9/24/17-Eph. 2:1-10-In Christ: By Grace Alone

This is the Gospel Message. Without clearly understanding this text, we won’t have an understanding of who we are individually, who we are corporately as a church, or how to be effective witnesses and evangelists.

 

Paul is contrasting life before an encounter with Jesus with life after. Paul does this by looking at our lives as a journey between two kingdoms.

 

It all surrounds the statement: Jesus Christ became what we are so we could become what He is”

 

-1) Paul says in v. 1 that we were all dead in transgressions and sins. Paul isn’t saying that were were all pretty good and moral people, then Jesus came and added a bit more goodness.

 

He is saying that we were dead men walking, enslaved to sin. We were dead with no hope.

 

The Reason: We were living for ourselves, following our own desires. The Bible calls this our sinful nature. When we listen to it, we end up worshipping something that is not God, and then we feel trapped by it, even if it is something good.

 

We take the good things and make them ultimate things, then they become false gods or idols. What is worse is that if we fail to get these things, they never forgive us, and even if we succeed to get them, they never satisfy us.

 

Well why is the world like this? Paul gives us the answer in vs. 2. He says this world is a kingdom into which we were all born, and this kingdom has a ruler sin. (NOTE: sin is not all-powerful, for the world only has one true Ruler, God)

 

Sin touches every part of our lives and corrupts it, from our will to our mind and our emotions and our body. Satan may tempt us but he never forces anyone to sin. We make the choice and hence are responsible.

 

And after sin touches every part of our lives, it only has one end result: death. Before we knew Christ, we were part of a kingdom whose tyrants were sin and death.

 

We have tried to find life in ourselves and our desires and in doing so, cut ourselves off from God. In the end, life without God is meaningless.

 

We thought we were our own masters, but we were slaves to our own desires and brought death upon ourselves. No amount of “good works” or charity or religion could save us.

 

Gospel: Even though our situation looks pretty hopeless, God out of His love, looked at our state, and out of His love, He did something about it.

 

In Jesus, a divine trade happened: He became what we are so we could become what He is. He became a human being (tired, hungry, weak, etc.) and lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died, so that we could become what Jesus is (holy, righteous, eternally alive).

 

God has made us alive in Christ Jesus-He did not just give us rules or good morals, for that would be like putting a band-aid on a mortal wound. Rather He saw we were dead, and showed us grace and made us alive again!

 

God gave us his grace, which means He gave us Himself. Humanity’s problem si that were were spiritually dead, so the only hope is if God gives us spiritual life.

 

When we are born-again, we switch kingdoms! Christ takes our sinful nature, our “heart of stone” and gives us His heart, a heart of love.

 

To enjoy this gift of salvation, we must be united to the Giver. We must be “in Christ”. That means He is to be living in us and we are to be living in Him, a brand new reality, a brand new way of life!

 

In Christ, our will, our heart, our mind, our emotions, our everything is transformed, so that now, where it was once impossible to choose to love God, that is all we want to do!

 

He shapes us and molds us. The cross and resurrection of Jesus is not only done for our benefit, but it must be something in which we as believers participate. We must daily die to self, and trust God to give us new life to live for Him.

 

We have transferred our identity, from the kingdom of darkness and death to the kingdom of Jesus. We live in His reality, and that is why we say “Jesus is Lord”. Now, we must “live out” that identity.

 

That we are no longer slaves to sin, but alive and free in Jesus Christ. This is accomplished only and completely by grace through faith. Faith is the way we receive grace.

 

Faith is the way that God changes us to desire what He desires. Faith is not just saying “I believe in God” but “I believe God” (understanding who He is and trusting Him)

 

If we are trying to save ourselves by our own goodness, then it will never work for if we are comparing ourselves to God, how can we measure up to perfection?

 

But if the way to God is through a person, Jesus Christ, who lived the life we should have lived, and died the death we should have died, and saves us by sheer grace, then it is a loving relationship and a joy to be free from sin. God saw where we were, and loved us so much He became what we are so that we could become what He is.