All Because of His Grace

Good morning Ambassadors! I’m grateful once again to be gathered with you and walking through God’s Word again. Today we are starting in the first verse of Chapter 2 in the book of Ephesians. Before we begin, I’d like to reiterate a few things for us by asking some good Questions.

The questions of which I speak are of course the questions I asked last Sunday. I think this can be a good way for us to recap last week’s message and prepare us to be thinking about how to read ahead into chapter 2. A major theme of chapter 1 is gratitude, which led to these questions:

How have you recounted the blessings of God lately?

Who have you thanked God for recently?

Who have you remembered in your prayers?

Who have you told this to?

How has God revealed Himself to you lately?

I hope that these questions help us think about the gratitude that Paul has for the church at Ephesus. This letter, more-so than Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans, is about recounting foundational truths and expressing deep gratitude and love for the people. Each letter has its strengths, and the strength of Ephesians centers on what we see on the doctrine of salvation. When we talk about salvation, what comes to mind for you?

For me, the phrase that most comes to mind is “death to life.” For over 2,000 years, the scientific community affirmed a theory called “spontaneous generation,” a thought that posited that life could spontaneously appear from nonliving matter, like flies from a cow patty. Aristotle worked to prove this theory and it was counted as scientific fact. But in the mid-17th century, Francesco Redi, and later in the mid 19th century, Louis Pasteur, performed experiments that proved that living matter could not generate from non-living matter. So life could not be produced from death or dead things. I think our modern world has a firm grasp on these things, especially understaning microbiology and the current obsession with small invisible viruses and bacteria. But the principle that we see in science, the study of the world created by God, is echoed in theology, the study of God and His interaction with His creation and His image-bearers - people.

When we hear the term “salvation,” I mentioned my initial thought is “From Death to Life.” Let’s see that process unfold in Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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.

So let’s look at the process together, beginning with:

Our Condition

Ephesians 2:1–2 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Here we see that we were DEAD. What does it mean to be dead? Not alive, of course. Now, as we discussed earlier, is it possible for death to produce life? No, Louis Pasteur made sure of that for us in the scientific world, a world that God made. In the course of human activity, beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden, we have all existed from a natural state of spiritually dead. But why are we dead? Why would we be born this way? We are dead in the trespasses and sins it says here in verse 1. This means that from the moment we are born, who we are as image-bearers of God is broken, bent, out of shape. We are like mirrors that have been smashed and reflect the image of who God is, but only in pieces and definitely imperfectly. We are born in sin and live in sin, our condition is fallen. Paul recounts this to us in verse 3.

Ephesians 2:3 ESV

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

When we are born, we are children of wrath. If it were not so, our world would be far better off and the brokenness we see all around us would be whole. But we see that our fallen state came a long time ago, and it’s something that needs to be fixed.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

The sin of Adam was the breaking point for all of humanity, except for Jesus, the second Adam. Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again - all without ever committing sin. He lived the perfect life, not as our example only, but as the giver of life.

This leads me to our next step in the process of salvation

God’s Compassion

Here we get to some of the most comforting words in all of Scripture - But God. Whenever we encounter these 2 words, we find ourselves at the precipice of beauty. We see a loving, kind, generous, and sovereign God’s whose gifts of mercy, compassion, and grace are ready for receiving.

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

God is RICH in mercy and GREAT with love. In that mercy and love He takes us himself from Death to Life! It says in verse 5 we are made alive together with Christ. Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross and his soon after resurrection paved the way for us to have access to and a relationship with a holy God -when there was no other way. In this process of becoming a part of God’s family we have seen Our Condition, God’s Compassion, and now...

Our Conversion

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

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.

Here we come to the seminal moment of the book, one of the clearest presentations of what it means to be saved by Christ. We speak here of our “conversion,” where our hearts, minds, and souls are converted to the love of God in faith by grace. We are not saved by the love of God, we are saved to the love of God. We are saved by grace. We are transformed by the renewing, the making new, of our minds in Christ.

Verse 9 is also crucial for us. Not your own doing, the gift of God. Not a result of works. One of the largest challenges we have in placing our faith in Christ is worrying about how deep God’s forgiveness and his gifts go....

Our salvation is of God! We often think about our faith and our responsibility but our faith is not our responsibility.

Gift of God

Not a result of works

So that no one may boast

And now we move into the final part of the salvation process

God’s New Creation

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God’s workmanship

Created in Christ Jesus for good works “New life”

We should walk in them

Steps to walk in:

Baptism

Communion

Church Community

Discipleship - Moving to Maturity in Christ