But God...
Ephesians: Transformed By Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro- in this next section of the letter,
Paul starts with our favorite subject… If we could take a big photo of the sanctuary here today— and put it up on the wall back there in the welcome are— who is the first person you’re going to look for?
You. Yeah— that’s what I thought.
In this next section of the letter, Paul wants to highlight and magnify the magnificent grace of God. This set of verses is often named as one of the most powerful and concise descriptions of the “GOOD NEWS” that we have in scripture.
Remember this— if you’re trying to explain the gospel to a person— Ephesian 2:1-10 is exactly the first place you should go. In fact, I want to just read the whole thing in one sitting— they we are going to unpack it.
If you have your bibles...
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
He’s going to describe how great God’s love and mercy is— by setting up a black, dark background to contrast it. Much like a jeweler would place a precious stone on a velvet mat, and shine a bright light on it— we will see today that the love, mercy and grace of God is that magnificent jewel— and you and I were that black background. We were dead— that’s not “almost” or “part-way”, it speaks to our spiritual state— you’re either dead or alive. No in-between.
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
Transgressions- “trespasses”, this refers to purposely walking. (Commission)
Sins - missing the mark. (Omission) I may not even know I missed.
Paul covers both here— in those places and actions where you “knew” you were doing wrong— and even in the places and times when you didn’t even know you were wrong. You were dead.
He goes on to describe exactly how bad it really was: He describes the devastating facts about a person left to their own natural tendency, and left to be influenced by the devil in the world.
How we used to be: (v. 1-3)
How we used to be: (v. 1-3)
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Dead in sin.
Following the world.
Following the ruler of the air.
A son of disobedience.
That’s just in verses 1-2!
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
(How we used to be:)
Gratifying the flesh.
Following desires and thoughts.
Naturally deserved wrath.
Just like everyone else!
All these verbs—action words---living, following, walking, gratifying, these are all the things that we were trying to “do”.
All that we’ve done— deserves punishment because it was wrong.
“Following” is mentioned several times actually. Following. Following what? It’s the devil. He has a plan for your life— and it leads to death. We were actually enslaved by the devil and the world was leading us to destruction.
Think about this:
A dead fish floats down stream.
It takes a fish that is alive to swim up the stream.
That fish has no control over where it goes. It’s just meandering along with the current— just like everything else in the world. The enemy has every intention to keep as many people as possible in this state of “deadness”. Even when they think that they are doing well— or they are doing good. The enemy intends destruction for you— God intends Good for you. The Best for you. And who knows what’s best for you? The one who made you.
That’s the black background. Now Paul will begin to splash the beautiful colors of God’s love and God’s actions toward us, and for us:
It echos back to the Psalmist King David saying these powerful words:
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
God intervenes. God acts.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
“But God...”
I completed a quick search for this phrase in all the bible— But God… I found up to 31 times this phrase pops up:
(SEE EXTRA SHEET FOR A FEW OF THEM)
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
How we are now: (v.4-6)
How we are now: (v.4-6)
We are alive with Christ.
We are seated with Christ.
We need to be aware of a couple other key words that Paul uses here:
Why would God do this?
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Love= agape, unselfish, unconditional, sacrificial love.
Mercy= eleos, compassion, pity, tenderness.
Grace= charis, gift, undeserved, free, unmerited.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Some believe the “this” in verse 8 refers back to the “faith” that is mentioned. Even the faith, the belief that we have is a gift from God— we simply respond by believing or not. And when we do have the faith— it is from God, not based in anything that we have done. Otherwise, it would be something we could brag about— or compare with each other.
Live in the Gospel!
Live in the Gospel!
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are God’s creation. (v. 10)
God created you and the good work for you to accomplish.
God created the path for us to walk.
When we believe, we begin to see the work.
Many have mistakenly twisted this concept.
Behave -----> Believe --------> Belong
God’s plan is just the opposite for us:
Belong ------> Believe --------> Behave
We come to the body of Christ as a broken, sinful person— but because all of us were there— we do not judge, we simply love— and let God’s mercy and grace do it’s work. That creates a sense of “belonging” to something greater than ourselves.
Something greater than the individual.
This leads a person— hopefully through the work of the Holy Spirit— to really believe. Because of the manifestation of God’s love through His people— a person believes— is given this great wisdom and revelation — They are BORN AGAIN, they see with NEW EYES—
and this then changes everything about how we behave— We begin to walk in the pathway that God has created us to walk— doing the good works, bearing the Fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives that God Ordained for us to accomplish in Christ.
The enemy DOES NOT get the last word.
Death and disease DO NOT get the last word.
Because there is always, always, always a “but God”.
There is nothing better for you and me, than to be in the will of God. There is no better path to be walking than the one God prepared for you.
The ultimate test of our spirituality is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones