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Ephesians 2:1-10      God’s Great Love For Us            
Rev. Tim Muse      
(BPC 9/20/00)

PREFACE
I invite you to stand as we read Ephesians 2:1-5, which Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones describes by saying “This is true Christianity. What is described in these words is the very nerve of Christianity; it is the very essence of Christianity, and nothing less.”

With that intro, let me read Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 1. (Read v. 1) After reading this verse, let me pause, because many people either stop at this point or jump down to verses 8-9, but to do so, they miss a very important detail found in verses 6-7, so I pick up there. (Read vv. 6-10.) (This ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May God add his blessing to our reading/understanding/living of it.)

PRAYER
Savior of Israel, but even more …the God of all glory, what a wonderful position we find ourselves in as we not only stand before you, but stand waiting for your Word to be explained and applied to our lives through the ministry of your Holy Spirit. May you descend upon us this morning, with a spirit of understanding and may you open the eyes of our hearts that we might understand how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is...but Father, may you do even more …as our very being in Christ serves such a greater purpose than even this! May you unveil to us the mystery surrounding your ways that we might more critically and enthusiastically give attention to our own ways! For our minds are so often so centered upon ourselves that even when the truth concerning the proclamation of your glory lies before us we have so often been drawn aside and selfishly consumed with what that truth has to do with us. May you grant to us the grace to look outside of ourselves, to look beyond even the redemptive perspective of this passage, and to go on to the more magnificent and useful exercise of seeing, and thinking upon, and considering the great and glorious end to which our own redemption serves and to which your own Word speaks…that is. . . that the glory of your being and your love toward man would be revealed. These things we pray, in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.

SERMON
I’m not sure, but I believe that the love for baseball is as strong in Mississippi as in North Carolina where I grew up. If so, many can relate to this first story.

One of the movies I loved to watch growing up is called the “Bad News Bears”. One of the things I remember is that the name found in the title provided an accurate representation of the participants who played on this particular team, for they were “Bad News!” They could do nothing right on the baseball field. The could not win a game, catch the ball, hit the ball,… they were totally depraved when it came to the sport of baseball. They were so bad that no one was willing to either claim or coach them!

Those who saw the move know the storyline - a man who had a love for the game and kids decided to take on the task of coaching these Bad News Brats. Over a period of time he began to see a change, not only in the skills involved and in their understanding of the fundamentals of the game, but he also saw a fundamental change in the players themselves which resulted from the coach’s presence in their lives. That change was evident on the field too, for they began to win games, … they went on to win the league championship, and the little league world series! What a Great Story!

I tell you this story because in the Bad News Bears, though the story at first appears to be about the players, the real hero is the coach. It was HIS love and HIS tremendous power that turned losers into winners!

Likewise, when we look at Redemptive History, the emphasis can at first appear to be about those saved by grace, but the real hero is God! It is HIS eternal purposes, HIS great love for us, HIS rich mercy, and HIS incomparably great power that is in view in this passage.

Let me show you what I mean. Twice we find the means of man’s salvation (“by grace”). In v. 5 we read “It is by grace you have been saved.” Again in v. 8 we find “For it is by grace you have been saved.”

At this point, most readers stop and say “This passage is about man’s salvation.” … but this is the Man-Centered Approach.

That would be like making the statement: “It is by paying tuition that one obtains a degree. One obtains a degree in order to secure a high paying job.” Then one could conclude that their point of the statement is about paying tuition. That’s to miss the point! Paying tuition is only a step involved in the greater issue!

Beginning in verse 5 we read “It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

The point is, as we take the God-Centered Approach to this passage, we find that we were shown grace not because redemptive history is ultimately about us, but because our being shown grace reveals the tremendous glory of the one who extended grace to us!

It’s not about us! It’s about Him! … and because it’s about Him, about His glory, etc, we understand that because God reveals His glory through the riches of His grace extended to us, we must ALL acknowledge HIS grace in OUR lives!

Two words used here (incorrigible & indictable), are somewhat unfamiliar, but they summarize our

former condition well.

1) Incorrigible—that which cannot be corrected, improved or reformed, beyond redemption in one sense (personal ability to redeem one’s self); hopelessly delinquent.

