God Has Done it All
Notes
Transcript
What God Has Done:
What God Has Done:
He saved us!
Saved is a “perfect participle”
The Message of Ephesians a. What God Has Done
It emphasizes the abiding consequences of God’s saving action in the past, as if Paul should say, ‘You are people who have been saved and remain for ever saved.’
This is an abstract idea that we struggle with today: We need to dig what exactly Paul is communicating here.
There are four things Paul connects too God’s divine motivation for saving.
Ephesians 2:4a But God, who is rich in mercy...
God’s Mercy:
Mercy reaches the helpless:
Mercy is love for the down and out.
Ephesians 2:4b because of his great love that he had for us.
God’s Love:
Since we exist Ephesians 2:1-3 under God’s wrath, only love could triumph over wrath. We deserved nothing but judgement
Agape Love - to seek the highest goo in the one loved. We have nothing to commend ourselves to God.
Ephesians 2:5 made us alive with Christ even through we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
God’s Grace & Kindness:
Only grace could rescue us from our deserts, for grace is undeserved favour.
The Message of Ephesians b. Why God Did It
Why then did God act? Out of his sheer mercy, love, grace and kindness.
Illustration:
Illustration:
There was a man who approached a pastor after service one day asking for assurance of his salvation. “Preacher, how can I know if I am saved?” Many pastors get this question, and I have made it a personal mission to never be so bold as to judge a persons salvation.
Instead of affirming the man, the Pastor pointed the man to the words of Jesus in John 5:24.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
He then asked the man, “Does this verse apply to you?” The man was taken aback, “I’m not sure?” How does this assure me of my salvation? The pastor said, “read it again.” After reading the verse the pastor asked again, “does this verse apply to you?”
Friends, I cannot tell you if you are saved. Your salvation doesn’t rest in my hands. It rest in the hands of our God who out of Mercy, Love, Grace, and Kindness moved first in order that we could have Life!
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Christ has come to release you from the system of this world, a system designed to entice you away from God’s Mercy, Grace, Love, and Kindness and into the bondage of addiction, injustice, loneliness, and brokenness.
Paul says that God has:
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
This is a direct correlation with:
that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
Not only are we made alive:
We have been raised us up with Christ
He has seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms
This is a positional resurrection.
It’s a spiritual promotion! In the same power that God displayed in Christ, we have now been spiritually transferred from a kingdom of oppression into UNION with Christ!
This is our new POSITION:
This is how you have access to the “every spiritual blessing” that is in the Heavenly Realm.
Illustration:
Illustration:
We have been “zoomed” into God’s presence. God invites us to see things from his perspective, from a position of being seated in heavenly places. If you’ve ever been on an airplane you know how important perspective can be.
On the ground there is chaos and confusion, but when you get into the sky what looked like chaos seems ordered and ordained. The problems fade when you have a big picture perspective.
Illustration
Illustration
We are constantly lured away from life in Christ. Tempted to operate within a broken system as if we are still broken people.
Tony Evans says, “Where you stand must be determined by where you’re seated.”
How does this work?
When you are burdened to the point that you cannot go on - you have access to:
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When resources are limited and things seem impossible:
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
When depression sets in and your head hangs low:
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
When the system of this world weighs you down:
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
When injustice seems never ending and evil seems to always win:
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
I’m reminded of the words of Dr. King, “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
When it seems like no one cares!
casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Friends I could on the rest of this day and still not exhaust the spiritual blessings available to us in union with Christ!
Some of us live like we are still under the old system and we don’t rest in the “spiritual blessings” available to us.
Paul goes on:
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
In other words, if you thought what we have in verse 6 is good… you ain’t seen nothing yet!
There are two things at work here.
The brilliance and majesty of God will be on display for eternity. We will never grow tired or be underwhelmed by the presence of God.
The Message of Ephesians b. Why God Did It
In raising and exalting Christ he demonstrated ‘the immeasurable greatness of his power’ (1:19–20); but in raising and exalting us he displayed also ‘the immeasurable riches of his grace’, and will continue to do so throughout eternity
Secondly:
The Message of Ephesians b. Why God Did It
For as living evidences of his kindness we shall point people away and beyond ourselves to him to whom we owe our salvation.
The ultimate goal of the life of the redeemed is to reflect the redeemer!
