Christ

The Grace of God Saves the Sinner: Ephesians 2:1-10

/ Neal Embry

We continue our study in Ephesians by looking at how God saves sinners.  This section of Ephesians is well known, particularly verse 8, as we remember God’s grace in saving sinful men and women. Let’s examine more of what God has for us in this great passage.

“And you were dead in the 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–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”–2:1-3

If you are not a Christian, the Bible is clear: You are spiritually dead. We cannot waste time and try to sugarcoat this tragic truth: Sin does not make us worse, and it is not a small dark blot on our otherwise stainless record….sin kills us.  Sin separates us from God, leading to spiritual death. Before we come to know Christ, we have no way of knowing God, trusting God, or pleasing God.

The Bible is also clear on this: No one escapes this.  Paul says we ALL once lived this way, not just the really bad humans, but every human. Here is the offense of God’s Word–it tells us what we really are, not what we’d like to believe we are.

There’s one more point to draw from this opening section: We are children of wrath outside of Christ. We are not children of God before we come to know Christ. That may step on some toes and upset some, but the Bible is clear: The only people who can rightly claim to be children of God are those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (John 1:12). Being God’s child does not come naturally when we are born because, as stated above, our sin separates us from God. While we are all created by God, only those who know Christ are children of God.

Let’s summarize: Dead. Sinful. Separated from God. Children of wrath. Overall, this is a pretty negative picture of our spiritual state. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. There’s no way to fix it, not in and of ourselves. Dead people can’t do anything..they’re dead.

Which is why Paul’s next two words are the sweetest words in the Bible: But God. But God refused to let the story end here. God refused to let the Bible stop after Genesis 3. God acted to save His creation.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”–2:4-9

Remember this, Christian–God loved you when you were dead! What great news for all! If you are a Christian, God loved you when you were dead (so He surely will continue to love you now)! If you are not a Christian, God loves you now! There is nothing we do to earn God’s love, He simply chooses to love the unlovable.

It is God who gives us spiritual life. Unable to trust Him on our own, or have a heart that desires to live with Him and for Him, He gives us a new heart, as He promised in Ezekiel 36. He opens our eyes and gives us life to turn from sin and self and turn to Christ.

Faith, then, is a gift from God too. I love this quote from the Gospel Transformation Bible: “Faith is not the ultimate good deed that saves us but the instrumental cause of our salvation–grace flows through the channel of faith, but the channel is itself of God’s construction.”

Thank God for the faith that saves, the faith we now have in Christ! This passage then destroys the idea that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is an ancient Greek idea, not a biblical idea. It stems from a stoicism that is divorced from biblical truth. Don’t buy it–our God does not help those who help themselves, our God raises the dead to life!

We also receive the “immeasurable riches of his grace” and are “seated with Christ.” We are not just forgiven and restored to God–He continues to shower us with grace and unites us with His Son–as we said last week, everything Jesus has, we have! What grace!

The point of all of this? To point us to rejoice in our God. Paul’s aim is that the church understands, knows, rejoices in, and praises God for all that He has done for them. What a word to help them do this.

We were dead; God made us alive.

We were blind; God made us see.

We did not trust God; God gave us faith.

We were condemned; God saved us.

We were slaves of Satan; God freed us to follow Him.

We were children of wrath; God adopts us as His children.

Meditate on this. Let the truth of God’s love and what He’s done for those who are in Christ lead you to worship Him and love others.

There’s one more verse we need to look at:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”–2:10

God does not save us by our work, but one of the reasons He saves us by grace is that we do good works from a renewed, godly heart. He has made us His. He has called us His children, and in light of that, He calls us to do good works for His glory.

Where do we start? We start in prayer. God has “prepared (them) beforehand.” He has called each believer to do good works–seek God’s will for your life, and how you can begin to serve Him.

Lord, may we never forget the grace found in you. May we remember what you’ve done for us, bringing us from death to life, from disobedience to obedience, from slaves to sons and daughters. May we worship you for your abundant love and grace. May we seek to do the good works you have prepared for us.

God bless,

Neal E.

Ephesians 1: The Grace of God Blesses the Believer

/ Neal Embry

Welcome to the first message series in the book of Ephesians! For the next seven to eight weeks, I’ll be taking a look at what Paul writes in this very important letter to the church at Ephesus. We start today by examining God’s grace in the blessings of the believer.

