Ephesians 2:1-10 - By Grace You Have Been Saved

Introduction

In the introduction to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul greeted all the saints who at Ephesus who are faithful in the Christ Jesus (1:1-2). Then he glorified God by exulting all the spiritual blessings that belong to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (1:3-14). Then Paul told the Ephesians that he’s has been thanking God for their faith and praying that God would grow them in that faith (1:15-23).

Now, with chapter 2, we enter in to the body of Paul’s letter, where he will tell the Ephesians how their faith in Jesus came to be.

[CIT] In Ephesians 2:1-10 Paul showed the Ephesians who they used to be before Jesus, what God did in bringing them to Jesus, and why He did it.

[PROP] Of course, the story of God’s gracious dealings with the Ephesians is our story too.

[TS] This morning we will see who we were, what God did about, and why He did it.

[READING - Ephesians 2:1-10]

Ephesians 2:1–3 NASB95

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Ephesians 2:4–6 NASB95

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:7–10 NASB95

7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

[PRAYER]

Major Ideas

#1: Who We Were (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Ephesians 2:1–3 NASB95

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

[EXP] We were dead. Apart from Jesus, we were not just impaired, sick, or marked for death. No! We were dead. We were dead to God, dead to His love, dead to His goodness, dead to His magnificence. We didn’t want God and had no feelings for Him. We were dead to Him, cold, unresponsive.

But notice that although we were dead, we were walking.

We weren’t walking with God, but we were walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience,” (Eph. 2:2).

The prince of the power of the air refers to the Satan who is the ruler or little-g god of this world. Jesus has knocked Satan off his wicked throne through His perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection; and when Jesus returns He will fully and finally cast Satan down into the lake of fire where he will be tormented day and night forever along with the wicked who followed him.

But here in Ephesians 2:2 we learn that we used to walk among those wicked. We took part in their wickedness. We engaged in their rebellion. We walked the way of Satan just as the sons and daughters of disobedience still do.

[ILLUS] Cheryl once went on a mission trip to Newala, Tanzania. She met and stayed with the missionaries who lived there, listened as they shared the Gospel through translators, watched as they were heckled by those opposed to the Gospel.

One night in the home of the missionaries, they heard a noise—the banging of a drum—come from down the way. One of the missionaries said, “Let’s go see what that is.” They loaded up, started down the road, and soon came upon a man walking in the opposite direction. The missionary slowed, rolled down his window, and asked the man, “What’s going on down there?” The man said, “Oh, they’re worshipping the devil.”

After returning to the missionary home, Cheryl and the others read a passage of Scripture together—maybe something like, “He who is you is greater than he who is in the world,”—and off to bed they went…

…but the point that Paul is making is that we all used to be down that road worshipping the devil. We all used to walk that way. We all used to be sons and daughters of disobedience.

But notice that although we were dead, we weren’t just walking in the way of Satan, we were also living in the way of Satan.

We were living “in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,” just like everyone else, (Eph. 2:3).

The lusts of the flesh are the desire of sinful flesh and sinful mind; these are the things that we were engaged in, the things that we indulged, the things that we did before Christ. This is how we walked in the world. This is the kind of life we lived. This is who we were by nature—storing up wrath for the day of wrath—until Jesus saved us.

[ILLUS] John Paton was a pioneer missionary to groups of cannibals on remote islands off the coast of Australia. When he first tried to share the Gospel with them, they told him that they worshipped the one he called ‘Satan,’ and they liked worshipping him. These cannibals beat their wives, murdered one another, and of course ate one another—and all this because they lived as ruled by Satan.

But when Jesus set them free, one question asked by John Paton to measure the genuineness of their conversion was this, “Do you resolve that you will now give up the service of Satan, and all bad conduct, and serve Jesus only?”

I imagine if were asked that question, we would have all said, “I never followed Satan! I never served him! I never bowed to him as my master!”

Ephesians 2 says we did.

That’s how we walked. That’s how we lived. That’s who we were.

But notice what is was that made us that way—our sins and trespasses.

Sins and trespasses refer to the same thing—the disobeying of God’s commands. In all likelihood, Paul uses two words for disobeying God’s commands to emphasize the magnitude of our disobedience.

We were sinners.

We were trespassers.

These were our sins and trespasses.

Perhaps the most offensive word that Paul used in these first three verses is the word your in v. 1 or you in v. 2. These words required the Ephesian believers to admit who they used to be before Jesus. They were trespassers and sinners who had rebelled against God.

And Paul admitted this about himself too. In v. 3, he shifted from your and you to we—”we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh…”

But by using the words you and your, Paul is in essence asking the Ephesians, “Do you own the fact that you were a sinner against God? Do you own the fact that you were dead in your trespasses and sins?”

[Illus] When Adam ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he didn’t own his trespasses and sins. Rather, he blamed Eve and then blamed God by saying to God, “The woman you gave me made me eat it,” (Gen. 3:12).

When Saul didn’t destroy the Amalekites as God commanded, he didn’t own his sins and trespasses. Rather, he blamed the people, saying, “It was the people! The people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choices of the things devoted to destruction...” (1 Sam. 15:21).

History is full of people who didn’t own the fact that they were trespassers and sinners, but the church should be full of Christians who own it!

[App] We shouldn’t be proud that we were trespassers and sinners, but we should readily admit that that’s who we used to be. We should own the fact that we used to be rebels against God, that we all used to walk among the dead and live among the dead because were were dead in our sins and trespasses as we followed Satan.

It wasn’t society.

It wasn’t our parents.

It wasn’t the school system.

It was us.