The Message of Ephesians b. Why God Did It
the Rev. Paul Gibson retired as Principal, and a portrait of him was unveiled. In expressing his thanks, he paid a well-deserved compliment to the artist. He said that in future he believed people looking at the picture would ask not ‘Who is that man?’ but rather ‘Who painted that portrait?’
See, a patient who has recieved life giving surgery is a living testament to the surgeon’s skill.
In our case, God has displayed more than skill. We are both exhibits of God’s skill and trophies of his grace!
In response to the depth of our separation and death God made us alive with Christ! If there was ever a place for an AMEN was here!
This brings us to perhaps one of the most famous of verses in Christian teaching.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Regarding Salvation:
The Message of Ephesians b. Why God Did It
‘Salvation’ is more than forgiveness. It is deliverance from the death, slavery and wrath described in verses 1–3. Indeed, it includes the totality of our new life in Christ, together with whom we have been made alive, exalted and seated in the heavenly realm.
Regarding Grace:
The Message of Ephesians b. Why God Did It
‘Grace’ is God’s free and undeserved mercy towards us, and ‘faith’ is the humble trust with which we receive it for ourselves.
Paul balances the idea of Salvation by Grace through faith with two negative statements:
1 - this is not of your own doing = it is the gift of God.
2 - not as a result of works = so that no one may boast.
These two ideas confront us and confront our pride:
So much of who we are as humans is tangled up in this broken system where we are defined by our merits.
We have all these unwritten social contracts that some say are polite, but I think it is also a declaration of our inability to receive.
Social Contracts:
When someone invites you over to dinner, what is our first question (outside of the date / time).
“What can I bring?”
Out to dinner with a friend:
Let me get this one! Are you sure? I’ll get the next one!
Jenn’s grandfather:
He would buy our meals and we didn’t have enough money to rub two pennies together. But we would still offer to help pay. Why? I felt guilty for taking something I couldn’t afford myself.
So much of the world is “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
Paul says… Listen! This is not of your own doing!
You don’t deserve it
You didn’t earn it
Even the faith that you have is an expression of the Grace of God active in your life.
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
Both of these verses speak to the idea of repentance, or the ability to turn away from our sin as originating in God. That God would grant us the ability by his Grace to repent.
We should never think that salvation is some type of transactional formula where God puts a little Grace and I put a little faith.
If that idea bothers you: Paul wants you to hear this next sentence.
NOT AS A RESULT OF WORKS, SO THAT NO ONE CAN BOAST!
Listen, when I get to heaven, by God’s Grace, I promise I will not be walking around “strutting my stuff.”
The party doesn’t wait until I get there! It’s not about me and it never will be.
When you take The work of Christ + ANYTHING you end up having a works based salvation.
The Cross of Jesus and the Work of Jesus ALONE is sufficient to save.
This is where we get it all mixed up!
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Good works are not the root of salvation, but the fruit.
You know why we have so many miserable Christians today?
You were saved for something! You were saved for the works that Jesus prepared for you!
We get so busy trying to figure out what “we want” in life that we forget as the redeemed to stop and “submit” to what HE wants for our lives.
I’ve been reading Jonah this week with the kids.
He didn’t submit, had to pay his own way, and ultimately suffered the frustration and loss because of it.
Listen - the GRACE of GOD covers everything… even your bad theology.
But Christ set you free! It is for freedom you have been set free… not so that you can turn once again to the yoke of bondage. We’re just a bunch of foolish Galatians.
Listen, quit trying to take the canvas of your life away from the master artist. Jesus saved you, wiped the slate clean, Let him be the artist of your life.
God will paint a picture more beautiful and wondrous than anything we could dream up.
Maybe your like the woman at the well in John 4.
Broken, outcast, latching onto others to find provision and purpose. God wants to take that broken canvas and paint a glorious picture that will cause others to worship him.
Maybe your like Nicodemus in John 3. A super religious person doing everything “right” but miserable inside. God wants to ease the burden and weight of the standard of perfection you’ve put on yourself.
I want to close with the lyrics from an album that I love.
The artist, “Sleeping At Last”
The lyrics were written for the person who is always seeking perfection.
“But the list goes on forever
Of all the ways I could be better
In my mind
As if I could earn God's favor given time
Or at least "congratulations"
Now I have learned my lesson
The price of this so-called perfection
Is everything
I've spent my whole life searching desperately
To find out that grace requires nothing of me”