8-7-11

You cannot work for a gift. I mean, if your employer said, “I have a gift for you and then gave you your paycheck wouldn’t that seem a little strange? We earn our paychecks by working. Our employer owes us that money. It’s not a gift.

At best, a gift is given with no strings attached. Now that’s not always the case. Sometimes people give gifts with a hidden agenda. They give gifts to make us beholden to them or to manipulate us in some way. But true gift giving has no strings attached.

The greatest gift giver of all is God. In Jms.1:17 it says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Every day, God gives us life. God has given us the Scriptures to show us the best way to live life. He gave us his commands, not to make us miserable, but to enable us to live noble lives.

The greatest gift of God is seen in the giving of his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ reveals God to us in the clearest way possible. Jesus came to save us from God’s judgment. And in Eph.2:1-10 we see that salvation is the gift of God received by faith in Jesus Christ

 

I. WE SEE HUMANITY’S SINFUL PLIGHT. Eph.2:1-3

In Eph.1:19-20, Paul describes God’s power. He says, “that power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead....” Christ was dead, and in 2:1 Paul picks up on that and says, “you were dead in your trespasses and sins.”

I like the way the late John Stott (d.July 27, 2011) summarizes these verses in his commentary on Ephesians. He points out that all unbelievers are dead (v.1), enslaved (v.2-3), and condemned (v.3). Let’s think about this.

All people are dead in their trespasses and sins. The word for “trespasses” means to cross a line, break a law, go off the right path. The word for “sins” means to fall short of a standard; to miss the mark. We are talking about sins of commission and sins of omission. We do what we know to be wrong, and we don’t do what we know to be right. The reality of sin in our lives is an indication that we are dead, not physically dead, but spiritually dead. In Eph.4:18, Paul describes spiritual death as being darkened in our understanding and separated from the life of God. It is because of Spiritual death that we experience physical death which leads to eternal death.

No matter how alive and vivacious a person might appear; no matter how “on top of their game” a person might seem to be, if they don’t know Jesus Christ in a personal way, they are spiritually dead. This is difficult for most people to embrace because we feel very much alive. We certainly don’t feel dead. However, you can see spiritual deadness in the way people keep God out of their lives. Spiritually dead people who are not religious do not think about honoring God, or bringing God into their everyday living. And they do not see any particular need for church.

But then, there are religious people who are spiritually dead. Maybe they have been baptized. They attend church and receive holy communion. They may even be active in a church. But their attendance and involvement has more to do with how they were raised than it has anything to do with God. They are just not alive to God and the things of God. God is not really on their daily radar. They have never entered into a personal living relationship with God and his Son, Jesus.

And then in vrs.2-3 we see that unbelievers are enslaved. Stott points out that unbelievers are enslaved to the world, the flesh, and the devil. In v.2 Paul says that unbelievers follow the ways of this world. What are the ways of this world? Well our world is characterized by secularism. In other words God is left out of government, economics, education and business. Our world is characterized by racism and political and religious oppression. It’s the idea that might makes right.

But we are not only enslaved to the world, Paul says that we are enslaved to the Devil and demonic forces. The Devil has authority and uses it to promote a spirit of disobedience to God. In other words, there are outside spiritual forces that impact each of us. Their goal is to move us away from God and the things that honor God.

And then Paul points out that everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is enslaved to their own physical desires and thoughts. I’m not suggesting that every physical desire or thought is sinful. But on a daily, moment by moment basis, we have powerful, physical urges, thoughts and images in our minds that cry out to be gratified. All the familiar sins come to mind: sexual lusts, envy of others, selfish ambition, arrogance and pride, resentment and anger, and the list goes on. This is the reality of who we are. O you may not be as sinful as others, but I can assure you that you are sinful enough to be under the wrath of God.

Paul says, in v.3 that by nature we are objects of wrath. In other words, we are born with a sin nature. We are sinners before we even commit any sin. In fact, the reason we all commit sin is because we are sinners. We come into this world with hearts that are opposed to God and his way. I have never met a child, including myself, who naturally tells the truth when confronted. Our first impulse is to protect our pride and children naturally lie to do it. So do adults. In fact, no one needs to teach us to do what is wrong. We come by it naturally.

Well if God is the source of life and we reject God and his good commands; if we ignore Jesus Christ, who is God’s only provision for our salvation, then we cut ourselves off from the only source of life. We cut ourselves off from the love and goodness of God. We become objects of his wrath and face his condemnation. It’s not what God wants for us. Rather we have put ourselves in this position by turning from him.

 

II. WE SEE GOD’S GRACE REVEALED IN CHRIST. Eph.2:4-10

This is one of the most powerful sentences in all of Scripture. In vrs 1-3 we are brought face to face with the reality that, because of our transgressions and sins, we are spiritually dead to God and under his wrath. What is more, there is nothing we can do to change our situation. But, wait a minute. God did something to change our situation. How can this be? I thought God’s wrath was against us. And it surely was.

