July 14, 2024|United in Grace|Ephesians 2
JD Cutler
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This morning we continue our overview walk through the book of Ephesians in our Graciously United series. Looking at one chapter a week over six weeks.
Last week we looked at chapter 1 under the heading United in Christ, paying particular attention to verses 3-14.
Here Paul, in his introductory thoughts, calls us to praise God for all that he had done for the believer, the many spiritual blessings that he has lavished on us. Blessings that are ours because, and only because, we have been united in Christ. Both as an individual reality and a corporate one.
Everyone who has been saved and will be saved is or will be united with Christ. These 12 verses contain many beautiful theological truths concerning our salvation. Most specifically we saw God’s sovereignty in election and predestination as well as the perseverance of the saints by sealing them with the Holy Spirit. As I said last week Paul introduces many of the themes that make up the bulk of the letter. One such theme is God’s grace. He introduces this in verse 5.
In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
He says that we have been saved according to God’s purpose and to the praise of his glorious grace.
This and other passages in scripture reflect the protestant distinctive and one of the five solas of the reformation. Sola Gratia.
We are saved by grace alone and by that we truly mean grace alone, our salvation is not aided by our good works, but is wholly dependent upon the grace of God.
Today, from chapter 2 of Ephesians, I want to show you why that is not only reasonable but necessary by highlighting three reasons within Paul’s presentation that make salvation by grace alone necessary.
We are going to begin by reading verse 8 and 9 together, which is the heart of chapter 2 and then we will look at some of the surrounding verses. Let’s read that together now. These verses are no doubt familiar to you even if their surrounding context may not be.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
If you have been studying with us on Wednesday night, you know that there is an important element here for our study.
Verse 8-9 serve as an applicatory statement introduced by the conjunction ‘For’ in your Bibles. Similar words would be ‘Therefore’, or ‘because of this’, this word is used in an argument to assign a reason.
In other words, what Paul is about to say cannot be understood apart from everything he just said in verses 1-7. Since all of that is true, any of you in Ephesus that are saved, that belong to Christ, are saved by grace alone.
Since all of that is true, any of you in Ephesus that are saved, that belong to Christ, are saved by grace alone.
This morning I want to work backwards, since we understand and believe that we are saved by grace alone, to look at why our salvation has to be by grace alone. If you believe that salvation is by grace alone, then I hope today will strengthen your convictions and provide some support for your beliefs, if you have not yet understood that salvation is by grace alone, I pray that today, God will clearly show you that not only is it true, but there is no other way to be saved. That we indeed are united in Grace both in Christ and with one another.
As we work backwards, one note of interest is again we have a long Pauline sentence in the Greek. Verses 1-7 are one sentence structure in the Greek. Even more Interestingly, the sentence structure doesn’t introduce its primary noun and verb until verse 5.
The sentence begins in the sense of subject/verb this way. God made you alive. This is the primary thought communicated in these first seven verses. This is why in some of your bibles, there are a few words italicized in verse 1 that say, (ASV) did he make alive, (KJV) hath he quickened, (NKJV) He made alive. These words were added in the English to try and make the point Paul is making more clearly understood in the English language.
One more interesting structural note is that there is a parenthetical statement within this sentence.
Paul seems to rush his thought process at the end of verse 5 where we find this parenthetical statement, ‘by grace you have been saved’, which Paul is about to say in verse 8 but it bursts forth in the middle of describing what God has done for the believer.
God is the clear focus and grace is the emphasis of everything Paul is saying, so much so that our first two reasons come from these 7 verses. Let’s read those verses together now.
Ephesians 2:1-7 (ESV) 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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— 3 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. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Paul wastes no time getting to what we are calling the first reason salvation is by grace alone.
You were dead.
Paul says twice that we were dead, once he articulates that we were dead in the trespasses and sins and once that we were dead in our trespasses.
The word Paul uses is ‘nekros’ and you may be surprised that when Paul says you were dead, he means you were dead.
The root word is corpse and of the 132 times it is used in the New Testament, it means dead.
...you may be surprised that when Paul says you were dead, he means you were dead.
Notice with me that he does not say he ‘you were as dead men’ or ‘you were like dead men’. That language was certainly was available to him.
In Matthew 28:4, Mark 9:6, and Revelation 1:17 there is the word ‘hos’ meaning ‘like’ or ‘as’.
In those passages we see the structure reads ‘like dead men’ or ‘as though dead’. That is resembling dead men or corpses.
Matthew 28:4 (ESV) 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
Or in Revelation 1:17 where John records, (ESV) 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
If Paul meant there was something about us that was like dead men, he certainly could have said that.
So at the very least we have to acknowledge that Paul, writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, chose not to say we were like dead men, but rather that we were dead men.