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.  To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”–1:1-2

By saying, “Grace to you,” Paul makes it clear that we never outgrow our need to receive grace and remember the grace we’ve been shown in Christ. This enables us to live the Christian life with joy, and not get stuck going through the motions.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places..” 1:3

I feel safe in assuming that nearly every Christian has asked God to bless him or her at least two or three times in their life. We want a good job, a good house, a good family, and a life free from pain and suffering. However, the Bible never tells us that these things are guaranteed for us, even as believers. But it does tell us that in Christ, we have every spiritual blessing available to us. What Paul has in mind here is our union with Christ, and the privileges that come with that, meaning that everything Christ has, we have.

Do you see this? Does it motivate you to worship God? Think about it–all the privileges Christ enjoys as the Son of God: the father-son relationship with God the Father, the rule and reign over the earth, love and acceptance by the God of creation–the Bible says WE now have, in Christ!

“…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” 1:4

Dwell on this, Christian: Before He formed the world, before He said, “Let there be light,” before you were a thought in your mother’s mind…God knew you. He knew your name, your face, your personality…and He knew your sin. He knew all our sin. He knew how, after creating us in His image and tasking us to enjoy Him and rule over His creation, we would slap His face and say, “No.” And He still made us. He still chose to create us and, more than that, initiated a foolproof plan to save us and bring us back to Himself. He chose us.

How does this help us in this life? For those who struggle with worth—if you are in Christ, the Creator of the universe knows you by name. You were chosen before the world began. Our worth and our identity is secure, not in what we have done, are doing, or will do, but in that our Father in heaven chose to glorify Himself by saving us by His grace.

“In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” 1:5-6

Do you ever feel like God is simply putting up with you? That all of your sin gets you one step closer to being thrown out of God’s house, and the next screw-up will be the last straw?

There’s good news for you: In Christ, all believers are adopted by God the Father as His children. We are not just God’s servants, we are God’s children. We are His dearly beloved, blood-bought children, and He will never forsake us nor abandon us.

Indeed, it was the “purpose of His will.” This means that God didn’t begrudgingly save you! God wished it, God willed it…He chose to save you! We remember that we are working for God’s glory and seeking to be like Jesus as God’s children. We are joyfully imitating our Father and telling the world how great our God is!

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” 1:7-10

No one is free from the problem of guilt, because guilt is a very real problem. It cannot be solved in therapy, it cannot be medicated, and you cannot stuff it way down your subconscious and hope that it goes away.

Praise God we don’t have to live in our guilt or suffer eternity apart from Him, because Christ dealt with our guilt on the cross. If we are in Christ, we are forgiven by His blood, and our guilt is done away with. We no longer are slaves to guilt or fear.

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” 1:11-12

In Christ, God gives us an eternal inheritance with Him. The richest man in the world couldn’t leave a better inheritance for his kids than God does with us. We receive fellowship with Him forever, the right to reign with Christ, and eternal holiness and happiness in Him. So when we lose everything in this life, remember that we have an inheritance in Christ that cannot be taken away or lost.

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” 1:11-14

Lastly, God blesses us with Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God Himself, not God’s power or God’s anointing. God actually dwells within us! The Spirit assures us we are God’s children (Rom. 8:16) and is the guarantee of all God’s heavenly blessings for us.

All of this leads Paul to pray in verses 15-23 that the church would dwell on and grow in the knowledge of God’s love and blessings for them in Christ. He prays that the “eyes of (their) hearts (be) enlightened, that (they) may know what is the hope to which” God calls them.  He wants them to know more and more of the greatness of God and His blessings.

This should be our prayer for one another in the church, that we would remember all God has done for us in Christ, so that we may have fullness of joy and grow in our walk with Him.

If you are in Christ, remember all God has done for you. Remember it, dwell on it, and walk with God in fullness of joy and faith. If you are not in Christ, I urge you to recognize you cannot save yourself, and I urge you to trust in Jesus to save you and turn away from your sin to trust Him to help you live in righteousness.

Lord, may we remember all that we have in you. May we dwell on your goodness to us, and how you chose us before the foundation of the world, how you redeem us and adopt us, and give us an inheritance that cannot be taken away. May we make your name famous as we joyfully imitate you.

God bless,

Neal E.

Join us next week as we examine Ephesians 2, where we see the grace of God in giving us spiritual life and saving us.