Salvation in Christ: Eph 2:1-10

Turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. Today, we are going to study God’s salvation. We will learn about what it means to be saved, to be made alive in Christ Jesus, and what it means to be a Christian. Our text today is one of the most wonderful and helpful passages in the Bible that aids us in understanding the gracious gift of God’s salvation. Now for many of us, this topic is very familiar, but I pray that the truths of the gospel that we all hear this morning will be refreshing to our hearts and our souls.

Earlier this week, as I was preparing this sermon, I couldn’t help but think of my own testimony. I was a church kid growing up, my life in many ways revolved around the church schedule. And at a young age, during an annual revival service, I became convicted over my sin, I can still vividly remember the weight of guilt on my chest and shoulders as I walked the aisle, prayed a prayer and asked for God’s forgiveness and salvation. I was baptized soon after and I would love to say that everything about my life changed at that moment, but in all reality it didn’t. Certainly, I no longer felt the overwhelming burden of my sin, but salvation to me was all about the judicial act of God’s pardon. It was simply about His forgiveness of my past sin. That was it. There was no empowerment, no desire to live my life any different than before. I often wonder, did salvation really occur at that moment. Was that the moment I was born again to a newness of life or was it sometime later when I actually began to walk with Christ and grow as a disciple? Praise God the answer to that question matters little to me, because today, today I know that I saved by His grace, forgiven of my sin, redeemed by his blood, adopted into His family, have hope in eternal life, and am empowered to live for His glory.

Our text today in Ephesians gives us a clear picture of what occurs when genuine salvation takes place. I say genuine, because there are innumerable thoughts and ideas about what a Christian is and what a Christian is not. Listen, salvation is far more than simply being forgiven of your sin. It’s much more than simply having the hope of heaven. For too long, many pastors have presented a gospel that only focusses on making us feel better about ourselves, better about our past, and better about death. The Bible on the other hand, tells us that salvation is part of God’s eternal plan for or life, it means we’ve been elected, predestined, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, sealed, empowered, and granted a great inheritance forever in heaven, in the presence of a holy God. The gift of salvation is the most wonderful, most awesome, most gracious, and loving gift we can ever imagine, and we are given Ephesians 2:1-10 so that we can behold God’s gift salvation and understand our identity in Christ. Read with me chapter 2 verses 1-10…

Today, there are three spiritual truths regarding God’s most wonderful gift of salvation that I want you to see from our text…

1) Apart from salvation in Christ, we were all spiritually dead (2:1-3).

The apostle couldn’t possibly start this section of scripture any more bluntly. He doesn’t say that apart from Christ we are sick in our sin, or mortally wounded in our transgression. Nor does he speak like Miracle Max in the movie Princes Bride and say we are “mostly dead.” No, the Bible says that apart from salvation we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

This is humanity’s greatest trouble. We are all born spiritually dead. The apostle sheds a little clarity on this concept in chapter 4, turn the page and look at verses 17and following… “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” Notice the phrase in verse 18, “excluded from the life of God.” It means that apart from salvation we are alienated from God and true life. An unsaved sinner is literally dead to God. Though his body is alive, his inner man is spiritually deceased. The heart of his soul is not beating but is hard and stiff like a stone.

Perhaps, the best way we can understand spiritual death is through the lens of physical death. When a person physically passes away, they become unresponsive. No matter what stimulus may come their way, they are completely unable to respond or react. They can’t see, they can’t hear, and they can’t feel. They are unable, completely unable to do anything for God. A spiritually dead person can’t trust God nor can they act on God’s Word for they are dead in their sin.

Notice we were dead in both our trespasses and sins. Both words are plural, emphasizing the totality of or sinful condition. A transgression is a false step that involves either the crossing of a known boundary or a deviation from the right path. A sin, on the other hand, is a hunting or archery term that means to miss the mark. In other words, it’s a falling short of a desired standard.

Notice how both definitions really emphasize the human inability to live according to God’s standard. We surely can’t stay on His righteous path, and we unable to hit the perfect mark! Well, what is the path and or the mark? Romans 3:23 surely comes to mind: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You see, sin, church family, is simply our failure and inability to glorify God with or lives.

