Eph 2:1-10 = But God...

In 1908, Charles Guthrie tried to transplant the head of a donor dog onto the neck of a recipient dog without success (4). In 1950, Vladimir Demikhov developed several surgical techniques concerning transplantation for vital organs and limbs in dogs (5). In the 1970s, Robert White performed the first cephalic exchange transplantation in the monkey by transplanting the head of a rhesus monkey on the body of another headless one. The monkey survived for 8 days with restoration of basic sensations such as smell, taste, hearing, and motor function in the face of the transplanted head (6, 2). Recently, Hirabayashi et al, Sygawara et al, and Niu et al made head transplantation in rats in order to evaluate the brain function after ischemia (7-9). Additionally, Ren et al described a surgical approach for head transplantation in a mouse model (10). Finally, Canavero S et al described a model for head transplantation in human beings (11, 1). In 2017, Ren et al performed successfully a cephalosomatic anastomosis using a human cadaver (12). The papers mentioned above constitute reports, experiments, surgical techniques or even patents setting the historical, theoretical and practical background in the attempt to approach the first human head transplantation.

Having described our spiritual possessions in Christ, Paul turns to a complementary truth: our spiritual position in Christ.

PRAYER

Dearest Lord Jesus…

Message

Apart from Christ, We Were Spiritually Dead

The Old Condition: Dead to God (1-3)

Well, Sick, or Dead? = Status

Walking Corpses = Practice

Objects of Wrath = Nature

A Radical Remedy Required (5)

With Christ, We Are Spiritually Alive

The New Position: Alive in Christ (4-7)

Who is This God? (4a)

How Has Paul Described Him…?

- Sovergine

- Holy

- Full of Wrath - Sin

What Has God Done? = Means (5-6)

Jhn 11.43 “43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.””

Paul made up words to describe this…

- “made alive with”

- “raise up with”

- “sit down with”

Why Did God Do It? = Love (4b)

Love

Mercy

Grace

Kindness

What Must I Do?

A Difficult Doctrine = “Unity With Christ”

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary A Difficult Doctrine

This doctrine is so important that one commentator rightly called it “the heart of Paul’s religion.” John Murray wrote, “Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation.”2 Arthur W. Pink is even more emphatic: “The subject of spiritual union is the most important, the most profound, and yet the most blessed of any that is set forth in sacred Scripture.” But he also rightly notes that “sad to say, there is hardly any which is now more generally neglected. The very expression ‘spiritual union’ is unknown in most professing Christian circles, and even where it is employed it is given such a protracted meaning as to take in only a fragment of this precious truth.”

Two Types of Union = “with Him” “in Christ”

- Federal / Covenantal = technical position before God in Christ...

- Vital / Experiential = actual effects of this relationship in our lives…

All Things New

- MADE ALIVE = Our disposition is different… new direction

- RAISED UP = Our desires are different… new orientation toward spiritual things

- SEATED WITH = Our position is different… intimacy and privilege

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary All Things New

“The difference between the sinner and the Christian, the unbeliever and the believer, is not that the believer, the Christian, has certain faculties which the other man lacks. No, what happens is that this new disposition given to the Christian directs his faculties in an entirely different way. He is not given a new brain; he is not given a new intelligence, or anything else. He has always had these; they are his servants, his instruments, his ‘members,’ as Paul calls them in the sixth chapter of Romans; what is new is a new bent, a new disposition. He has turned in a different direction; there is a new power working in him and guiding his faculties. This is the thing that makes a man a Christian.”

Are You In Christ?

- First, have you been made alive with Christ? Has God put his new principle of life within you? Do you sense a new spiritual disposition in what you do? Are you born again?

- Second, have you been raised with Christ so that your orientation is now heavenly, rather than being only earthbound?

- Finally, have you been seated with God in Christ in the heavenly realms? That is, have you made your true, blessed, and intimate home with God? Do you talk to him there? Does he talk to you?

In Christ, We Are God’s Workmanship

Why Paul Is Compelled to Proclaim His Grace

All Of Grace (8a1)

Illustration of the girl with the broken pitcher of milk

What Is Faith? (8a2)

Faith is not subjective feelings...

