ES006. Ephesians 2: 1-10
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Ephesians 2 1-10
Ephesians 2 1-10
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
You. In this great passage, Paul starts with ‘you’, those he is writing to and everyone who will read and hear it. We were all, everyone of us who has since come to be in Christ were spiritually dead because we all overstepped the boundary from good to bad by being disobedient and being traitorous rebels against God. We were in quite a predicament for death and sin go together:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sin cuts us off from God, the source of life; thus we are dead.
The nemesis of sin is death.
We once walked, Paul says, according to the course of this world, or according to the way of the world, or according to the age, which is the more literal meaning. Once walked. Paul is saying that this is not how we are now but just how true is that of us? Are we moulded by the ways of the world? Every generation has its own struggle and new ways of committing sin, maybe even easier ways and maybe because things are not frowned upon like they used to be…perhaps society is getting more lawless without realising it. Our backs should be turned against this for whilst we are in the world we are definitely not of it.
But walking this way makes them more and more children of wrath:
At 12:21 A.M. on a morning in November 1979, the doctor pronounced Jesse Water Bishop dead in the gas chamber of the Nevada State Prison. Bishop was a career criminal who committed his first armed robbery at the age of fifteen, and spent twenty-two of his last twenty-seven years behind bars. Bishop renounced all efforts to stay his execution for a murder he had committed in 1977. At that time he even waived his right to a jury trial, immediately pleading guilty. He could have been given an appeal of his case even minutes before entering the gas chamber, but he said no, with these words: “This is just one more step down the road I’ve been heading all my life. Let’s go”
(Time, Nov. 5, 1979, p. 35). (Dunnam, M. D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Galatians / Ephesians / Philippians / Colossians / Philemon (Vol. 31, p. 166). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.)
He realised this was the road he walked. Let us listen well:
Sin is not to be played with, not to be taken casually, not to be looked at tentatively as though we can do as we please, order our lives as we will, change when and if we wish, thinking we will always be in control. There is a cumulative effect that builds until our hearts may be petrified and we are past feeling. We really see the horror of that possibility—that sin may kill our wills, and we may thus be doomed to a walk that can only end in death.
And in following the world, they are also following the prince of the power of the air, who can be none other than the devil. This spiritual warfare is going on in those who will not come to the foot of the cross and give up their right to live how they want to live. Most people do not have an intellectual problem with Christianity but a moral one.
Paul says we ALL once lived in our passions doing whatever we wanted with our flesh and minds barely limiting ourselves to what we would or could do.
We can see the results, if all restraints are removed, in what happened in Brazil’s state of Espírito Santo where 1000 police were on strike for 8 days 3 months ago. The resulting carnage was that 144 people were killed, hundreds injured, robberies committed and so on. What is interesting for me is the name of this place: Espírito Santo which, being translated from the Portuguese is ‘Holy Spirit’.
We read about a present and future time, which Scripture says
7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
Who will be taken out of the way? None other than the Holy Spirit Himself and then lawlessness will simply explode and what was happening in Brazil will be eclipsed by something so much worse, more than anything that can now be imagined. This will be the time of the Antichrist. Occasionally we get glimpses into this lawlessness on our streets especially during riots where there is violence and looting, people thinking that they have every right to take things that, perhaps, they could never afford otherwise. Some of this may be understandable but not justifiable. People are not content with what they have. People. What about us people? Are we content?
John alludes to these things in:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Are we still caught up in the things of this world? Outwardly we have got it right, but what about our hearts and minds? What is going on there? Do we give more thought to this world and what it gives us compared to the other world and upon another; the One who has given His all? Jesus came to overcome the world and He did exactly that. So, yes, we were dead in trespasses and sin but something happened.
First, we noticed, in verse 1, this was addressed to ‘you’ and what state ‘you’ are in but then, in verse 4, it changes to ‘but God’. Here is the radical change. You just mess up but God cleans it up.
Why would He do this? The answer is love. It is mind-boggling, amazing and overwhelming, staggering us with the richness of His mercy and great love that has been given to us in Jesus. We were dead but He made us alive.
And as we saw in the first chapter He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing as well and here in verse 6 we are told that we have not only been made alive but raised to sit with Christ in the heavenly places. This is not some mediocre reality but an awesome and amazing privilege that we are going to be part of the ruling counsel in Heaven.