Now listen, this is important… huge implications here… because sin has vastly much more to do with what we don’t do rather than the moral mistakes we make in this life. Church family, understand that sin is really about what we fail to do. We fail to bring all glory to God. In Matthew 5:48… (Jesus said) “Therefore, you are to be perfect, as Your heavenly Father is perfect.” Or just consider 1 Peter 1:16… “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” God’s target is His glory, it’s His holiness, and His perfection of which we all miserably fail to meet with our lives. You see, when you look at sin from this angle, it is very humbling isn’t it? Oh, it’s so easy to compare our sin records with others and conclude that we really are not that bad of a person. But when we look at perfection, His glory, and holiness… every one of us must confess our great shortcomings and accept the fact that we are dead in our sin, and unable to live righteously for the Lord.

Notice to support this thesis, the apostle Paul lists three evil forces to which we are enslaved to by birth. First, he mentions the world and its power over us. This power according to verse 2, is that “in which we formally walked according to the course of this world.” The word “walked” was a Hebrew expression that indicated our former behavior or lifestyle. Pay attention to the text here, because Paul is saying that before you came to Christ, you were lifelessly enslaved to the culture in which you live. The word “world” in the Greek is the word cosmos, and here it is not speaking so much of our physical environment, but more of the ideological world of sin. You see, a spiritual dead person lives according to the world’s standards and values. He conducts himself in complete harmony with the spirit of the age.

Today, in our culture and world, the spirit of the age, is dominated by three common themes. There is first the philosophical stance of humanism. The voice of humanism screams, “You’re the boss.” “You are king.” You decide what’s right, wrong, moral, or immoral. You are the center of the world, and everything revolves around you and your interpretation. Such a stance may seem freeing, but in all actuality, most people who embrace this stance will eventually and chronically suffer from anxiety, depression, and or anger. Why? Because we are not God, we are not in control, and when you place yourself at the center of the world, that weight which you were never intended to bear, becomes unbearable and crushes us under the weight of our desires and unmet expectations.

Secondly, our world shaped and influenced by materialism. The voice of materialism roars: “You got to have this!” “You must get this. Its the unsatisfiable lust of your heart that continually whispers… I want, I want, I want, I want, I want. At whatever the cost, you must have more! More money, more things, more clothes, more cars, more investments, more property. And so for many people, their debt is completely out of control, because few people can actually afford to appease the worldly desire for more.

The lastly the powers of this world are obsessed with sex. From sex education to young children, transgenderism, homosexuality, pornography, to hook up apps. Sex is plastered everywhere in our culture. And its perversions have become so accepted and celebrated in our world that its easier for a drag queen to go into a local library and read to a group of kids than it is for a Christian leader. Church, this world desires to normalize sexual immorality to our youngest kids and that should be massive concern to us as believers. Listen, our culture wants us to think that our greatest joy and pleasure will be found sexually. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. This world is constantly forcing its ways and ideology upon man and holding them captive. But that is not the only force to which unbelievers are enslaved.

Notice we are also enslaved and walked “according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Here the apostle is saying that in our sinful state we are held captive by Satan himself. He is the “prince of the power of the air.” Think about that phrase for a second. The word air is a reference to the atmosphere. The air is also that which fills our earth but that which we cannot see. 1 Peter 5:8 reads… “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” I’ve had the joy of living in Africa and observing the lions of the Serengeti. They almost blend in perfectly to the landscape in which they live. They have natural camouflage to them, that they undoubtedly use to their advantage. Satan does the same. He prowls around in the air, unseen in the realm of ideas, thoughts, attitudes, and ideologies. You see Satan is behind many of the world’s concepts and philosophies. He’s their grand architect, they belong to him, and uses them to sway people away from the gospel of grace.

But not only are we enslaved to this world and Satan, notice we are also enslaved from within to our own flesh. Verse 3… “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” This simply means that by our sinful nature we are held captive to the desires of our heart. The word lusts refers to strong inclinations and desires of every sort, not just sexual, but every shape and form of strong desire for something. Such strong longings consume us, they shape our conversations and lifestyle. Church: three strong forces hold us captive in our spiritual death: the world, Satan, and our flesh, all are working together to keep us in sin.

