the flesh.

The first enslaving power was that we walked “following the course of this world” (Eph. 2:2a). The word “walk” (περιπατέω) is a common Jewish metaphor for how we conduct our daily lives. In Leviticus 18:3, God warned the Israelites not to “walk” like the nations do when He gives them the land of Canaan. Paul’s readers walked following the course of this world (κόσμος). Here, “this world” denotes societal value-systems that are hostile to God. Evangelist John Stott writes, “Wherever human beings are being dehumanized – by political oppression or bureaucratic tyranny, by an outlook that is secular (repudiating God), amoral (repudiating absolutes), or materialistic (glorifying the consumer market), by poverty, hunger, or unemployment, by racial discrimination or by any form of injustice – there we can detect the sub-human values of ‘this age’ and ‘this world’.”[3]

The second enslaving power was the devil, “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). This is a difficult verse and there are disagreements over its meaning. Some believe that the air was the realm of evil spirits. Others believe this means the existence of these evil powers is spiritual and not material. In either case, all agree that this refers to Satan who exercises power over spiritually dead sinners, the “sons of disobedience.”

The third enslaving power was “the passions of our flesh” and “the desires of the body and the mind” (Eph. 2:3). For Paul, “the flesh” denotes a sinful nature. This is our bondage to internal forces over which we have no control. Paul gives us a dreadful catalog of these desires in Romans 1 – filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless (Rom. 1:29-31).

These enslaving powers are internal and external as well as supernatural. Of ourselves, there is no safe space, no escape. Not only were Paul’s readers spiritually dead and enslaved to sin, they were condemned. They were fit and worthy of divine judgment. Paul reminds them that they were “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:3). Even the supposedly “good” works performed by unregenerate sinners bring no merit. They do not spring from gratitude for the salvation given by Jesus Christ. They are not works of faith. They are not done to please and glorify God or to obey Him. Our ‘before’ picture is not only ugly, it is hopeless.

Our Transformation (Ephesians 2:4-9)

In verses four through nine, Paul shows how the gravity of our condition only magnifies God’s love and mercy. In the midst of great darkness, light breaks through. Paul begins with what some commentators have called the two greatest, the two sweetest words in the Bible, “But God.” Evangelical preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones once dedicated an entire sermon just to those two words. He went so far to claim that the gospel can be summarized in them.[4] We were dead in trespasses and sins … but God. We were following the prince of the power of the air … but God. We once lived in the passions of our flesh and were children of wrath … but God.

Grammatically and theologically, the center of this passage is verse five where God “made us alive together with (συνεζωοποίησεν) Christ” (Eph. 2:5b). This is the great transformation, changing us from death to life. The dead cannot raise themselves. Just as God breathed into lifeless dust and gave life to Adam (Gen. 2:7), God gives spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead. Notice that God’s grace is unconditional, “…even when we were dead in our trespasses…” (Eph. 2:5a). We were enslaved to the world, the Devil, and the flesh. There was nothing good in us or about us to which God was responding or rewarding. This gift of grace was everything in God and nothing in us. Even the faith that we have is not our own doing; it is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8).

This is a hard teaching for our individualistic minds. We insist that we are free and sovereign deciders. Yet, the dead cannot raise themselves to life. Only God can give life to the dead. Three times Paul insists that our salvation is by grace (Eph. 2:5, 7-8). God acts because we cannot. Without His grace, no one would choose Him – no one could. Moreover, God will not share His glory with anyone. Paul cautions us, “this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation is all of God and all of grace.

We should view this message as a wonderful thing. As bad as our ‘before’ picture was, our ‘after’ picture is far better than we could hope. Not only have we been saved, but God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). Theologians call this the “already and not yet.” In one sense, we are here on earth waiting for the final consummation of all things in Christ. In another sense, since God has united us to Christ, we are united in His death, burial, resurrection, and enthronement. We are seated in the heavenly places with Him. Before, we were dead; after, God has made us alive in Christ. Before, we were in bondage to Satan; after, God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms. Before, we were slaves, in a condition of dishonor; after, God has raised us and set us in a position of honor.