But maybe Paul meant figuratively as the word is used in Luke 15 in the parable of the prodigal son, where the father says twice that his son ‘was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’
That is for all intents and purposes, the son was dead to his family, he was so estranged, so distant, that it was as though he was dead. And perhaps that is what Paul means, that figuratively we were dead, but I don’t think that gets to the heart of what Paul is saying.
Because although the son was ‘dead’ to his family, he was still alive and needed only to come home in order to not be dead anymore. I think Paul means dead. Completely separated from God, with no ability, desire, or will. Paul picks this up again in chapter 4 when he says.
Ephesians 4:17-19 (ESV) 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Alienated- to be shut out from one's fellowship and intimacy
Alienated from what, life. Isn’t that another way of saying dead. Estranged from life?
What life were we estranged from? Paul says the life of God.
Obviously, he doesn’t mean physical death, we were not all laying around as corpses until we were saved, so in what way were we dead? Spiritually. Although we were physically alive we were spiritually dead.
How are we to understand spiritual death? Let’s ask some questions about physical death to see if we can wrap our minds around the concept. Most of us have lived long enough to have a loved one pass away.
When a loved one is laying in their casket, what abilities do they possess? None, they possess no vitality to do anything.
What desires do they have? None, they possess no vitality to desire anything.
What will do they have to exercise? None, they possess no vitality to will anything.
Is there anything we can do at that moment to revive them? If we yell at them, can we wake them up? If we put their favorite person in front of them, or their favorite meal, is there any way we can entice them to get up? Of course not, the very thought is ridiculous.
But isn’t that the way some people treat what Paul says here, as though he says they were mostly dead?
As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a scene from the greatest movie ever made. For the uninformed, the greatest movie ever made is the Princess Bride, which was released in 1987. In the movie, some of the heroes bring the main character, who they believe is dead, the man in black, to a man named miracle max, played by Billy Crystal. Max says that their friend is not dead, only mostly dead, and as he says, mostly dead is slightly alive. He goes on to say that he can work with mostly dead. It’s a humorous scene, but I think it presents am unfunny problem.
This is what I think the church often gets wrong.
We can be like that, treating people as mostly spiritually dead.
We think if we can get them in the right environment, if we can meet one of their needs, if we can just get them to understand the gospel, that they can experience life, but that’s not what Paul says at all.
He says, just like the physically dead would need to be made alive, the spiritually dead need to be made spiritually alive, they need something miraculous to happen to them. He says the only one that can do this is God, who he says, made us alive together with. All one word.
God created life where there was no life by joining us to Christ.
Paul previously highlighted the life-giving power of God in chapter 1 when he said, Ephesians 1:19-20 (ESV) that you may know 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
Paul says that the same miraculous power that brought physical life to Jesus is at work in the believer bringing spiritual life where there was death.
And just to make sure we understand the reason we experience this resurrection power, he immediately says, ‘by grace you have been saved.’
Grace is God’s unmerited and undeserved favor. You did not deserve life, you did not participate in bringing life, you couldn’t, you were dead.
So how can anyone ever experience spiritual life? By the grace of God alone.
The spiritual condition of man makes God’s grace necessary in salvation. You were dead, and now you are alive, how? God’s grace.
But Paul goes on, not only were you dead…
You were disobedient.
Let’s pick up in verse 2.
Ephesians 2:2-3 (ESV) 2 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— 3 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.
Dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked.
To walk in Hebrew language means to live, to regulate one's life, to conduct one's self, to pass one's life.
So how do spiritually dead men and women live? In trespasses and sins. Each word has a slightly different meaning.
Trespasses- paraptōma- to slip, to fall to the side
Sins- hamartia- to miss the mark
Some scholars will try to differentiate between the two, but I think the two words used together are meant to emphasize the totality of our sins, not necessarily speak to different methods of sin.
All sin is missing the mark if we rightly understand the mark. God’s standard is absolute perfection. Perfectly loving him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and loving our neighbor perfectly as ourselves.
All sin is failure. Failing to walk in the statutes and ordinances of our heavenly father.
Not only were we born with a sinful nature, that is spiritually dead, we lived that way willingly. Paul explains this in two ways, we were followers. Followers of the course of this world and following the prince of the power of the air. That word ‘follow’ means according to, that is, we lived our lives according to what we knew.
Following the course of this world- or maybe better translated the age of this world, we were no different than the rest of human beings in our world.
Following the prince of the power of the air- this is in reference to Satan who is at work in those who live lives of disobedience, those that live in opposition to and hostility towards God.
The reformed expository commentary says it this way. Because we are spiritually dead prior to God’s placing his Spirit in us, there is no godly restraint on what we do. Speaking to the Ephesians, Paul says, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins, 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” (Eph. 2:1–2). The practice of those who were dead in their transgressions and sins was to live following the ways of the world and the leading of Satan, who continues to exert his spiritual influence over those who are disobedient. They live a life of spiritual death.
