Sermon Tone Analysis

*Grace Alone*

*Ephesians 2:4-10*

 

In "The Sound of Music," Maria (Julie Andrews), bewildered by the captain's sudden attraction to her, sings, "Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.

So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good."

People have a tendency to think of salvation in those terms.

There must be something I have contributed to my salvation.

God must see something good in me or accept something good from me in order for me to be saved.

In the medieval church just prior to the Reformation, there was a popular slogan.

They said, “God will not deny His grace to those who do what they can.”

It sort of sounds like “God helps those who help themselves.”

The Reformers, following Scripture, rejected this idea because sinners do not have the ability to /do /anything.

They are dead, helpless, blind, and enslaved to sin according to the New Testament.

The slogan /sola gratia/ was shorthand for saying that salvation is completely by grace alone.

God doesn’t save us because of anything good in us or any good we perform.

He saves us by His free, undeserved grace.

In Ephesians 2:4-10, we see that God, moved by mercy and love, raises dead sinners to life in Christ to display the lavishness of His grace by which they are rescued when they trust in Jesus Christ.

It is a breathtaking passage.

Let’s look at it more closely.

I.

God raises the spiritually dead to life in Christ (vv.

4-7).

            A.

God raises the dead to life.

                        1. God is the subject in these verses.

It is God who is

                            acting in His power to save sinners.

The dead cannot

                            self-resurrect.

God must give them life.

2. The motives of God’s saving activity are mercy and

                            love.

a.

Mercy = compassion for the helpless and

                                        pitiful.

So we were.

God sees our pitiful and

                                        hopeless condition and has mercy.

b.

Love = personal affection and kindness.

Love

                                        goes beyond mercy.

B.

God raises the dead to life in union with Christ.

                        1. Remember, we were dead in transgressions.

2. God gave us spiritual life in union with Christ.

a.

Three key verbs in vv.

5-6 begin with the

                                        prefix /sun/, meaning “together with.”

b.

The phrases “with Christ” (v. 5) and “in

                                        Christ” (v. 6) also emphasize union.

3. Three things happen to believers because they are

                            in union with Christ.

a.

God makes them alive together with Christ.

b.

God raises them together with Christ.

c.

God seats them in heavenly places together

                                        with Christ.

d.

Note the parallel with 1:20.

e.

All these verbs are past tense indicating that

                                        when God made Christ alive, raised him, and

                                        seated him, He also did the same for us.

There are two senses in which we can think of union with Christ.

The first is the representative sense.

Adam is our representative in relation to our sin.

When Adam sinned, all who are in Adam fell with him.

That means all of us.

In the same way, when Christ was raised from the dead, all who are in Christ were also raised to new life.

The second sense of our union with Christ is our vital union.

It is sometimes called our mystical union with Christ.

This refers to the fact that we are joined to Christ by faith and we are part of His body, the church.

By faith, there is an organic, living union between Christ and the believer.

So, because we are in Christ, what has happened to Christ has happened to us.

He was made alive from death, so were we.

He was raised, so were we.

He was seated in the heavenlies, so were we.

 

            C.

God raises the dead to life in Christ to display the riches of

                 His grace.

                        1. God’s grace will be eternally displayed in the saving

                            of sinners.

“In the coming ages” means for all the

                            ages to come, i.e. eternally.

2. God’s saving work in Christ puts on public display

                            His lavish grace toward those who are in Christ.

ILLUSTRATION: Jonathan Edwards in a sermon entitled /Glorious Grace/ pressed home to his hearers how they should personally marvel in the grace of God shown to them in Christ.

He stated, “Surely, if the angels are so astonished at God's mercy to you, and do even shout with joy and admiration at the sight of God's grace to you, you yourself, on whom this* *grace is bestowed, have much more reason to shout.”

APPLICATION: Why is Paul telling us this?

Why has he taken us from the depths of despair in describing our sin to the heights of joy in describing God’s salvation?

He has done it so that we might shout with joy at the sight of God’s grace.

In 2007, Wesley Autrey, a construction worker in NYC received national acclaim for his selfless act of saving another man from death in the subway tunnel by shielding him from the oncoming train.

What sort of acclaim belongs to Jesus Christ for shielding us from the oncoming wrath of God?

What sort of acclaim belongs to God for bringing dead sinners to life in Christ by His grace?

It is lavish, rich, superabundant grace which ought to grip our hearts with undying praise.

When you realize the depth and danger of sin, you then realize the reach and the richness of grace.

TS – With the introduction of the idea of displaying God’s grace, we now see that…