With Christ, We Are Spiritually Alive not finish

EPHESIANS 2:4–7

God’s gracious initiative and sovereign action stand in wonderful contrast to verses 1–3. We were lifeless, hopeless, and under condemnation. “But God” came to our rescue. Notice how Paul describes the character of God and the work of God in these amazing verses.

God’s Character (2:4–7)

What prompted God’s salvation was His mercy, love, grace, and kindness. Paul can, in the same sentence, affirm the wrath of God and the love of God. In fact, you cannot understand one without the other. Notice the descriptions of God’s goodness in these verses.

God is “rich in mercy” (v. 4). The Old Testament describes God as rich in faithful love as One who delights in faithful love The word in Hebrew, chesed, refers to God’s loyal, merciful love. God’s mercy is also sovereignly distributed. God says, “I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy” (Rom 9:15).

Next, God has shown “great love” (Eph 2:4). To the Romans Paul writes, “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners [dead, depraved, and doomed], Christ died for us!” (Rom 5:8).

Paul also highlights God’s amazing “grace” in these verses (Eph 2:5, 8). Being made alive when we were dead is a work of grace. Believers have experienced the undeserved favor of God. Twelve times “grace” is mentioned in Ephesians. In chapter 1 Paul said that our salvation was “to the praise of His glorious grace” (1:6).

Paul reaches for words as he also mentions “the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness” (2:7b). For all eternity we will be recipients of His grace, trophies of His grace. He has displayed infinite riches of grace in kindness to us.

God’s Work (2:5–7)

Now notice what God did in His mercy, grace, love, and kindness. Paul begins by telling us that God made us alive with Christ (v. 5). The main verb that governs the phrase, “made us alive,” is introduced. Just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He also said to us, “________ come forth.” And like Lazarus, we rise and rejoice in His grace.

We have what theologians have termed an “outer call,” which goes out to everyone through the proclamation of the gospel, and “an inner call,” which the Holy Spirit does in hearts. Those who are Christians have sensed this inner calling (Gal 1:6). Paul experienced this call to come to Christ (Gal 1:15).

We cannot overemphasize the importance of this doctrine of regeneration. Christianity is not about becoming a nicer person, nor is it about starting a new religious routine. It is about becoming a new person (2 Cor 5:17). One night a religious man named Nicodemus came to ask Jesus some spiritual questions. He had a lot of religious knowledge, but he had not been made alive. Jesus told him, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

We need to remember that no one is beyond the reach of God’s regenerating grace, and no one is beyond the need for God’s regenerating grace. I remember preaching at a church in the deep South. A man who was about 70 years old was handing out bulletins, as he did every week. I preached on John 3, and he came up after the service and said, “I’ve never heard that. Someone just asked me when I was a boy, ‘Don’t you think it’s about time for you to join the church?’ And I did. But I feel like God was waking me up today.” Later I baptized this gentleman upon his confession of faith.

I love a particular story regarding the ministry of the eighteenth-century evangelist George Whitefield, who reportedly preached on John 3 thousands of times. He was pouring out his heart one day during a Great Awakening sermon. A man with pockets stuffed with rocks came to hear him for the purpose of physically attacking the famous evangelist once the sermon ended. But after Whitefield’s emotional and powerful message, the man made his way up to the preacher, emptied his pockets, and said, “I came to hear you with my pocket full of stones to break your head, but your sermon got the better of me and broke my heart” (Dunn, Evangelical Awakening, 17). God gave this angry, hostile man life through the gospel. It is true that “the gospel can melt the ice or harden the clay.” Praise God that He melts the hearts of the hardest men and women and gives them new life!

There is sort of a parenthesis in verse 5—“You are saved by grace!” Paul repeats this again in verse 8: “For you are saved by grace through faith.” Being raised from the dead is all of grace. Both phrases are in the perfect tense emphasizing the abiding consequences of conversion. To capture what Paul is saying we could put it like this: You have been saved (past tense), you are being saved (present tense), and you will be saved (future tense).

The final work of grace that Paul notes is future oriented. He says God will dispense grace forever to us in Christ (v. 7). The reason God has showed us such grace is so we might be the demonstration of His grace forever. We will be His trophies of grace. God says in effect, “Look what I can do with such a mess.” Ponder the idea of grace for “ages” to come. Instead of wrath, we have everlasting grace!