Paul is emphatically making the point that we were dead spiritually by nature, but disobedient by choice as well. Our practices were evil and therefore we were under the judgment of a Holy and Righteous God.
You might say, I’m not that bad, it feels harsh to call my life evil apart from Christ, but notice with me what Paul does in verse 3. He switches from ‘and you’ to ‘we’.
Paul is emphatically making the point that we were dead spiritually by nature, but disobedient by choice as well.
Paul includes himself in verse 3 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.
Paul, the pharisee of pharisees, the religiously obedient, strict-living Jew says, we. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. Count me in that group. Living in the passions of our flesh, count me in that group as well. A child of wrath, count me in that one as well.
With the physical life we did have, we used to fulfill the passions of our flesh and the desires of the body and mind. We were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Do you have a picture of the problem yet?
We needed something beyond ourselves, something that could overcome our nature and cleanse us from our sins, which Paul introduces with just two powerful words in verse 4.
But God.
He began in verse 1 with ‘and you’ and now after three completely condemning verses, says, ‘But God’.
Ephesians 2:4 (ESV) 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
We all stood hopelessly guilty before God, dead in our sin, but God being rich in mercy, or full of grace, because of the great love with which he loved us. Not love that we deserved, not love we earned, but just pure gracious love extended towards the unlovable. He made us alive together with Christ.
It was because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice that God could wipe our account clean, not just forgiving us, not just redeeming us, but making us alive to Him. Why? Because he is rich in mercy. He is as merciful as he is just. God does not overlook the disobedience of man, he covers it by the blood of Jesus Christ, of which none of us are worthy recipients. It’s all grace.
So both dead and disobedient, but as though that was not enough, Paul gives us a third reason that salvation is by grace alone,...
You were distant.
Let’s pick up in verse 11.
This is not a distinctly Gentile problem, and Paul will talk about the distance between the Jew and God in other places, but since our audience today are all gentiles, let us focus on what he says concerning us.
Ephesians 2:11-12 (ESV) 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Paul’s final reason is profound. Jesus, by which we were made alive and by which our disobedience was covered, was the promised Jewish messiah. He came from the lineage of Abraham to be the fulfillment of promises made to send a prophet greater than Moses, a King greater than David, and a Priest greater than all other High Priests. For the Jews.
We who were gentiles, those not under the covenant promises, had no hope and were without God in the world.
Without hope and godless. Dead, disobedient, and distant.
If God only came to save his covenant people, the nation of Israel in Jesus’ day, we would be hopelessly lost. We would still be dead, we would still be walking in disobedience. But, Paul says to these Gentile believers, 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
We who were far off, distant from the one true God, have been brought near. What a remarkable aspect of the gospel, the good news.
Paul says that God has taken his covenant people and people outside his old covenant and in the new covenant of Christ brought us both together as one man where there was once two.
Both reconciled by the cross, both who now have peace with God through Jesus, both who now have access to God through one Spirit.
Paul says that God has taken his covenant people and people outside his old covenant and in the new covenant of Christ brought us both together as one man where there was once two.
From verse 13 to 22, Paul makes several points that all relate to this new reality, but one of the greatest verses is verse 19.
Ephesians 2:19 (ESV) 9 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Listen friends, it doesn’t get any closer than that.
From hopeless to heir. From separated to sons. He goes on to describe our part in the household of God.
Ephesians 2:20-21 (ESV) 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Christ is the cornerstone of it all. Without Christ, there is no foundation, without Christ, there is no building, without Christ there is no structure joined together. But In Christ, all those who are in him are brought together to form a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Christ is why we have been brought close, and as we saw last week, we are brought into Christ, united with him not because of our own merit but because of God’s great grace. Who is the only one who could overcome the distance between man and God? God. Nothing we could do would draw us nearer to God apart from Christ, it is by God’s grace that we have been brought near through him.
Three reasons that salvation has to be by grace alone.
We were dead. Spiritually without life and without power.
We were disobedient. Living in sin willingly and gladly.
We were distant. Separated from God by an insurmountable distance.
But we have been made alive, we have been forgiven, and we have been brought near. How?
Let me finish where I started.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
By grace you have been saved.
This is not your own doing- not from you or by you in any way.
This is not a result of works- again not from or by anything you can do.
Do you hear what Paul is saying?
You can not do anything to experience the grace of God, it is the gift of God.
There is not a work you can do that will result in experiencing the grace of God.
If there is anything that you can say that you did to be saved, I’m afraid you have missed Paul’s point entirely.
If even the smallest thing can be attributed to you, do you not have reason to boast?
Would it not be a work you could point to as a basis for experiencing the grace of God?
If you are saved and if you will be saved, it will be because of God’s grace and God’s grace alone. We are all united in that beautiful truth, that salvation is by grace alone. Amen?
Let us pray.
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