But God did something for us. Why? Well in these verses we see that God has great love for us. God is rich in mercy. God is rich in grace. He is kind. In 2Pt.3:9 we read, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” What a wonderful God is revealed in the Bible.

So what exactly did God do? Paul points out three things that God did for us. In v.5 it says that he “made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” In Eph.1:20 in his prayer, Paul says that God raised Christ from the dead. Well, we were dead in our transgressions and sin, but look, God made us alive with Christ.

And then we see in v.6 that God raised us up with Christ. This is a reference to the ascension of Christ. Forty days after rising from the dead Jesus ascended to the Father. Well, Christians have been raised with Christ.

If you go back to Eph.1:20 you see that God seated Christ at his right hand in the heavenly realms. In Eph.2:6 Paul says that we have been seated with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Christians are those who have been made alive from spiritual death. They have been raised with Christ and seated with him. This speaks of our union with Christ. Those who embrace Christ are united with him in his death, resurrection & ascension. Christ is our life. We are in him and he is in us. How can this be?

The key verses for understanding this are vrs.8-9. It is by the grace of God that we have been saved. Saved from what? We’ve been saved from our transgressions and sins. We’ve been saved from the wrath of God. And our salvation was made possible by Jesus Christ. When he died on the cross our sins were placed upon him. He bore our guilt and paid our punishment, making it possible for God to freely forgive our sins. In v.8 Paul tells us how this salvation becomes a reality for us. He says that it is ours by faith. In other words, there is nothing you and I can do to earn this salvation. There is no amount of money or anything else with which we could buy our salvation. We must receive it by trusting in God and his Son, Jesus. Paul says it clearly. It is a gift of God. Gifts can only be received.

What comes with the gift? Well for starters all our sins are forgiven and wiped away. What is more, we enter into a personal, moment by moment relationship with Christ. In addition to this, we enter into the Kingdom of God and receive the eternal life of Christ. And we receive the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in us and helps us until we are actually with God in heaven.

Now if you were to take the time to slowly read Eph.1-2, you would begin to get a sense for just how astounding it is to be part of what God is doing. When a person enters into God’s salvation by faith in Jesus, that person is immersed into the glorious working of God. It is not possible to be saved and remain the same person you were. God is interested in changing our lives. So we go from being people who live to gratify the cravings of our sinful nature to being people who make a difference for God. Let me explain.

In v.10 Paul writes that we are God’s workmanship. The word used here gives us our word, “poem.” We are God’s poem. A poem is a literary work of art and beauty. God wants to take our self-centered selves and make them into a work of beauty. This poem of our lives is created in Christ Jesus. It’s only by entering into a relationship with Christ that our lives can be turned into a divine poem. This poem is written as we do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

These good works are not done to earn his salvation. They are done as a result of his salvation. They are made possible by our being saved. They are done, not to our glory, but to his glory. Our good works show the riches of his grace and kindness to us. That’s a whole different way of looking at things. We are now living for God, no longer for ourselves. This is all made possible by God’s grace, his undeserved favor.

 

Helicopter pilot Iain McConnell, along with the rest of his air station crew, was summoned at 4 a.m. on the morning of August 30, 2005, to the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama. The Center soon became one of the first bases of operations for Hurricane Katrina relief. McConnell and his crew were told to keep five H-60 helicopters airborne on missions at all times, around the clock.

The first airborne relief teams arrived in the affected areas before any news crews, and were completely unprepared for the devastation they saw. The entire city of New Orleans stood under water.

McConnell’s crew got right to work, airlifting stranded people from their rooftops and out of windows, and delivering them to the Superdome helipad. To their chagrin, however, they were only able to help a relatively few amount of survivors. In an interview, McConnell shared why:

On our first three missions, we saved the lives of 89 people, three dogs, and a cat. On the fourth mission, to our great frustration, we saved no one-but not for lack of trying. The dozens we attempted to rescue refused pickup!

Some people told us to simply bring them food and water. “You are trying to live in unhealthy conditions, and the water will stay high for a long time,” we warned them. Still, they refused. I felt frustrated and angry, since we had used up precious time and fuel, and had put ourselves at risk during each rescue attempt. I felt like they were ungrateful. But, in truth, they did not know how desperate their situation was.”

You may be in the same situation. You don’t think you are all that bad of a sinner. You don’t think God would ever really condemn you to Hell. But what you and I think is not as significant as what God says. The truth is we are sinners headed for an eternity in Hell. The truth is that God has sent his Son, Jesus to bear our guilt and punishment by dying on the cross. The question is, will you believe what God says, and will you embrace Jesus as your only savior from sin? Amen.