Taught 10/5/2008
Ephesians 2:1-10
The Work of God
Open your Bible to…
Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Pray
Intro
√ The works of God
In chapter 1 Paul spelled out in great detail the wonderful riches we have in Christ.
That is, Paul listed many of the privileges that are available to us in Christ as a result of our regeneration and adoption.
He then encouraged us to apprehend our inheritance and to live in the fullness of the blessings and riches we have in Christ!
In chapter 2 Paul turns his attention to what is perhaps his favorite subject, and that is…
…how God accomplished the great work of transforming sinners into sons thereby making us eligible to receive the rich inheritance of Heaven.
Paul does so by contrasting who we were before Christ, “children of wrath”…
…with what God did to transform us into saints and sons, a testimony of His great love.
The overriding theme is that our salvation, inheritance, and future glory is all the work of a God who loves us!
Ap. The Christian life
Paul reminds us again that the Christian life is not one of works, it is one of surrender!
Dead Men Walking (vs. 1-3)
Eph. 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
Eph. 2:2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
Eph. 2:3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
√ Dead men walking
To help us appreciate the unfathomable love of God toward us, Paul begins by describing the condition in which God found us.
It’s not pretty, but it’s all true.
Paul’s purpose in being so blunt about our sinful condition is to remind us that we were helpless and unable to save ourselves!
His point is that God alone could save us and that He did all the work to make our salvation, sanctification and glorification possible!
So, let’s look at how God found each of us, as I like describe us…
…dead men walking!
He is dead ~ vs. 1
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins” ~ vs. 1
So much for subtlety! Paul begins by telling us that all people are born dead!
Of course he’s not speaking of physical death, rather, the understanding here is that we are all born spiritually dead.
Each of us is born with no spiritual life.
We are not connected with God, nor do we posses the power to live a life pleasing to God because we’re born separated from God.
Ex. Death
Let me illustrate this truth with something we might understand better, that is physical death.
Doctors, philosophers and scientist will argue about the definition of death.
Is it when the heart stops? When the brain ceases?
But the Bible makes death easy to define, but hard to discern with our natural tools of observation.
That is, physical death is when the soul is separated from the body.
In the same way spiritual death comes when a person is separated from God.
Ex. Adam and Eve
God warned Adam and Eve that…
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” ~ Gen. 2:17
They obviously didn’t drop dead the moment they ate the fruit!
So, was God just teasing when He said they would die in the day that they ate the fruit?
Not at all!
Rather, Adam and Eve died spiritually that day as they were separated from God the moment they bit into the fruit. (i.e. physical death began that day too!).
From that point on every person born is born spiritually dead.
Thus we are all dead men walking and only God can resurrect us to new life!
He is disobedient ~ vs. 2-3a
Paul writes that we’re all disobedient…
“in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh…” ~ vs. 2-3a
In fact, the first man and woman disobeyed the only rule that God gave them!
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” ~ Gen. 2:17
Ap. Disobedience
Why are we prone to disobey?
Influence of the world system that is opposed to God
Satan and his minions working against us
Our own flesh ~ sin nature
Not a single person ever born has lived out their life in total obedience to God, we’re all disobedient!
Ex. Children
You don’t have to teach children to disobey…
…they do naturally!
What’s the first word most kids learn?
“No!”
Why? Because they’re disobedient so often that that’s the word they hear most often!
So, every person is born dead and disobedient to God!
He is depraved ~ vs. 3b
Next Paul tells us that we’re all born depraved…
“…fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” ~ vs.3b
His point is that we are all born slaves to our sin-nature.
That is prior to Christ we live to please the unholy passions of our flesh and the fantasies of our mind.
Please understand that I’m not saying a unbeliever is incapable of doing good, or even living a moral life…
…what I am saying is that prior to a relationship with Jesus a person is not able to please God because they are under the control of the lust of their flesh, the lust of their eyes, and the pride of life.
Ex. Paul
Prior to his conversion by all outward appearance he was a religious man, a moral man, and a man who sought to please God.
But the reality was that he was driven by hatred, envy and covetousness.
He was a slave to the desires and passions of his flesh and mind!
But, after he met Jesus and surrendered his life to Him, Paul became a new man no longer a slave to his sin-nature…
…but a man free of the power of his native depravity!
He is doomed ~ vs. 3c
So, every person is born dead, disobedient, depraved, and now for the best news…
…we were born doomed!
“and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” ~ vs. 3c
Children of wrath, sounds like a Death Metal band or a novel by John Steinbeck!
Paul’s point is that we’re all born doomed because we are born under God’s wrath!
As Jesus said…
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” ~ John 3:36
The spiritual reality is that we’re all born with a cloud of future judgment hanging over our heads.
We’re born bent on a path leading straight into Hell.
We’re born separate from God and deserving of His judgment.
So by nature we’re children of wrath, by deed children of disobedience!
The unsaved person is condemned already and has no hope to save himself!
Only God can save us from the doom that awaits!
Ap. Man’s root problem
Psychologists, psychiatrists, and philosophers have all sorts of ideas about what makes human beings act in the strange and destructive ways that we do.
They offer counseling, drug therapy, group discussions, etc., to try and fix sick people.
But the problem is that we’re not sick, we’re dead!
Only God can resurrect dead people and get at the root problem of our…
Disobedient
Depraved
Doomed
…lives!
