Grace Beyond Imagination

We are into chapter 2 of our study in the book of Ephesians that we’ve called “Beyond Imagination.”

Our goal for this series is to pursue God’s unimaginable vision for his church so that he might receive MUCH GLORY.

And so throughout chapter 1 we saw just how VAST… how COSMIC… how UNIMAGINABLE… God’s plan for the church really is… let me just recap chapter 1 for you:

It is VAST in the sense of TIME: He formed this plan in eternity past… he’s sovereignly working it out in the present… and he has given his Spirit to guarantee he will make good on his promise throughout all eternity future.

But not only does God’s unimaginable vision for his church span all of time… but it spans all of space…

God’s plan is to bless his people in the heavenly places... that is in the Spiritual Realm… where all angels and demons can see and understand his Supremacy...

And he so he blesses them IN CHRIST… who also is right now SEATED in the heavenly places FAR above all rule and authority on earth and in heaven…

We are blessed in HIM in the heavenly places.

And right now God is working out all things in time and space toward the end of uniting ALL THINGS in heaven and on earth in Christ...

He is moving toward a day when all of the fallenness of this world will be set right in Christ and God will dwell forever with his people in a new heavens and a new earth.

And right now he is carrying out that plan THROUGH his church… THIS is why the concept of CHURCH is BEYOND IMAGINATION.

The ALL-SUPREME Savior King… Jesus Christ.. has been given to the CHURCH as her head… she is his body.

The church is the primary outworking of God’s cosmic plan in the present age, and she is intended to be the FORETASTE of the unity of all things in heaven.

Which means that what is happening in the CHURCH is far more than we typically think happens in teh church.

It’s far more than the value we typically assign to “church.”

It’s of UTMOST importance… and we need to see our role… our place in it.

But that may leave the average believer with this question: How do I even know I HAVE a role God’s plan?

If God’s plan is so big and cosmic, how can I (little old me) possibly play a part in it???

Wouldn’t God just focus on maybe the more powerful people? Doesn’t he have some really “important” Christians that he could use??? (however we might define that…)

Does it really matter if I carry out my role in God’s plan?

OR, some other believers might respond differently saying, “THIS IS SUCH A BIG PLAN… THAT’S INTENSE!!! I had better get to WORK! I had better TRY HARDER and start living up to God’s expectations of me! And what if I don’t!!! OH, this is a BURDEN!!! How can I even know if God STILL has a place for me if I mess it up all the time!!!”

Either one of those directions would miss the point of Paul’s teaching on our place in God’s plan… because God includes us in his sovereign plan as an act of his glorious grace.

Rather than assuming that God doesn't care about our participation in his plan… and rather than assuming the burden for that participation is on us... we must learn instead to...

Big Idea: Rely on God's abundant grace to produce the life that he desires in you.

Your Bibles are open to Ephesians 2 -

And if you think of God’s unimaginable vision for his church in Ephesians chapter 1 as a picture of a beautiful, lush forest, Ephesians 2:1-10 zooms us in to see how each one of those trees comes to life and becomes PART of that forest…

And then NEXT week… in the rest of chapter 2… we will zoom back out and look at the whole forest again.

But notice the transition words that takes us from chapter 1 to chapter 2: “AND YOU...”

The word AND connects this thought to one that came before… so this is a continuation of his thoughts in chapter 1… but the word “YOU” makes it personal...

The blessings of God’s grace aren’t just theoretical... happening somewhere “out there” to people generally...

The blessings of God’s grace are PERSONAL… being poured out on YOU who believe… YOU who are IN CHRIST… IN HIS BODY, in a particular local church… reading this letter.

This grace is toward YOU… But how do you know if you are part of the “YOU”?

I mean, this letter was written to someone else a long time ago… and it wasn’t written to EVERYONE in Ephesus… it was written to CHURCHES in Ephesus… the SAINTS...

So how can we know if WE get to receive this grace?

