Sermon Tone Analysis

Back when my son was about four years old I remember one night when our family was eating pizza for dinner.

And my son—after putting down two slices of pizza already; which, by the way, is plenty for a four-year-old boy—he asks for a third slice of pizza.

I respond by asking him if he really need to eat another slice.

And he answers by telling that this next slice of pizza is for Jesus.

So, I say, “what do you mean, you need a slice of pizza for Jesus?”

And he replies, “Yeah, we learned in Sunday school this week that Jesus lives in our hearts.

He must be hungry too, so I should chomp another slice for him.”

The mind of a four-year-old thinks in absolute, concrete terms.

When this children’s worship room full of toddlers was told that Jesus lives in their hearts, they took it literally.

That’s how four-year-olds think—we can’t blame them for that.

And now my boy had a theological defense for a third helping of dinner.

What can I say?

Of course, there is not a literal mini body of Jesus inside of us that has flesh and blood and breathes and eats.

But before we brush this story completely aside as just another example of cute toddler episodes, there may be something of real merit to consider.

After all, the reality of a risen, living Jesus is something we all confess.

You see, at some point in learning what it means to be a Christian, we talk about grace.

Twice in the passage we read today Paul says that we are saved by grace.

And most of us—if not all of us—have learned what grace means.

We understand grace to be the gift of our salvation freely given to us by God.

We understand that we have done nothing to earn or gain this gift, but it is from God alone through the sacrifice of Jesus.

But do we understand how that shows up in our lives?

What does it look like to live within the truth of that amazing grace?

What is the shape of that grace in our lives?

How does grace fit with who we are; and where we are?

What is the geography of grace?

When my kid was four he thought his connection to Jesus was quite literal—that’s what his Sunday school teacher taught him.

So, what is our understanding today about the way in which the grace of God connects us to Jesus?

If you are following along today with the sermon notes sheet in the order of worship, you’ll notice some shapes drawn in.

Today’s sermon notes are going to be more pictures than words.

So, we will fill in those drawings as we go today.

Ephesians: a Letter of Contrast

Let’s start by taking another quick look at what the apostle Paul has written to the Ephesians.

As we look at the first ten verses of chapter two, we see that Paul is developing a contrast.

This is the first of five section in Ephesians that Paul uses this type of contrast formula.

A major theme in this letter for Paul is to highlight for these new believers in Ephesus the difference between their old life apart from Christ, and their new life in Christ.

It is a contrast between two worlds as Paul sees it.

The one world that Paul is speaking about is the world of being dead in sin.

If you have the passage open in front of you look at how Paul launches right into this in verse one: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.”

And then Paul fleshes this out a bit in the first three verses where he speaks of “gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature.”

This first world that Paul speaks of is one that is apart from Christ.

Contrast formula: “formerly…but now”

formerly: dead in transgressions/sins — but now: made alive with Christ

Then in verse five he marks the contrast between this world and another world.

He says now that God has “made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”

The second world Paul points to in this passage is the world of being alive in Christ.

And continuing in verse five Paul explains exactly how this works.

He says, “it is by grace you have been saved.”

Then in verses six, seven, and eight Paul fleshes out this second world of being alive in Christ, where again in verse eight he repeats the phrase, “it is by grace you have been saved.”

Repeated phrases: “it is by grace you have been saved” (2x) — “in/with Christ” (6x)

So, we begin to see here how Paul sets up this picture of two worlds that we face.

The first world he identifies by twice repeating the phrase, “you were dead in sin.”

And the second world he identifies by twice repeating the phrase, “it is by grace you have been saved.”

That’s the first thing we notice when we begin to break down this passage and look at it a little more carefully.

But then the next thing we notice in this passage is how intent Paul is on placing our identity in or with Christ.

Six times in these ten verses Paul says that we are now in Christ.

Paul seems rather stubbornly insistent that this grace which Christ gives to us is more than a gift we receive—it’s a relocation of our identity.

Today I want to share with you two possibilities for what this picture looks like.

And then I’ll share with you two observations about each possibility.

Missing the Geography of Grace

Well then, first possibility of this picture of grace is one in which we clearly delineate the two different realities that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2. So we’ll put two circles on the board to represent these two distinct realities.

And we’ll label one as “sin” referring to Paul’s identification of this reality as being dead in sin.

And we’ll label the other one as “Christ” referring to Paul’s identification of this reality as being alive in Christ.

Image illustration A

And we’ll put a line between them to signify the distinction between these two realities.

Separate circles for “dead in sin” and “alive in Christ”

Division - we are either on one side or the other

Now, as I said earlier, let’s note two observations about this picture.

If this were to, in fact, represent the geography of grace, then those of us who have received the gift of grace would have to locate ourselves in the circle on the right—because Paul makes it so clear in this text that our location in the geography of grace is in Christ.

So, the first thing we observe about this picture is division.

There is a clear divide between being in Christ and being in sin.

We either have to be in one circle or in the other circle.

So maybe we read a passage like the one today and this is the picture we are left with.

It’s either one side or the other side.

And Paul says that grace is what brings us to the side of being in Christ.

Static - there is no movement, but some kind of instantaneous transfer

The second observation about this picture is that it is static.

What I mean by that is that this picture is set; it’s immobile.

Those who are dead in sin are dead in sin; and those who are alive in Christ are alive in Christ.

And so, we imagine that when Christ extends his gift of grace to those he has called it is almost as though they poof from one circle to the other.

Because, after all, Paul says that grace is a gift of God and not by our works.

I think there are many people who understand grace like this.

They see the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world as two completely distinct and separate realities and we are either on one side or on the other side.

It’s nice and clean.

It’s cut and dried.

But it leaves us a bit unsatisfied, doesn’t it?

There are still some puzzling unanswered questions that have to be accounted for.

Don’t we still live in a broken world of sin—even those of us who have accepted God’s gift of grace?

Being in Christ means we are no long dead in sin—that is true.

But does it also mean that we are completely removed from all things in this circle of sin?

Then why do we still struggle with sin so much?

You see, some people picture the geography of grace like this and walk away with very little assurance that they are, in fact, in Christ because the effects of sin still seem so apparent about them.

So maybe they can then explain this problem away by pointing to it as a future picture.

They may say that Paul’s reference to being in Christ is a picture—not of how things are now—but of how things are going to be after we physically die and leave the sinfulness of these earthly bodies.

But, you see, Paul doesn’t speak of salvation as a future thing.

Paul does not say in this passage that “it is by grace that you will be saved.”

He says that “it is by grace that you have been saved.”

For many people, we may understand what grace is, but that doesn’t mean we understand the geography of grace.

We may not clearly understand what that picture of grace looks like in our lives.

So, let’s consider a second way to picture it.

And like the first picture, we’ll note two observations about this picture as well.