Lastly, notice how Paul describes those who are not believers in this text as sons of disobedience and children of wrath. By our very nature we sin. Listen, we are not sinners because we have sinned. We are sinners because of what naturally flows from our dead hearts. Our lives, according to the Bible, are marked by disobedience deserving the wrath of God. Puritan Joseph Alliene wrote, “God finds nothing in man to turn His heart, but enough to turn his stomach.” Apart from the grace of God, we all are spiritually dead, plagued and stained by sin. And in our lack of living for His glory, we will certainly taste God’s just and divine wrath. The Old Testament prophets often talked about the cup of God’s wrath that sinful man must eventually drink. Yet, in the garden of Gethsemane, in the shadow of the cross, Jesus prayed something spectacular… in Matthew 26:39… “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Soon after, Jesus suffered on the cross, He bled and died drinking the cup of God’s wrath on your behalf. He endured the penalty for your sin and great inability to live for God’s glory.

Church, apart from Christ and His gracious gift of salvation, we are simply dead men walking, hopelessly enslaved to sin, completely unable to respond to God, we are simply awaiting our turn to drink from the cup of God’s wrath.

2) With salvation in Christ, believers are made spiritually alive (2:4-7).

You have to love the first two words of verse 4… “But God…” Without these two words our lives are completely hopeless, we are simply dead and destined to experience His wrath. But God, “but God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even though we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” The great power of God that we discussed last week, moves toward the dead sinners and brings them to life… Why because God is merciful and loving. The text says He is rich in mercy. Mercy speaks of God’s forgiveness of sin and the withholding of His just punishment. It’s literately His holding back from giving us what we truly deserve. Think about that church, if we got what we deserved, we would be doomed. For we all have sinned greatly by not living for the glory of God. But God is merciful, and don’t miss the word rich, which means over abounding, God is not just merciful, He’s superabounding with mercy.

I love the modern hymn by the Getty’s entitled His Mercy is More… The first line reads… “What love could remember no wrongs we have done. Omniscient, all knowing, He counts not their sum. Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore. Our sins they are many, His mercy is more.” Listen, no matter how great your sin debt may be, no matter how horrible the things you have done, God’s mercy is more!!! Praise Him Church, for His mercy endlessly abounds.

The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote, “Every time you draw your breath, you suck in mercy.” Remember, apart from His mercy we are mere sons of disobedience and children of wrath. But His motivation for salvation lies not just in His mercy, but also His love. Notice, verse 4 says because of His great love… there are numerous Greek words for love, but here, Paul specifically uses the word agape, which means to sacrificially seek the highest good of the one loved. Listen, because sinners are fully and spiritually dead toward God, they have absolutely nothing about themselves to commend to God. Nothing! Undoubtedly, this is why Paul described God’s love as great. You see because God is both rich in mercy and great in love, He sent His son to die for sinful man on the cross so that we can drink from the cup of God’s grace and experience both abundant and eternal life.

Notice that God, out of His abounding mercy and great love for man, does three profound things for those who repent of their sin and believe in Him…

a) Believers are resurrected with Christ (v. 5). When you become a Christian through faith and repentance, you are no long alienated from the life of God. Instead, you literally come alive and become sensitive and responsive to the things of God. What Paul is talking about in verse 5, is the doctrine of regeneration. This is a doctrine that we cannot overemphasize its importance, for there is no greater miracle than the miracle of regeneration! You see, regeneration refers to the work of the Holy Spirit, where He breathes new life into a dead and depraved sinner so as to raise him from spiritual death to spiritual life. This work of the Holy Spirit involves removing the sinner’s dead heart of stone and giving him a living heart of flesh, so that he is washed, born from above and now able to repent and trust in Christ as a new creation. Church family, The apostle Paul put it like this in 2 Corinthians 5:17… “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Salvation makes us alive and notice the phrase “together with Christ.” You see the same power that raised Christ to life, works in our lives to raise us from our sin and spiritual death. As we are united with Him we are made alive, and we are able to walk in what Paul calls the “newness of life.” For the first time we are capable of understand spiritual truth and able to desire spiritual things. Because our nature has changed, we can seek godly things. We can set our minds on the things above and not on the things that are on the earth. Its only because we are made alive, we are able to please God and glorify Him with our lives.

b) Believers are exalted and seated with Christ (v. 6). The closing words to chapter 1, that we studied last week, spoke of the exaltation of Christ. Look back with me to 1:20… “when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church.” And now, Paul in chapter 2 v. 6 proclaims that are “raised up with Christ, and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”.