How do individuals become part of the people of God and partakers of his grace? That’s the question this section is answering in the context of the whole book of Ephesians.

Ephesians chapter 2 is one of the most rich explanations of the gospel in all of scripture…

But interestingly enough, it is not directed at unbelievers (like some people limit the gospel to)… it’s not telling people HOW to be saved, but rather HOW THEY WERE SAVED… and WHY they were saved… and what difference that makes in their lives today.

You see, we don’t ever grow past the gospel… we grow IN and THROUGH the gospel...

And so you could call Ephesians 2:1-10 the gospel for believers.

Read Eph. 2:1-10.

In chapter 1, Paul talked about how God’s plan is “to the praise of his glorious grace.” In chapter 2, we see that grace RUSH toward individuals who are dead in their sin.

And through this great presentation of the gospel to the believer, we can see...

Three Reasons We Must Rely on Grace:

1) Without grace we are pitifully dead in sin. (2:1-3)

Explain: In order for Paul to show us how much we NEED God’s grace, he has to remind us who we are APART from God’s grace.

So he clearly and thoroughly describes the situation of all those now are NOT in Christ… remembering of course that at one time WE were not in Christ.

First, he says that we were DEAD IN the trespasses and sins in which we once walked...

This is the primary description of the first three verses… DEAD is the nature of all those apart from Christ.

He’s going to pile up a number of other descriptions… but they are all connected here: you were dead in your trespasses and sins…

You weren’t just bad… you didn’t just DO things that were wrong… YOU WERE DEAD… spiritually DEAD!

You were incapable of producing life in yourself...

You were incapable of truly enjoying life for the purpose for which you were created...

You were completely separated from God and therefore DEAD.

And you were dead IN your trespasses and sins...

You had tried to walk in the glory-land that only belongs to God… you committed serious trespasses...

The course of your life was completely headed in the wrong trajectory… down the wrong path… it was full of sin.

And it was a path that leads to death...

You were dead.

It’s been said by many, and it bears repeating: Jesus did not come to make bad people good or good people better. He came to make dead people alive.

There is not one person alive who can accurately share a testimony of their salvation by saying, “I have ALWAYS believed in Jesus.” Don’t ever say that!

Even if you were four years old when you came to understand your sin and your need for a Savior, your condition prior was that of being DEAD.

And it’s ESSENTIAL that we understand that.

Without the grace of God, we are just a bunch of dead men and women walking.

So this is the first Sunday of October… which means that our society begins to celebrate Halloween...

I went to a neighborhood the other day to pick up something from Facebook Marketplace and was greeted by 5, 10-ft. tall skeleton statues.

This culture is obsessed with the living dead.

You see it in the popularity of Zombie movies and shows like The Walking Dead.

Even the US Center for Disease Control has recognized the popularity of this concept and has created a “zombie apocalypse” blog… ON THEIR GOVERNMENT WEBSITE... to teach emergency preparedness.

The idea of the walking dead INTRIGUES and FASCINATES and even CONCERNS many...

How much more should we concerned that every day... in REAL LIFE... we are surrounded by dead men walking.

No, they won’t eat your brains… but they are destined for eternal destruction in Hell.

They were born with the virus of sin infecting their hearts.

They are those who need the antidote of saving grace… the antidote that YOU have been given!

And that should motivate you to SEE the people around us differently as we go to our job or interact with our neighbors…

I’m not saying BE SCARED of them… I’m saying, “Rush to RESCUE THEM! PREPARE for the coming judgement by calling the to faith in Christ!”

Because right now, they are walking in the flow of our culture which is destruction…

Paul says, “You were dead in your 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

There is a course… a flow to this world… a flow to our lives… that is hardwired in every human being: we are all following the course of this world.

Like a herd of cattle being driven in a certain direction, we are all mindlessly moving toward what we think are greener pastures...

But our cattle driver is deceitfully evil… he is called “the prince of the power of the air...” and he does not want what is best for us.

