Eph. 2:1–10 | Shining Grace: The Unbreakable Power of God’s Covenantal Love.

So, we’ve covered a lot of the Old Testament over the past couple weeks in our series on God’s Covenant promises. We spent a bit of time in Genesis looking at God’s covenant with Noah. Then we moved on to look at Abraham. And then last week we looked at God’s covenant with Moses and the people of Israel. That essentially gets us through the book of Ruth in the OT. And we’re not going to look at the Davidic Covenant in this series but all you really need to know about that is that God is essentially getting more specific on the Abrahamic covenant. If you’ll remember that covenant was God’s promise to give Abraham a people, a place and an eternal possession. God said He was going to bless Abraham this way so that Abe and his family would become a blessing to the whole world. Well in the Davidic covenant which is outlined for us in 2 Samuel 7. Essentially God promises David, who is a descendant of Abraham, that this blessing for the whole world is going to come through Abraham's line, and more specifically it’s going to come from David’s line. This person will be the Messiah, the Savior and King who will establish and everlasting Kingdom for God’s people!

Other than the Davidic covenant there’s only one more covenant we need to look at in this series and that is the New Covenant God promises to make with His people. But we’re not going to look at that till next week.

This morning, what I’d like to try to do with you is pull out a major theme from the covenants we’ve looked at thus far. The theme that I hope you’ve seen is that God’s Grace Shines. It shines forth from His character and from the power of His unbreakable love which is always on display in how He keeps His promises, but more than that, God’s grace shines through our lives as it changes us into something better than what we used to be! What God’s covenant keeping shows us is that His Grace Shines!

As we’ve gone through these covenants, we’ve seen God keep His promises and pursue people even though they didn’t keep up their end perfectly! That’s because God’s love is unbreakable.

God’s covenantal love is a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.

And if that sounds familiar to you it’s because I stole it from one of my favorite Christian resources of all time: The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Title Slide

We’re going to look at the book of Ephesians in a minute, but before we do I thought it might be helpful to give you a quick summary of how God’s love and grace continued to shine forth over and through the lives of the Israelites.

Last week, we left the Israelites in the wilderness with Moses, but a lots happened since then.

Eventually, they make it to the promise land, but they fail to follow God and live in light of His covenant promises. And while God doesn’t ever give up on them, He does discipline them along the way in an attempt to help them shine forth His goodness and grace to the world.

They end up failing so bad that they wind up being conquered by foreign nations and once again find themselves as slaves. But God continues to pursue them and eventually He brings them back to the promise land.

And it is after they just get back into the promised land that The Jesus Storybook Bible summarizes for us the rest of their time in the Old Testament until we get to the new testament. I want to share that story with you now.

Sally Lyod Jones writes:

HAVE YOU EVER been to a party that lasted a whole week? How about a sermon that went on all day? Well, that's what happened to God's people after they came home from being slaves. They had forgotten how God wanted them to live, or who they were supposed to be. So Ezra and Nehemiah read them the rules God had given Moses.

But something odd happened: the more the sermon went on, the sadder they all got. Why? Was the sermon that boring? No, not really. It was strange, you see. As Ezra read the book of rules, it worked like a mirror. It showed them what they were like, and they didn't like what they saw.

They saw that they had not been living the way they should. They saw that they were cruel and selfish. "We've blown it," they cried. "Now God will punish us!" They thought they knew what God was going to do. But they didn't. Of course, they might have picked up a clue from Ezra's name, which means "Help is here!" And an even stronger one from Nehemiah's name, because his name means "God wipes away our tears." And that, as you'll see, is just exactly what God was getting ready to do. Ezra looked at God's children. Great, hot tears were welling up in their eyes and streaming down their cheeks. He stopped his sermon-mid-sentence and shut the book. “We’re having a party!” he shouted.

And so that’s just what they did! All week long.

"God wants us to be happy!" Ezra said. All day they listened to stories about the wonderful things God had done for his people. How he made the world. How he gave a special promise to Abraham. How he rescued them from slavery. How he spoke to Moses and showed them how to live. How he brought them to a special land. How he rescued them time after time, over and over again no matter what, because of his

Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.

They remembered how God had always, all through the years, been loving his children – keeping his promise to Abraham, taking care of them, forgiving them. Even when they disobeyed. Even when they ran away from him. Even when they thought they didn't need him.