Living God Working (vs. 4-10)
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Eph. 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Eph. 2:6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph. 2:7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Eph. 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Eph. 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
√ Living God working
It’s pretty obvious from Paul’s description of sinful Man that we cannot save ourselves from an eternity separated from God!
So, in verses 4-10 he changes his focus to God and what He has done on behalf of sinners to save them from the consequences of their sin.
Paul loved to preach, teach, and write about what God has done for us because he was eternally thankful that God saved him from himself, his sin, and hell!
He loves us ~ vs.4
All that God has done for Mankind springs from the core of His being, that is, from love!
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.” ~ vs. 4
What Paul is telling us here is that love isn’t some abstract ideal…
…rather, that God is love, it is His very nature!
“God is love” ~ 1 John 4:8
For example, in Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 the adjectives he uses describe the very nature of God.
Love isn’t a “thing” or an idea…
…love is a Person, God!
Because God is love He could not leave Man in his sinful condition!
Rather, with the first sin in the Garden we find that He set in motion a plan to save us from our sin!
A plan that He has patiently worked out through the history of Mankind, despite the ever increasing sinfulness and rebellion of Man toward God!
So, the first thing that God did to save dead men walking was to love us.
Ap. The testimony of His love
The Cross of Jesus stands as an eternal testimony of God’s love for sinners!
He gave us life ~ vs. 5
“even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” Vs. 5
God’s love is so great that He provided the means and the power to resurrect us from spiritual death so that He could love us forever!
He did that of course through the sacrifice of His Son, which fully satisfied the debt that kept us in bondage to sin and death.
But, it’s not until each of us individually receive His gift of life that we are born again!
How did we receive that life and spiritual resurrection?
Through the Word of God!
Ex. Raised from the dead
During the course of Jesus’ earthly ministry we have the record of 3 people that He raised from the dead…
Widow’s son ~ Luke 7:11-17
Jairus’ daughter ~ Luke 8:49-56
Lazarus ~ John 11:41-46
In each case Jesus spoke a word to their dead bodies and though they couldn’t hear with their physical ears…
…none the less His Word imparted the power to bring them back to life!
“Young man, I say to you, arise.”
“Little girl, arise.”
“Lazarus, come forth!”
These examples are a picture of what happens when we hear the Gospel and surrender to Christ…
…at that moment we are spiritually resurrected by the power of God’s Word (the Gospel) effectively working in our life.
He exalted us ~ vs. 6
“and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” ~ vs. 6
After we’re raised from spiritual death the Lord doesn’t leave us in the graveyard of fallen humanity!
Rather, the Lord lifts us up and seats us in heaven with Jesus.
Obviously we’re still physically here on earth…
…but the truth that Paul reveals is that our spiritual position is in heaven.
The benefit is that God has raised us up so that we can enjoy fellowship with Jesus even though we aren’t physically in Heaven.
He saved us ~ vs. 7-9
Eph. 2:7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Eph. 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
These are some of the sweetest words in all of Scripture for they tell us without controversy that our salvation is a gift of God!
That we are saved by Grace, not works of any kind.
And, that we are saved for a purpose…
“that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” ~ vs. 7
That is, God didn’t save us just to keep us out of Hell…
…He saved us that we might also be the trophies of His Grace throughout all eternity!
That in Heaven the angels will look at us in awesome wonder as they consider the work that God has done in us…
…transforming us from sinners who were trapped in corruption and entropy into saints who reflect the glory and holiness of God Himself!
He accomplished that great transformation despite our failures!
Ex. The greatness of a person
Isn’t measured by how much money they made, or how fast they ran, or how brave they were…
…the true measure of greatness in a person’s life is seen in the positive changes their life made in others.
In part God’s greatness will be displayed in eternity through the changed lives of people like you and me who have trusted in Christ.
So, God saves us because we cannot save ourselves and so that we might be an eternal testimony of His power and glory.
He works in us ~ 10a
“For we are His workmanship…” ~ vs. 10a
The word “workmanship” is the Greek word, “poiema”, from which we derive our English word “poem”, it literally means…
“That which is made, a manufactured product.”
The idea that Paul is communicating is that our conversion is not the end, it is the beginning of the work that will do in our lives!
God’s plan is to make us like His Son!
That work is accomplished by the power of His Spirit living within us.
The Spirit works day and night to refine us through the Word, personal conviction, and even through difficult experiences!
With each passing day He chips away the Old Nature to reveal the New Nature that He is working in us!
Ap. It’s His work!
Just as we can’t save ourselves, neither can we change ourselves!
God is the One who does the work!
Our part is simply to acknowledge our need and allow Him to work in us!
He works through us ~ vs. 10b
“…created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” ~ vs. 10b
The last thing that Paul tells us God does, is that He not only works in us, He also works through us!
That is, once we are saved by the Grace of God then He begins to work through our lives to accomplish His purposes.
We aren’t saved by those works, Paul’s already made that abundantly clear (vs. 5 & 8)…
…but one way we can identify a saved person is by the good works that their salvation produces!
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
John 7:20
Good works are also important because when Christians help other people they are demonstrating the reality of the Gospel we preach.
Often times our good works win us the right to be heard!
But, don’t think we can do those good works by ourselves! Rather, the point is that it is God who is working through us!
Close
√ The works of God
What a wonderful promise we have in Christ, that we’re saved by grace alone!
Not by works!
Rather, our salvation, sanctification, and glorification is all the work of God!