He is promising greener pastures but really leading us to the slaughter house.

He is called the Devil… the Deceiver… the one who rebelled against God and made him his arch enemy.

THAT’S who Paul is saying that every person naturally follows birth… the prince of the power of the air.

Just like Adam and Eve followed into his deception, so too we, by choice and by nature, walk right into his temptation traps.

And as such, apart from Christ, everyone has the same spirit that is now at work in the Sons of Disobedience

(That sounds like a good name for a biker gang, doesn’t it? “Sons of Disobedience”)...

But in all reality, every one of us is BORN with SIN in our DNA… we are hell-bent on disobeying God.

We find our family in that biker gang… the Sons of Disobedience.

And it is alongside… or IN… or AMONG that family that we all once lived IN the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind...

Whatever felt good to our fallen flesh… whatever idea SEEMED right to us… THAT is the desire we carried out.

Apart from intervening grace we NEVER would ask, “What would bring the most glory to God?”

That makes no SENSE to the one who is DEAD in their sin.

The question is always: what can I do to get out of this messy situation that I got myself in?

What can I do to ease the pain of a fallen world?

What can I do to produce the most satisfaction in my life?

What can I do to gain that sense of transcendence and glory that my heart longs for… WITHOUT turning to God.

And because we NEVER look to God for those answers on our own, we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This is such an important statement in order to understand the gospel: mankind is NOT by nature children of God.

Every single one of us, no matter your race, gender, social status, personality profile, or family background… every single one of us starts out DESERVING of God’s wrath both in nature and deed.

We all share in the common plight apart from God... which means that we all need the same salvation…

That’s what makes the church so different than the rest of the world… because no one comes with more value than another!

NO ONE can posture or earn their way to the top because we are all in need of redeeming grace!

We are all created by God in his image… but because of Adam’s sin, we are NOT born with a disposition toward God… our hearts are not naturally inclined to seek him and give him glory...

We are not generally “good-natured people.” We are SIN-NATURED people...

Yes, we may be “nice”… we may do “good things” by God’s common grace… but that is not God’s definition of holiness.

Because of our sin nature we are still deserving of God’s wrath… we are children of WRATH… along with the rest of mankind.

So Paul is intending to pile up all of these word pictures: dead in our sins… walking in the course of this world… following the Devil… finding our family in the sons of disobedience… living in the passions of our flesh… children of wrath...

He is intending to pile up all these word pictures to show how UTTERLY PITIFUL and HOPELESS we are apart from grace.

He’s showing that we bring NOTHING to the table of salvation!

To borrow another illustration from Halloween and thriller movies: it’s like being trapped in a coffin, buried alive...

And each of these realities that Paul mentions is another nail holding the coffin shut.

Every person apart from Christ is dead. It is a terrifying, inescapable, claustrophobic, doomed, and hopeless reality.

And relying on ourselves to produce the life God that desires is futile... almost laughable… because of how incapable we are to do it apart from God’s intervening work of grace!

If we think that we are just naturally going to fall into line with God’s plan for us...

If we think we are going to improve ourselves to some point that we are more “saveable.”

If we think that we ARE NOT going to need to fight our sin and flesh IN GOD’S POWER… and that we will just automatically start following God… then we don’t understand our fallen condition very well!

The Christian life is impossible to live in our own power because we have none!

Our flesh wants to go right along with the course of this world… which is flowing AGAINST the desires of God…

And without God stepping in and CONVERTING our hearts… and without RELYING on HIS GRACE ALONE to save us, we will MASSIVELY FAIL… we will DIE.

But notice the tense of these verses and the two words that keep being repeated: “were” and “once.”

You were dead...

You once walked...

We all once lived in the passions of the flesh...

We were by nature children of wrath.

Paul knows that his intended recipients have a NEW spiritual reality that is DIFFERENT than where they once began.