Why has God done such a thing? “So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). God’s ultimate purpose in saving a chosen people for Himself is to display His glorious grace for all to see forever and ever. All glory to God and God alone. Let us point away from ourselves and point others to the One in whom we owe our salvation.

Our Thanksgiving (Ephesians 2:10)

In verse ten, Paul summarizes our new status and how we are to respond. So far, God’s salvation has been described as a resurrection from the dead and freedom from slavery. Now, Paul describes it as a new creation. This is another reason why salvation is all of God and there is no room for human boasting. We are His “workmanship” from start to finish. This Greek word (ποίημα) appears only twice in the New Testament, here and Romans 1:20. In Romans 1:20, it refers to God’s creation; in Ephesians 2:10, it refers to God’s new creation.

The New Living Translation calls us “God’s masterpiece.” Of this verse, John Stott writes, “Towards the end of my time as a theological student at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, the Rev. Paul Gibson retired as Principal, and a portrait of him was unveiled. In expressing his thanks, he paid a well-deserved compliment to the artist. He said that in [the] future he believed people looking at the picture would ask not ‘Who is that man?’ but rather ‘Who painted that portrait?’ Now in our case God has displayed more than skill. A patient after a major operation is a living testimony to his surgeon’s skill, and a condemned man after a reprieve to his sovereign’s mercy. We are both – exhibits of God’s skill and trophies of his grace.[5] When the world sees us, do they see God’s workmanship?

Paul concludes, we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Paul thus ends in the same way in which he began. Before, we walked in trespasses and sins. After, we walk in the good works that God prepared. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ is the difference between two kingdoms (evil versus good) and the two masters that rule them (Satan versus God). Are we walking in good works in thankfulness for what God has given?

Yet, be careful. Good works are never and can never be the grounds for our justification or the subject of our boasting. In false religions, sinners are required to do good works in order to earn justification. In true religion, God justifies sinners to empower them to do good works. Good works are the fruit of our salvation, not its basis or its cause. Martin Luther summarized it this way: “It is not against works that we contend, but against trust in works.”[6]

Conclusion

Five centuries ago, another great transformation took place – this one in the church. After centuries of darkness, the light of God’s Word erupted from pulpits and printing presses across Europe. It was the Reformation. A generation of theologians, committed to the understanding of Hebrew and Greek, translated and published Bibles in the common languages. The noble and commoner alike could now possess and read the sacred scriptures for themselves. Theologians began to write down the teachings of the Bible into confessions and catechisms. These would be used to train pastors as well as teach the people. In 1563, Zacharius Ursinus (er-sighʹ-nus) and Caspar Olevianus (oh-lev-ee-ahʹ-nus) wrote the Heidelberg Catechism, consisting of 129 questions and answers based on the Bible. Question one asks, “What is thy only comfort in life and death?” Answer:

“That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.”

Question two shows how we can remember and view this passage from Ephesians. Question two asks, “How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily?” Answer:

“Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.”

These three “necessary” things to know in order to live and die happily are summed up as guilt, grace, and gratitude – guilt, grace, gratitude.

Let us not make light of the seriousness of sin and guilt apart from Christ. If left to the devices and efforts of man, there is no hope. Pray earnestly for God to transform sinners with His life-giving power.

Let us praise God for His glorious grace and that He chose us to be holy and blameless before Him. The power of sin over us has been broken. Let us point the world to our great God and savior.

Let us believe that in Christ, we are new creations, we are God’s workmanship. Live lives worthy of that calling and station simply out of gratitude and thankfulness for what God has done.

Amen.

[1] Stott, John. A Commentary by John Stott: Ephesians 1:1-2. Introduction to the letter. April 11, 2019. https://johnstott.org/bible_studies/11-apr-2019/ (accessed March 26, 2023). [2]Foulkes, Francis. 1989. Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 10. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. [3]Stott, John R. W. 1979. God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. [4] Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. "But God" - a Sermon from Ephesians 2:1-10. 2023. https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/itinerant-preaching/but-god/ (accessed March 26, 2023). [5] Stott, John R. W. 1979. God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. [6] Radmacher, Earl D., Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House. 1999. Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.