Faith is not Credulity… accepting as true apart from evidence… want it to be true

Faith is not optimism...

- Knowledge

- Heart Response

- Commitment

How God Does NOT Save Us (8b)

Good Works

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary How God Does Not Save Us

All we can do (but also must do) is take the pitcher God puts in our hand—and thank him because it is a lot better than anything we ever had before.

Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to thee for dress,

Helpless, look to thee for grace;

Foul, I to the Fountain fly;

Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in thee.

How God Does NOT Save Us (8b)

Good Works (9a)

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary Chapter 12: God’s Workmanship (Ephesians 2:10)

Catholic theology says: “Faith plus works equal justification.”

Protestants reply: “Faith equals justification plus works.”

Failure of Good Works (10)

Necessity of Good Works

What do we say to a life claiming christ but devoid of change of good works?

God Who Works

- To make known His kindness (7)

- To ensure my humility (8-9)

- To enable ministry (10)

Close

Do you know this grace?… Have you been saved by this faith?

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10)

Are you wearing the “graveclothes” or the “grace-clothes”? Are you enjoying the liberty you have in Christ, or are you still bound by the habits of the old life in the graveyard of sin? As a Christian, you have been raised and seated on the throne. Practice your position in Christ! He has worked for you; now let Him work in you and through you, that He might give you an exciting, creative life to the glory of God.

Ezekiel 37:1–14 ESV

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

How to Explain God’s G-R-A-C-E

Ephesians 2:8 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

G-oodness of God

Eph 2.4 “4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,”

Grace means “favor, kindness, mercy, forgiveness.”

God’s goodness is bestowed on His children each day. We should recognize His blessings—we should count them, name them, and be thankful for them.

Heb. 13:15 “15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

R-edemption by God

Eph 2.5 “5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...”

Man was made holy by God. Then he became degenerated by Satan and sin. Now he may be regenerated by Jesus Christ.

Heb. 9:12 “12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Man must repent and receive Christ’s redemption by believing in His work on the cross.

Gal. 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

A-ssistance from God

Eph 2.9 “9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

To assist means to help. God can do what we cannot do. He helps in time of need

Heb. 4:16 “16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

God has promised to supply all our needs, and we can rest assured that He keeps His word

Phil. 4:19 “19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

C-reated for God

Eph 2.10 “10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

“Good works” include witnessing to others, lending a helping hand to the needy, worshiping faithfully, prayer, and Bible reading.

God works through surrendered Christians... Let Him work through you, doing those things that are pleasing in His sight.

1 John 3:22 “22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

E-ternity with God

Eph 2.7 “7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

God’s grace is sufficient to sustain us in this life.

God’s grace provides an eternity with Himself for those who serve Him. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for those who have accepted His grace.

John 14:2–3 “2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Do you know this grace?… Have you been saved by this faith?

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Four: Get out of the Graveyard (Ephesians 2:1–10)

PRAYER

Oh God our father…

Group Questions

For further study, see the following passage: Rom 5:6-11

In explaining this passage, Charles Spurgeon wrote this:

“Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe. Grace is the fountain and the stream. Faith is the aqueduct along which the mercy flood flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men. … I remind you again that faith is only the channel or the aqueduct, and not the fountainhead. We must not look to it so much that we exalt it above the divine source of all blessing which lies in the grace of God.”

When you die how do you want your funeral to go?

Will you be buried or cremated? Why?

How does Paul describe our pre-Christian status in 2:1–3?

How do you think a typical unbeliever today would respond to this description of a non-Christian: “dead,” a slave of Satan, dominated by appetites, and destined for wrath?

What was the consequence of our pre-Christian status?

How does Paul graphically describe those who are dead in sin? How does this compare to your experience? (verses to consider: Eph 4:17–19; Rom 8:10)

Why are the words “But God” so sweet?

Why did God make us alive?

What words does Paul use in the passage to describe God’s actions toward the lost?

How does John 6:44 contribute to your understanding of this passage?

What does this passage teach about our union with Christ?

What is the believer’s future? How should this impact our daily lives?

Why should God’s salvation humble us?

What is the relationship between grace and works (2:10)?

How do we measure this?

What can you do to “grow in the grace … of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18) this week?

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