Remember, he is writing this letter to be read by CHURCHES...

The SAINTS (or set-apart ones)… those who are FAITHFUL in Christ Jesus.

He’s writing to those who have been united to Christ through faith, relying solely upon the grace of God for their salvation.

By the way… if you have NOT turned from your sin… if you have not turned from the course of this world… if you have not turned from the passions of your own flesh, seeking to merely satisfy the desires of what feels good to your body and mind… then you are still dead.

If you are not IN CHRIST, you are IN SIN, and you are dead.

There is no hope for you except the call to rely upon the grace of God demonstrated in Christ.

You can’t improve yourself enough… you can’t make yourself right with God…

You CAN’T go to church enough… you CAN’T be nice enough…

You can ONLY throw yourself upon his grace...

And you can do that today if God is opening your eyes to that reality.

Dead people don’t know they are dead until the Spirit gives them life.

And I PRAY that the Spirit is calling some to life today… is he calling you?

And if you HAVE put your faith in Christ… if you ARE in Christ and surrounded by his grace, then you WERE defined and controlled by these things… but you are not defined by them any longer.

You are not defined by your sin, but by grace.

It’s so important that you incorporate these words into your vocabulary: “were” and “once.”

You WERE defined and controlled by sin… now you ARE defined and controlled by Christ.

You ONCE only did what felt good to your flesh… but that’s not how you make decisions anymore as a pattern of life.

You need these words, “were” and “once,” in your vocabulary because you need to understand just how RICH God’s grace was toward you.

You need to remember that without grace, you were pitifully dead.

You could not have been further away from God.

Even if you were saved as a young child, you were still following on the course of this world… you had every potential for TERRIBLE, OFFENSIVE sin in your heart… and God had to RESCUE you from that condition..

It required a miraculous work of God’s grace to save you from your sinful nature… and it’s going to require the continual work of God’s grace to KEEP rescuing you from the sin that remains.

If you are ever tempted to rely on your own power to do spiritual work, remind yourself of how dead you WERE apart from God’s intervening grace…

And remember that you are only ALIVE because of his powerful grace.

Which leads to the second reason we must rely on grace:

2) By grace we are powerfully raised in life. (2:4-7)

READ Eph. 2:4-7 again.

Explain: Paul transitions from who we once were to who God always is. He says, “But God”...

God is going to enter into the picture with a VERY DIFFERENT response to our sin than we would naturally imagine.

He is going to enter into this picture of wrath-deserving, lust-driven, enemy-following, death-inducing SIN… and instead of saying, “THROW IT ALL IN THE TRASH!” he says, “HERE is where I will show my grace. HERE is where it will shine most brightly.”

That is UNFATHOMABLE!

If it were us, we would say, “No way… give them what they deserve! They turned on ME like that… I’ll show them!”

And so God saving us in this way only serves to reveal how much greater his nature is than our own.

Paul says, “But God being rich in mercy...”

Mercy is God WITHHOLDING what we deserve. It is his compassion… his pity… on our pitiful state.

In our sin, we THINK we deserve something better from God… BUT really we deserve death… eternal separation from him.

But God is merciful. And not just merciful… he is RICH in mercy.

He has storehouses of mercy.

He has eternal, limitless mercy that will never run out toward those whom he saves in Christ.

He has sufficient mercy to cover the WORST of sinners…

As we sometimes sing, “Our sins they are many, his mercy is more!”

So we might ask, “WHY? WHY is he rich in mercy?” Paul answers:

Because of the great love with which he loved us...

We talked about this a few weeks ago when we discussed adoption: WHY does God love us? WHY does God choose us?

And the answer is, “Because of HIS great love.”

You can’t look for an answer to that question “Why” in some quality found in yourself or in relationship to anyone else other than God.

God loved you because of God… because of his great love.

It’s not dependent on anything he sees in us. He is not influenced by forces outside of himself.

Which means that your ongoing performance doesn’t earn or influence his love either!