Paul alludes to this more than once elsewhere for example in:
Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?
These are part of the immeasurable riches of His grace, His kindness, His love when this age, this world, has finally met its demise.
Then twice we are told that it is by grace we have been saved. When things are repeated in Scripture it emphasises it like underlining a word.
GRACE - God’s riches at Christ’s expense is probably one of the best acronyms I know. We have been both grace and mercy: In His mercy, He does not give us what we so do deserve; and in His grace He gives us what we so do not deserve. Some say that grace is God’s undeserved favour and it is partly true but it is more true to say it is God’s favour granted to those who deserve His livid anger.
All that we have received has only because He has shown us great love by going to Calvary. Calvary is the only reason we are saved, the only reason we can be saved, the only reason by which we must be saved. Calvary is the only solution to our problem for it is there that Jesus suffered what should have been our fate: God displayed His hatred for sin by pouring it out upon Jesus. And in this He showed His abounding love for us sinners.
Having been given such grace we are saved through faith. And this is important. Where it says this in verses 5 and 8 it is that we have been saved (past) and are saved (present). It means salvation has been completed and Christians enjoy the benefits of that deliverance.
The whole of salvation is a gift which we have simply received by trusting Him to the saving of our souls from the very things we have already spoken of, from the flesh, the world and the devil; from sin and from perishing.
We are saved. We are going to Heaven.
Thru the Bible Vol. 47: The Epistles (Ephesians) The Material for Temple Construction
Someone may say, “Oh, I wouldn’t dare make a statement like that because I don’t know what the future holds.” Friend, your salvation rests upon the grace of God—not upon your faithfulness.
There is no room for boasting. I’m not sure how anyone could make a boast except to boast that you and I have been given a present so big that there is nothing we can give to outdo what we have been given by God in Christ.
Paul makes clear that it was not of our doing, which is the problem with all the other religions in the world. At a funeral I took a woman was saying how she travelled the world, that she is a believer in God and how she had met many devout Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus and so on, so many, in fact, that they could not possibly be wrong. I said there was only one problem with that; they believe directly opposite and contrary things about God. You see, no matter what the belief system of the billions around the world, if your faith is based upon what you do in attaining a right standing with God, then your faith is misplaced and in grace danger. This accounts for 95% of the world’s population. Surely they can’t all be wrong. Right? Well, yes they can. In Hitler’s Germany most people supported him and even went to war with him. So, most people can be wrong.
Christianity is unique. We are saved first. We did nothing to gain salvation. In fact we were and are completely incapable of saving ourselves. There is only one way to God and this is through Jesus.
One of the hardest things we have to acknowledge is that the majority of this world’s population will die without a saviour despite the offer of salvation. Jesus told us the hard facts:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
It is truly awful that there is a way of escape but it is not taken but such is the deceit of the flesh, the world, and the devil. The only way of escape is through the cross. We escaped only because we were told and were given understanding.
As well as escaping a fate worse than death the Lord has given us something else that is marvellous: work to do. Not arduous in the sense that we hate it or do not enjoy it but work which is led by God for we are now co-workers in Christ. This was the original plan in the Garden of Eden but, now, we again, are being given work to do.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10)
The famous theologian John Calvin wrote, “It is faith alone that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.” We are not saved by faith plus good works, but by a faith that works.
He did not leave us blind to what we should do for He prepared things for us to do. He has recreated us as His workmanship, the result of His saving grace in us and to give us a purpose; to do good works. It is simply a case of recognising what God has given to us to do and doing it.
for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
We were dead in sin and trespasses and have been made alive in Christ and raised and the result is the creation of a new humanity and a new world; it started when God first thought of us many, many millennia ago. It is only part-fulfilled today but will reach its conclusion in a new heaven and a new earth where all the former things will be as a dream.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
We were dead. But God made us alive and gave us purpose in living. It is in living for God; it is in living for Jesus, that we find satisfaction the likes of which the world, the flesh and devil could never ever give. And we shall reap a reward if we do not give up and allow good works to flow out of the new life that has come to us through God’s amazing grace.
And we are simply servants doing what our Master requires. But aren’t we glad we can!
Benediction
Benediction
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.
To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.