February 12, 2023
Morning Service

As we continue our study of the letter Paul wrote to the Ephesian Church, we continue with our “Spiritual Inventory” today as we start chapter 2.  Paul is just refreshing our mind of the many ways God has blessed us along our journey with Him.  These are not “new revelations” for us but things that we should know as a Jesus follower, but just need a deeper understanding of them.  He earlier reminded us that He chose us despite all our faults and weaknesses.  He reminded us that it was Jesus who paid the full price for our salvation, not us who would be powerless to save ourselves.  God has blessed us with a hope that our future is something worth looking forward to.  Our inventory also includes that fact that God, through the Holy Spirit, now dwells within each of us guiding and empowering us to fulfill His Will for our lives.  It is our “seal” or “guarantee” that we belong to Him.  Last week prayed for us that we would receive the knowledge and understanding of the “hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power.”  These are all things that we cannot touch or feel, but we must learn to believe them in faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.  Our journey following Jesus is a spiritual journey and we must be in tune with the “anointing we have received” (I Jn. 2:27) from God to fully grasp these truths and apply them to our daily walk with Him.  Today Paul reminds us of the grace (unmerited favor from God) that we live under every day first by painting a picture for us of who we all once were before we met Jesus.

Eph. 2 :1-3 NLT: Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your sins. (2)  You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the might prince of the power of the air.  He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. (3)  All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature.  We were born with an evil nature and we were under God’s anger just like everyone else.

Paul is showing to us the state we were under before we came to Christ.  We were dead in our sins and our future destination was a separation from God and His blessings.  We were just like the worldly people around us as we were not following Jesus, but were following Satan and “the passions and desires of our evil nature.”  Our actions were not directed to glorify God, our Creator, but to satisfy our own evil lusts and desires.  We were on the wide path with many others who walk it that leads to destruction. (Matt. 7:13) We like cattle were being herded to our slaughter, having no knowledge of where we were headed let alone another path to escape to.  We were on the outside of the kingdom of heaven looking in and were helpless to enter in on our own.  Paul describes each of us in this passage at some point in our lives; lost, without hope, disobedient, unholy, and spiritually dead.  BUT GOD, has a different plan for us!

 

Eph. 2:4-7But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

            This passage begins with the words “but God” which forms a significant and inspiring transition or change in our path.  A change from the path of doom and despair to entering into the path of unspeakable joy and hope that comes from a relationship with our Creator.  This change is not only for the here and now, but incorporates our future as well.  It is a change that was authored and authorized by God Himself.  No one else could do this and no one else would have done it.  It was God alone who engineered the “narrow gate and difficult way which leads to life.” (Matt 7:14) Why would He do this?  What about God would motivate Him to create such an avenue for sinners like us to share with Him “the exceeding riches of His grace?”  Paul answers this even before we ask it; “He is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us.”  God not only engineered that narrow gate, but built it through His Son because He loved us.

            John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  (17)  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

            If that is not enough, look at when He chose to offer us this blessing of salvation:

             

Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This describes the divine love God has for us that we find it hard to understand.  He did not place demands on us to clean up our act, be faithful, and serve Him well in order to be worthy of this offer of the gift of salvation.  He offered it to us when we were in the pit of sin, denying His existence, and living only for ourselves.  We were undesirable and undeserving of such a chance to escape the lifestyle we were in and the destination it was taking us to.  BUT GOD with “unmerited” favor created a gate for us to access Him through our faith in Jesus.

 

Eph. 2:8-19For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone should boast.       

To truly follow Jesus, we must be able to spiritually understand this famous passage.  We are NOT saved by what we do for God (not of yourselves), but by grace through faith in who He is.  We could never do enough or live the perfect life required to deserve salvation.  Grace is unmerited favor which means we don’t deserve it, but God offers it anyway as a free gift to us who believe and choose to follow Him.  “It is not of our works, lest anyone should boast.”  We are not able to come to God claiming “look what I have done,” but come only through His amazing grace.  It is by faith, not works that we are forgiven of our sins and cleansed from our unrighteousness and given a chance to start new and fresh.  We trust God and accept Jesus’ work upon the cross, not our works, as our gate into salvation.  “You are complete in Him (Jesus)” (Col. 2:10) lacking nothing as all the work is done by Him for us.  So if our works, actions and lifestyle do not “earn” us salvation, why do we stress those things so strongly?  Paul answers that next.

 

Eph. 2:10For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

            Each of us who call ourselves a follower of Jesus is a masterpiece created by God.  Just as a master craftsman can take something raw and without form and create something beautiful and of great value, God does that with us.  When we admire a wonderfully crafted item, our admiration is really towards the hands that created it not the item itself.  The same is to be true in our lives.  Our testimony for all of us is; “this is what I was before, a train wreck, but God intervened and I am all that I am because of Him.”  We know how we were, unholy, unforgiving, and self-centered.  We also know how we changed when we met Jesus; we became focused on following Him and being like Him.  There was a change crafted by the Master Craftsman Himself, who does not create masterpieces with wood, stone or clay but He chose to use us despite our many faults and failures to create something new.

  We are a “new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” (2Cor. 5:17) Here in verse 10 we see God created this “new you” with a purpose in mind.  We are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Think about that for a moment.  God chose you and He has a specific purpose for you to fulfill.  NOT to earn your salvation it is already paid for, but because of your salvation you will desire to walk this path God has prepared for you and complete your journey to stand before Him. He has mapped out for each of us a lifestyle that is centered on Him, not ourselves, to allow our lives to bring glory to Him alone; the Master Craftsman.

We do not serve God out of our grace (unmerited favor), but serve and worship Him because He is worthy of it!  We serve Him because He offered us a chance to change the direction of our lives and the destination that awaits us in the future.  He, through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, is creating us to be like Him.  As Max Lucado states: “God loves you just as the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way.  He wants you to be just like Jesus.”  Our life-long journey following Him is a journey of change.  The things God places in our path have purpose.  They are to open our eyes and heart to see our Savior more clearly and to see the changes in our life that need to be made to be like Him.  We make this journey, though at times it is extremely difficult, with joy fully realizing where the path we were formerly on was leading us.  BUT GOD loved us, chose us, is leading us and changing us to be His masterpiece.

 

Heavenly Father Praise You for the grace You pour down over us every day!  Open our hearts to fully understand the we are saved by Your grace through faith and not by our works.  Let this free us spiritually to become all that You are creating us to be!