God loves because of his love… because love is what extends from his nature… from his very heart.

And that his why he extends his mercy… EVEN WHEN we were dead in our trespasses…

EVEN WHEN we were at our most unlovely and unloveable… THAT is when God acted.

THAT is when God made us ALIVE together with Christ.

This is the primary verb… the primary activity of the entire first 7 verses. This is the heart of the whole sentence: God made us alive together with Christ.

Here again is the beautiful doctrine of union with Christ.

Remember, that God chose us IN CHRIST before the foundation of the world… Those whom God chose are chosen IN relationship to the person and work of Christ, meaning...

...that when Christ died, we died.

Our old sin nature died… it no longer has ruling authority over us...

It was put to death IN CHRIST.

And when he rose again, we rose again… we were RAISED to newness of life IN CHRIST.

We said it this way in our study of chapter one: that God worked the great power that raised Jesus from the dead TOWARD us who believe.

By the way… This is what is pictured in baptism…

Going under the water is recognizing that we have died in Christ… coming out is recognizing that we live in Christ… we are raised in him.

And if you have never entered the waters of baptism as a believer… and you have never made that public declaration, we are going to be having a baptism service in November… details to come.

But let me just tell you… God has brought some dead people to life recently!

And this “making alive” is the essence of salvation.

Salvation is not “getting to go to heaven at the end of life” although it includes that.

Salvation is “coming to life” even now…

And coming to life is an act of God’s GRACE… Paul says at the end of verse 5, “By GRACE you have been saved.”

He’s going to pick up on that refrain again in verse 8…

Grace means the UNMERITED FAVOR of God… flowing in POWER toward the dead unbeliever… to raise them to life in Christ.

But grace does not just bring us to life and then let us go like one of those wind-up toys like you used to get at a fair or carnival or something…

Remember those things??? (those either wound down or fell off the table)...

No... GRACE is a constant and abiding connection to Christ’s resurrection life and power.

Grace is God staying with us to set us on a new path of righteousness and wisdom that leads to life.

Grace is God EQUIPPING us by his Spirit to live with him forever.

Which is why Paul says that God not only raised us with Christ, but he also, “seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

This theme has shown up SO MUCH throughout the first chapter… that we are BLESSED in Christ in the heavenly places...

That Christ is seated in the heavenly places FAR ABOVE all rule and authority and power and dominion...

That from that place, he is the HEAD of the church...

And ALL that can be true of US as individuals because we have been SEATED WITH HIM in the heavenly places IN Christ Jesus.”

We are both raised and seated WITH HIM… because we are IN HIM.

We are no longer IN THE FLESH… Dead IN OUR SIN… we are ALIVE IN HIM…

But his grace doesn’t stop there…

Here’s the purpose of God showing us grace in the past and present:

Verse 7 - SO THAT [that’s a purpose statement… he made you alive together with Christ… SO THAT] in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus...

If we were to ask, “Why did you save me God?”

He does NOT answer that question by saying… “because I needed you.”

He does NOT answer that question by saying… “because I thought you would perform well under my guidance.”

“Why did you save me God?”

God answers that question by saying… “so that I could KEEP showing you the immeasurable riches of my grace toward you.”

This is so important for us to understand… especially for those of us who think that God is sort of disappointed with us in the way that we’ve performed as his people… or who think that he is waiting for US to improve ourselves before he comes toward us more…

God’s posture toward his people is not one of stingy grace… his grace has no expiration date… there is no point at which the well of his grace runs dry...

The whole goal of his saving us is so that he could KEEP POURING OUT HIS GRACE in the coming ages… both in THIS AGE… and in the one to come… because his GRACE is PART of his glory.

We bring God glory when we rely SOLELY upon his grace.

Illustration: A story is told of a little boy who came from a poor home where he often went hungry and had to ration his food and drink.

If he ever had a glass of milk, it was only half-full or it had to be shared by two children.