Then God told his children something more

I can't stop loving you. You are my heart's treasure.

But I lost you.

Now I am coming back for you.

I am like the sun that gently shines on you, chasing away darkness and fear and death. You'll be so happy you'll be like little calves running free in an open field.

I am going to send my Messenger - The Promised One.

The One you have been waiting for.

The Rescuer.

He is coming. So, get ready!

It had taken centuries for God's people to be ready. but now the time had almost come for the best part God's Plan.

God himself was going to come. Not to punish his people - but to rescue them.

God was getting ready to wipe away every tear from every eye.

And the true party was just about to begin...

And here’s why I wanted to read this story to you. I think it does a phenomenal job of summarizing how God has dealt with and kept His promises to His people throughout the years.

God rescued them time after time, over and over again no matter what, because of his Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. Even when they disobeyed. Even when they ran away from him. Even when they thought they didn't need him. God kept His promise to Abraham and to Moses and His people. His love is and has been unbreakable! His grace continues to shine through Himself and His people as they fail and God continues to love and pursue and change them!

And this truth, the power of God’s unbreakable love and His shining grace is summarized for us no place more clearly than in Ephesians 2:1-10.

I want to read it with you in a moment but before we do, here’s what I want you to see:

In vv. 1-3 we’ll see the kind of people we are apart from God’s grace and love in our lives.

In vv. 4-6 we’ll see the most important thing about us when God’s grace and love is in our lives.

and in vv. 7-10 we’ll see why God shines His grace and love upon us and why this is good news!

Ephesians 2:1–10 (NIV)

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.

Vv. 1-3 — Who We Are Apart From God’s Grace:

NEXT SLIDE — Ephesians 2:1–10 (NIV)

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.

Alright, firstly did you see who we are apart from God’s grace in our lives? Ephesians tells us we’re dead, dead in transgressions and sins! We make a habit of breaking God’s rules and missing God’s mark! We are less than who God desires for us to be! “By nature deserving of wrath!”

Friend, God offers 1 of 2 things to the people of earth, grace, which is a promise to always be glad to see you or wrath, which is a promise to crush you under His infinite might!

And you and I make this choice of what we’d like to receive from God by who we choose to follow!

If we choose to follow the ways of the world and the ruler of the Kingdom of the air, if we choose to reject God’s good and live disobediently to His ways, we live apart from God’s grace and make ourselves objects of His wrath!

And I realize it’s not always an obvious choice, but ultimately it comes down what we celebrate and worship in our lives.

Remember last week, when we closed the service, I told you all there is really only 1 difference between Christians and non-Christians and it’s what we choose to celebrate and center our lives around.

We either celebrate God and put Him at the center of our lives, we let His grace shine on us and through us by celebrating Him and what He says and we conform ourselves to His standards or we celebrate sin and put our selfish desires at the center of our lives and conform ourselves to whatever we want.

And when we choose to live apart from God’s grace in this manner we not only make ourselves objects of God’s wrath, but we live dead lives, devoid of meaning or significance. In a very really way, we are as good as dead in our sin!

Woof right?

But! OOO.... you gotta love the Big Buts of Scripture!

This is a big but Church!

vv. 4-6 Who We Are by God’s Grace

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,

Now I realized I just talked with you briefly about obedience to God’s ways and conformity to His standards, but look at these verses. What does God really care about in regards to you receiving His grace? No where does God talk about our actions or our obedience. We’re hardly the focus here. Sure we’re receiving salvation but look at how! It’s not by any of our works! This is a work of God! The most important thing is our position!

We are with Christ. Because of God’s love and mercy, we are made alive WITH CHRIST. God raises us up WITH CHRIST. He seats us WITH HIM, in the heavenly realms IN CHRIST!

And you’re not missing anything. God says to anyone who would so long to become apart of Him, ok! Done! Church this is crazy town! The God of Heaven says if you want to become one with Him, He will honor that request. Now I’m not suggesting that anyone of us becomes God. We don’t and we can’t. We maintain our personhood and so does God, but in some weird way, because of God’s grace and love, we can be united with Christ!

So that — all that is true of Jesus can be true for us! We were dead in sin like Jesus was crucified dead and buried, but God resurrected Him and now if we’re in Jesus, we too can be resurrected, made alive! God will raise us up from our sin and He will raise us up on the last day as well to enteral life with Him in glory!