And if we aren’t willing to admit this—if we aren’t willing to own it— then perhaps we are still dead in our sins and trespasses.

[TS] That’s who we were. Let’s look at what God did about it.

#2: What God Did (About Who We Were) (Ephesians 2:4-6)

Ephesians 2:4–6 NASB95

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

[Exp] We were dead in our sins and trespasses but God brought us to life with Christ! He raised us up from the dead with Christ! And He seated us with Christ in the heavenly place in Christ!

He brought us up the road away from Satan worship to the missionary home where Christ lives!

He enabled us to answer, “Yes! I resolve now to give up the service of Satan, and all bad conduct, and serve Jesus only!”

He made us see that it was our sins and trespasses that made us dead to Him, but then in His grace He made us dead to sin and alive to Him through Christ Jesus our Lord!

God is the Author of life and to sin against Him is to choose death. In our sins and trespasses we were all dead to God, but in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, we have been raised and exalted with Him!

That phrase ‘with Christ’ or ‘in Christ Jesus’ is obviously super important because there is no resurrection from spiritual death unless we are raised with Christ! And there is no being seated in the heavenly places unless we are with Christ or in Christ! And this is what God has done in joining us to Christ!

Being joined to Christ through faith, God counts the death of Jesus as payment for our sins!

He counts the resurrection of Jesus as proof of our righteousness!

He counts the exaltation of Jesus as our own exaltation to His right hand!

This means that nothing can undo what God has done in making us alive together with Christ.

Having been made one with Christ, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created can undo what God has done for us in Jesus! In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us! (Rom. 8:37-38)

But please see that it is God who makes the difference. Ephesians 2:4 does not begin with ‘But we’ but with ‘But God.”

It was God who was merciful toward us!

It was God who graced us!

It was God who loved us with a great love!

[Illus] Imagine you’re out on Mobile Bay, a storm blows up, your boat goes down, and you start trashing in the water trying to stay alive but soon your swallowing water and begin to think about the end. You feel peaceful. You know its over. You’re praying a little, and you’re ready to go.

But suddenly a pair of strong arms snatch you from the water. You’re laid on the cold floor of Coast Guard helicopter where your rescuer pumps your chest until the water empties from your lungs and you can breathe again.

You begin to feel better, and as your senses return, you raise your hands in triumph and shout, “I did it!”

Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? What would you be bragging about— that you did a great job almost dying?

[App] And yet this is how many of us act when it comes to salvation. We act as if we have done something incredible. We raise our hands in triumph shouting, “We did it,” but we didn’t do anything except get dead in our sins and trespasses!

It was God who saved us!

It was God who graced us!

It was God who loved us!

It is God who should get the glory!

[TS] …

#3: Why He Did It (Ephesians 2:7-10)

Ephesians 2:7–10 NASB95

7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

[Exp] The short answer to the question, “Why did God do this? Why did He save us by His grace through faith in Jesus?”, is for His glory and for our good.

Notice in v. 7 that this salvation is for our good and for God’s glory forever.

Paul says that God will continue to show us the surpassing riches of His grace toward us in Jesus in the ages to come. In other words, when we’ve been there 10,000 years, we not only have no less days to sing God’s praise, but we also will continually find more and more reason to God’s praise!

In eternity, we will continually say, “Look how kind He has been to us in Jesus!”

Notice in v. 8, that although salvation is for our good, it is for God’s glory alone.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast,” (Eph. 2:8-9).

We had no part in saving ourselves. We added no good works to the perfect work that Christ did on our behalf. Salvation is from Him, through Him, and to Him. Therefore, we have nothing to boast about unless we boast in Jesus!

Notice in v. 9 that although we don’t work to be saved, God has prepared good works for the saved.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them,” (Eph. 2:10).

Now, what does this have to do with God’s glory? Well, remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16…

Matthew 5:16 NASB95

16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

This is why God prepared good works for us! So that we might no longer walk in the way of Satan but walk in the way of good works!

And when people ask, “Why do you do these good works?”, we should be ready to answer, “Because of what God did for me in Jesus Christ.”

God gets the glory through our good works.

[Illus] I took classes that argued for the Christian faith in seminary. I’ve read many books that pointed out the reliability of the NT documents and the historical certainty of the Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. But I am convinced that nothing brings people to faith in Christ like good works done in His name. They see our good works and give glory to our Father in Heaven.

[App] When Paul wrote to his co-laborer, Titus, who was leading the church in Crete, he told him...

…to make sure the people are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14).

…to make sure the people are ready for good work (Titus 3:1)

…to make sure the people devote themselves to good works (Titus 3:8).

…to make sure the people learn to devote themselves to good works (Titus 3:14).

This is what we must learn as well; because God has been so good to us in Jesus, we must learn to be devoted to good works for His glory!

[TS] So we’ve seen who we were, what God did about who were were, and why He did it.

Now (as a bonus) notice when He did it.

Conclusion

#4: When He Did It (Ephesians 2:5)

Ephesians 2:5 NASB95

5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Ephesians 2:1-10 was written to Christians, but if you’re not a follower of Jesus this morning, then this text is not about who you were but about who you are.

You are dead in your sins and trespasses. You are separated from God. You are following the way of Satan even if you don’t realize you are.

But God is willing to pour out on you the riches of His grace in Jesus if you are willing to accept it.

And this requires nothing from you other than you saying, “I’ll take it.”

You don’t have to get cleaned up! Jesus will clean you up!

You don’t have to be sinless! Jesus will make you spotless!

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ!

While we were yet sinners, God demonstrated His own love for us by sending Christ to die for us!

He did it for us and He’ll do it for you too if you call on His grace, call on His love, call on Jesus for salvation this morning!