Well, he got hurt and was taken to a local hospital and a nurse brought him a tall full glass of milk.

Being used to sharing his glass of milk with other children, he asked the nurse, “How deep shall I drink?”

The nurse, holding back tears, said, “Drink it all, child. Drink deep.”

[Drink Deep (http://www.moreillustrations.com/Illustrations/grace%202.html)]

That is how Paul wants us to relate to God’s grace through this passage: that we would not just drink sparingly of God’s grace…

That we would NOT rely upon his grace just enough to be counted as “saved...”

but that we would DRINK DEEP. DRINK IT ALL. That we would see his purpose… his intention… his eager longing... to show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus…

You cannot exhaust the riches of his grace… you cannot test their limits and find their end.

They will never run out throughout all the coming ages… because his PURPOSE is to SHOW just how immeasurable they are.

Do you view God’s grace as THAT inexhaustible? Do you view God’s grace as THAT necessary for your very life?

Now some people grow uncomfortable when we start talking about grace like this… “If you start talking about limitless grace, people are going to start taking advantage of it!”

People are going to start thinking that they can just live however they want!

But that’s not how grace works.

Because grace takes us OUT of that dead and futile way of thinking...

And grace gives us NEW LIFE and NEW way of thinking that is consistent with our spiritual position in Christ.

WITHOUT grace we are pitifully dead in sin.

BY grace we are powerfully raised in life...

Now this...

3) In grace we are providentially created in Christ. (2:8-10)

Read Eph. 2:8-10.

Explain: There is a new way of life… a new, providential plan... for all those who have encountered the grace of God.

In verse 8, Paul reiterates the POWER of our salvation… For BY grace you have been saved THROUGH faith...

Those prepositions are really important there: BY and THROUGH.

We are not saved BY our faith… it is not the quality or quantity of our faith that saves us… but the OBJECT of our faith.

We are saved BY God acting out of the character of his grace. HE is the actor… and HE is the source and object of our faith.

You can think of it this way: FAITH is the vehicle by which God delivers grace to us

And that is because faith is the exact posture that says, “God I believe you are who you say you are. I believe I cannot save myself or live for myself… you are my only Savior and Lord. I NEED YOU to come save me and take control of my life.

Faith has been referred to as the “anti-work”… the opposite of working FOR your salvation… because it is given by God precisely for the reason that we might TRUST God and no longer trust our own accomplishments or performance.

Paul even emphasizes this: salvation is NOT BY WORKS… it is BY GRACE…

Salvation by works and salvation by grace are two mutually exclusive spheres...

If salvation was by our works, it COULD NOT be by grace...

You wouldn’t NEED grace if you could work FOR your salvation.

If it was by works, YOU would get the glory, not God… you would be like, “Yeah, look, God saved me… oh, but did you see that little part that I contributed… that was pretty important, right?”

God deserves FAR MORE GLORY than that!

Salvation was not and will never be BY your good works!

Why? BECAUSE APART FROM GRACE YOU ARE DEAD IN SIN!

But that does not mean that salvation does not involve good works… Paul continues... For we are his workmanship, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are created in Christ Jesus… restored in the image of God with the resurrection life of Jesus enlivening our bodies...

And we are created anew FOR GOOD WORKS… not BY good works, but FOR GOOD WORKS.

The best way I can illustrate this is with an image we all see MULTIPLE times a week here in Lancaster County: the Amish Horse and Buggy.

You probably passed 5 buggies on your way to church today…

and we say it that way… you passed FIVE BUGGIES… emphasis on the buggy. We take the horse for granted, don’t we?

But did you pass ANY buggies riding down the road without a horse? Like where the Amishman was pulling the buggy himself?

No?

How about this… did you pass any buggies riding down the road where the buggy was PULLING the horse from out in front?

No? Really?

OF COURSE NOT! The horse ALWAYS comes first!

And in the Christian life, the horse is grace and the buggy is works.

Christian works don’t move apart from the power of grace.

We can be so easily tempted to get the works buggy in front of the grace horse.

We EMPHASIZE what we DO FOR GOD… and keep that out front… and let our concept of grace lag behind.

Sometimes we will detach our works from grace altogether and think that we need to heave up our works on our own.

This is so important to understand: Grace is the power, works are the vehicle.

Don’t get them out of order.

But also, don’t try to go riding down the street on your grace horse either and leave your works buggy in the barn!

Paul said that God CRAFTED YOU… he CREATED YOU IN CHRIST JESUS… FOR GOOD WORKS!

Just like horses are specially trained to pull a buggy… TRUE God-given grace is specially designed to empower good works in God’s people.

Paul uses another illustration: In his grace, God has uniquely shaped us… as a master craftsman... for the very works that he prepared for us.

The word for “workmanship” refers to the work of a master craftsman… skilled, careful, labor that makes something USEFUL.

It is also the same word that we use for a piece of art… something that has beauty and intentionality.

God, in his grace, shaped and created each one of us intentionally for the way that he wanted to use us in his plan… FOR GOOD WORKS.

Even the works themselves are his gift to you… they are the absolute fulfilment of his design for your life...

But I want you to notice what is says here, because we often lose sight of this: Paul says, “WE are his workmanship.”

Yes each individual… but in the context of the whole book, each individual as part of a WHOLE… as a member in his CHURCH.

WE are each part of his workmanship just like a word that is specifically selected for it’s place in a piece of petry.

WE are each part of his workmanship just like a single brush stroke that makes up a grand artistic masterpiece.

WE are each part of his workmanship just like a single piece of scroll-work on an ornate custom cabinet.

We are his workmanship INDIVIDUALLY as a part of the whole… as a member in his church.

And these good works he prepared BEFOREHAND… that we should WALK IN THEM.

When is beforehand? I believe it is the same time he CHOSE US… BEFORE the foundation of the world.

God had a particular role in his plan… specially designed for you (if you are a believer in Christ)… by which he would show the surpassing greatness of his power and the immeasurable riches of his grace toward you.

You have good works to walk in.

You once WALKED in your trespasses and sins when you were DEAD IN THEM...

NOW you get to WALK in GOOD WORKS since you are ALIVE IN CHRIST.

So you might ask, “Well how do I know what they are???”

And some people get all stressed out about, “What if I miss some of them… what if I mess them up...

STOP! BREATHE! These are works prepared for you in GRACE!

God has called you to it AND equipped you for it!

And he has not HIDDEN them from you.

The works God called you to are the works found in chapters 4-6 of this book.

They are obedience to God in the various spheres of life in which he has placed you: as an individual… in a family… in his church… in a particular community… and as part of a worldwide plan...

The good works God prepared for you are fulfilled as you obey him in each of the roles and responsibilities he has given you.

If you find yourself married with kids… realize that God has given you a role and responsibility to carry out… and he’s clearly revealed his will for you in that role through the wisdom of his holy scriptures.

If you find yourself working at a job… realize that the quality of the work you do in that job, and the way you interact with the people around you… are part of the works God had planned for you since before the foundation of the world…

If you find yourself relating to one of your neighbors… or a kid at school… God has given you a job in relating to them… to show them his love.

These things are ALL part of your calling. Nothing more, nothing less. Simply walking WITH GOD… in HIS POWER… living out the NEW LIFE he has given you in Christ.

You can’t walk in the works of God without relying upon his grace.

This week there are two ways you can live every single moment:

You can rely on your own flesh and experience death… you can gratify the passions of you flesh… you can fulfill every whimsical desire of your body and mind… OR...

You can rely on God’s grace and experience his life… living out the purposeful plan he has created for you to walk in…

Which will it be for you? I pray that God you would seek God and rely on his grace and find it entirely sufficient and satisfying for every step you take.