And if that weren’t good enough, we were once no bodies in the spiritual realm powerless against sin, the flesh, and the devil, but now, now because Christ is seated on the throne with all authority over all things and we’re raised with Him, we too now have delegated authority and power over sin, our flesh and the devil!

This is who we are by God’s grace!

And this is where things start to feel too good to be true. Right, ok we know we’re supposed to believe this and we’re supposed to live in victory over sin and do good, but as we’ve seen as in the life of every person God ever made a covenant with in the Bible, we’re not going to keep up our end of the deal! We’re going to fail at living in light of this grace! And surely at some point, God is not going to be happy to see us, surely at some point we’re going to break the covenant with God and blow it one too many times and God’s going to be done with us!

And Church that would be true if God gave His grace to us because we deserved it or earned it. Right if God said I’ll always be happy to see you if you love me and serve me faithfully, then this would be true. Eventually we’d blow it and God would be done with us, but I want you to see why God gives out His grace and why He loves us so powerfully, in an unbreakable way.

Look at vv. 7-10.

vv. 7-10 Why God Shines Grace

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.

This means, It’s not about you! It’s not about me! It’s about God!

God loves us, He desires to be gracious to us and to transform us into better people so that He will be on display! He does this not so you will boast and say look at what I did. No He does this so others will boast about God and say, holy cow! look at what God did!

“Do you remember how this guy was in high school! Look at him now! Look at what God did!

That’s His grace shining through you!

It’s the theme of Exodus all over again. God saves to get glory for Himself! His love is rooted in this goal. His commitment to be glad to see you to be gracious unto you is rooted in His desire for others to see Him as a good and loving and gracious God!

And here’s why this is such a big deal. Does God change Church? No He does not change. God never changes. His desire for people to see His beauty and goodness. His desire to be worshipped and to receive glory that never changes, which means His love will always be unbreakable! His grace will always be available this side of heaven!

His love is meant to fashion us into His handiwork! We are meant to be works of art! We are meant to display His goodness to the world! If we are living with Christ following Him rather than the ways of the world, His grace will shine through us as He transforms us into someone better by His unbreakable love!

And because God’s love and grace is rooted to his desire to get glory and not your ability to live up to His standards, the only thing that would ever prevent you from receiving it is to choose not to… To say it in the positive: Because God’s love and grace is tied to His desire to get glory, He’ll never stop loving or pursuing you. You will never be a lost cause. Why, because He desires to show the incomparable riches of his grace and kindness which means you can always turn back to Him and the gift of grace will always be available!

Think this, what would display the incomparable riches of God’s grace more than for Him to save an idolatry, or murder or a prostitute or an adulterer or a liar or a couple who had an abortion, or a tax evader, thief or addict? What would display the incomparable riches of God’s grace more than for Him What would display the or you or me?!?

Here’s the deal Church, there is no sin too big that God can’t save us from! The bigger the sin, the bigger the mess, the more glory God gets when we come back to Him and receive redemption from it, but we’ve got to come back! We’ve got to get back into Jesus and turn from following the ways of the world, otherwise, we place ourselves outside of God’s grace and remember where that puts us… dead in our transgressions and objects of wrath!

And ain’t no body wants that.

Here’s what I want you to see Church: God’s Grace shines, it shines through the lives of those He’s saving as they become more and more His handiwork and if God’s grace isn’t changing you into His handiwork, well then it’s not saving you!

But none of us need to fear, because God’s grace is rooted in His desire to get glory for Himself and that never changes, which means, no matter where you’ve wandered off you to, in Christ and because of Christ you’re always welcome to come back home and the Father will be glad to see you!

My mom sent me a meme this past week that I want to share with you all in closing. I feel like it summarizes the attitude of those shining God’s grace well:

Yes, Jesus hung out with prostitutes and drunkards and outcasts. Here's the thing, though - by the time Jesus was finished with these people, they weren't prostitutes or drunkards or outcasts anymore. Jesus came to transform people, not indulge them. Christianity is about surrender, not comfort. We are to align ourselves to his standard, not the other way around.

And as we make this our life’s endeavor, we do so in the reality that God’s got grace for us, always and forever because God’s grace Shines!

Pray