Church, this means we have a position of superiority and authority over the evil powers of this world. It doesn’t mean we are divine, for there is only One who sits on the throne, but we are seated with Him and therefore have power to overcome temptation and sin. You see, we don’t have to succumb to Satan and His evil schemes. Certainly, we will continue to sin this side of eternity, we will mess up, we will think things we shouldn’t, say things we shouldn’t, and surely do things we shouldn’t. But Paul is saying, we are no longer enslaved to the world, Satan, or our flesh. We can choose to glorify God and choose to walk in His ways.

We also can see here the “already- not yet” aspect of or salvation, can we not? For though we are now raised and seated with Christ, we also are awaiting the full completion of our salvation. If you are Christian, you have secured a “saved” seat in glory, but right now, here today you can reap the benefits of that blessing. Out of God’s rich mercy and great love we are made alive with Christ, we are exalted and seated with Him, and notice thirdly…

c) Believers are living trophies of God’s grace (7). Look with me again to verse 7… “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The reason God has makes dead sinners alive and lavishes them with grace upon grace is so that they will be the demonstration of His grace forever. In 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter talks about the salvation of man, and notes that the angels marvel over it. Notice also, here in Ephesians chapter 3: starting in verse 8… “To me, the very least of the saints, this grace was given… and Paul goes on to list several reasons why, but notice the specific reason listed in verse 10… “so that the manifold wisdom of God, might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”

You see, God is pouring out His grace upon grace over us, so that one day He will hold us up and say to the angels and heavenly beings… Look what I have done! Do you see what a gracious, loving, and merciful God I am? And the angels will look upon us with great awe and wonder. They will cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy is our Lord God Almighty,” Who is like our God! And they will sing the hallelujah chorus, so that God will receive all the glory, honor, and praise that is due His name.

But church family, we don’t have to wait to that glorious moment to show off the grace and kindness of God to others. If you are believer in Christ, God wants to use you today as His instrument to reveal His amazing grace and wonderful kindness to the world around you.

I’ll never forget back in 1999 when I traveled to the war-torn country Southern Sudan to serve as a missionary, and I was going into a very remote area to help set up a hospital for Samaritan’s Purse, and I was warned before we left that most people in this area have probably never seen a white man before. Now, I didn’t think that much of it, I just simply got on a plane and after flying hours over remote bush country we finally land on a field near a village and sure enough the entire village comes running to see why a plane had landed in their area. And as all the people gathered around, I, the only white plan on the plane finally crawled out of the small plane. I will never forget what happened next… because all the young kids screamed and ran away, while the adults stood and laughed. Of course, I had to have my translator figure out what was going on, so he went over and talked to the chief as I helped unload the plane. In a few minutes my translator came back smiling and laughing, and I said, what gives… He replied Mr Kevin, its been over 20 years since anyone has seen a white man here in this area, over that absence, parents with disobedient children would threaten them and so if you don’t obey me, a big and scary white man will come and take you away. Well, apparently, I fit the description and chaos ensued. That day, I undoubtedly stood out for all the wrong reasons. But the Bible tells us that we should stand out in our culture as people who have received grace and therefore extend grace to others through being exceptionally kind to one another.

Church family, we are loved, shown mercy, lavished with grace, and , made alive so that we can live for Christ. So that the world may not just hear the gospel but see it in our lifestyle. You see salvation is far more than just being forgiven, its empowerment to live for and to live as Christ. Romans 6:12-14… “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Church family, if you a believer, may we live under His grace, as instruments of righteousness so that the world see Christ in us. In our salvation, Christ has made us alive, so may we live for Him.

3) Salvation in Christ, from beginning to end, is the work of grace (2:8-10).

Verses 8-10 are undoubtedly familiar words to most of us. But pay attention to what the apostle Paul says in verse 8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Now, for centuries theologians and commentators have argued over the word “it” in this verse. In other words, what is the gift of God? Some have argued on the basis of theology that “it” refers to grace. Others have argued that the “it” refers to the nearest antecedent which would be faith, and so they would argue “faith” is the gift of God.

Yet, most modern-day commentators believe the word “it” refers to both… the entire package of both grace and faith are the gifts of God. The word “grace” of course speaks of God’s unmerited favor; and it comes to us through faith in what Christ has done. Through believing the gospel message that Christ was born of virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified on a cross where He bled and died as a sacrifice for our sin. His dead body was then buried, but in three days He rose again, proving that God had accepted His sacrifice for our sin and that death was defeated in Him. Faith is believing in those events and believing His Word, where he calls us to come to Him, trust Him, repent of our sin, and live for Him in obedience. Faith demands our response.

But don’t miss the fact that the Bible is saying even that act of believing, and faith is the work of God. Why? Verse 9 answers, “so that no man may boast.” Listen if salvation had anything to do with us earning salvation, even in the most simple way of choosing to believe certain things as true, then heaven would be in danger of being filled with prideful Pharisees, who cry out to the Father, “God, I thank you, I thank you, that I am not like other men.” No one, church family, has grounds to boast before God or any man.

You see there is a deeper reason why salvation is by grace and not by works, and it has to do with the absolute sinfulness of man contrasted to with God’s standard of perfect righteousness. He calls us to be holy as He is holy, but we are completely unable to even come near that standard. You see we are radically sinful. The word radical comes from the Latin word radix, which means “root.”

Church, the very root of our being, every part of our person is stained by sin. Even the very best we have to offer this world is tainted by our sin. Isaiah 64:6, says that our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags before Him. Therefore, no matter how high we may climb on our moral ladder, it will never be good enough. All of God’s gracious salvation is a humbling gift to man. It is His work alone. His unmerited favor- the very love of God going out toward the utterly undeserving who are spiritually dead in their sin. Notice twice in our passage Paul says it’s by grace you have been saved!

Therefore, verse 10 states, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” The Greek word workmanship, is “poiema,” from which we derive the English word “poem.” The Greek word speaks of any form or work of art, therefore some English Bible translations, translate the word workmanship as masterpiece.

The idea expressed here, is that believers, those are in Christ are God’s fine and priceless works of art. Certainly, all of man is created in the image of God and worthy of dignity as such, but in Christ we are far more! Listen, God’s most glorious work of creation, is man made alive in Christ. We are His ultimate workmanship.

Now, some of you may not feel much like a masterpiece this morning, but please know God is not done with you yet. Philippians 1:6… “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Oh, how God is patient, and painfully patient at times. But He is slowly working. In our impatient “right now” culture it’s so difficult for us to understand that God isn’t like us. Masterpieces take much time to perfect and complete; they are never rushed. We must rest in knowing, that as a believer God is working on us. Even right now, as you hear the Word of God proclaimed, He’s working in your life.

And as His workmanship, we must work. You see, verse 10 says that we were created for good works, prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Christians are undoubtedly not saved by their works, but that in no way should imply that they don’t work. You see true Christians do good works. Martin Luther wrote, “We are not made righteous by doing righteous deeds; but when we have been made righteous we do righteous deeds.”

You see, because we are God’s workmanship, people should see our lives and say, “wow, that must be the work of God!” So, let me ask, does your life stand out in the dark world in which we live? If you were tell someone you are follower of Christ, would they be surprised? Jesus said, “let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to the your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

Such works, the apostle said, were prepared beforehand. You see, God in His sovereignty, had good and specific deeds in mind when He chose us for salvation. Deeds that perhaps we would never imagine in our wildest dreams for ourselves. And He planned that “we would walk in them.” As we end, would you please compare these last words of verse 10, with the first words of verse 2, which reads, “in which you formerly walked.” These are some interesting book ends to consider. A profound change has occurred, has it not? It’s the work of His grace that will not relent. For we once walked and lived as dead men and women in the darkness that is controlled by the world, Satan, and the flesh. But God graciously made us alive through faith in Christ, and now as believers we live and walk with Him, able to resist sin, and do good works.

This is what true salvation is. It’s not merely forgiveness and the promise of heaven. It’s experiencing His resurrection power and unlimited grace on a daily basis. Church, we have been made alive to live victoriously in the here and now. Salvation is about revealing His glory and kindness through good works. It is all about His grace!!! For by grace we are saved and made alive in Him.

I pray, you have experienced His grace. I pray you are alive in Christ. And if you are here, and maybe you are confused about what it means to be saved, but your heart longs to know, please come find me after the service, during the fellowship, for we can easily find a place to talk, and I would nothing more than to tell you more about the Amazing Grace of our Great God… pray with me…

KSW