2) Indictable—from indict (to charge with the commission of a crime).

Dr. D. James Kennedy clearly and rightly states: “Salvation can be neither earned or deserved.”

A useful way to apply this text for those unbelieving who are attempting to do something in order

to secure eternal blessing is to look at verse 9: “Not by works (not earned); … and v. 9: “no one

can boast” (No one receives salvation because they deserve it. Rom. 3:23).

But I believe the text speaks even beyond this truth. Let’s go further in explaining the point:

Salvation comes (&belongs) to those who are undeserving!

Warren Wiersbe finds three descriptions of recipients of salvation in this text (dead, disobedient,

doomed).

Dead—v. 1: “As for you, you were dead”.

This word has a variety of meanings. My wife may say, “Go to bed so you won’t be dead

tomorrow.” … Meaning tired; unresponsive, in trouble, no fun, etc.

But here it means Spiritually Dead. Mr. Wood puts it this way - “Paul is not speaking about physical death, nor only about the sinners’ ultimate fate in the second death, nor again is the expression only figurative. As Calvin insisted, what is meant is a ‘real and present death.’ The most vital part of man’s personality—the spirit—is dead to the most important factor in life: God.”

What does that look life? Is man spiritually motionless. . . like a corpse?

The answer is, No! To be spiritually dead is to be active but in the wrong direction. Instead of

following God, it means to follow those forces/powers opposed to God. Look at verse 1 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. . . when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler

of the kingdom of the air.” Again, in verse 3 “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.”

This is to be as 2 Tim. 3 says “a lover of self, lover of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure

Disobedient—v. 2 “. . . those who are now disobedient.”

v. 1: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. . . “

Doomed—v. 3 “. . . We were by nature objects of wrath.” Not just on occasion, but “by nature”

as a result of original sin.

The point is … Prior to God’s saving mercy being extended to us, we (recipients of salvation)

were no different than those who do not receive salvation. Verse 2 says “Like the rest. . . we

The person that states “I committed my life to Christ” can be taken two ways. 1) On the basis of

salvation (I’m saved because I committed my life to Christ.) 2) Response to salvation (Because I

came to know God’s love for me, I committed my life to Christ.)

What does verse 5 say? “. . . made us alive even when we were dead in transgressions.”

You see… Sinners can’t do anything to earn or deserve salvation for themselves.

That’s why we read in v. 8: “this is not of yourselves. . . not of works.” (You’re not saved because

of anything you do yourselves, not even committing your life to Christ. Committing your life to

Christ comes in response to his giving his life for your salvation!) This is true of every believer

…v. 3 “All of us also lived among them at one time. . . .” Again, in Romans 8:6ff, we read “The

Charles Spurgeon put it this way “What do those people mean who keep on crying up the power of

Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones says “We must be clear about our state in sin, because if we’re not, we

William Hendrickson makes it plain, saying “It was on you, so unworthy, that God took pity.”

II. We must affirm the incomparable great power we now possess.

We find vv. 4-6 THREE WORKS God does in the lives of sinners at the point of salvation.

v. 4-5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, quickened us, made us alive.

v. 6 “And God raised us up and seated us with him in the heavenly realms. . . . .”

What does it mean that “God made us alive?”  It means to impart life; to regenerate.

A better way to look at this is if dead means follow the ruler of the air, follow the ways of the world,

follow sinful nature, be disobedient, be an object of wrath; then alive means to no longer follow Satan,

but follow the ruler of heaven (God), to no longer follow the world, but be different and submit to the

Spirit, to be obedient, and to be the object of God’s pleasure.

Here we find the word “mercy”. In the Greek it is pronounced “elea”. This mercy is extended for the

alleviation of the consequences of sin.

Consider this in light of Ephesians 1:18-22)

Point: There is a power available to believers that enables us to participate in the things of God!

The reason the church acts like the world is because believers don’t realize this power is available to

them. They are still trying to live by their own strength. For example, those who say “I just can’t quit

stealing.”; or “I know that I shouldn’t say these things, but I just can’t help it!” What they are saying

is, “I must continue to sin, because I have no power to change it!”

Look at v. 19: “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when

The solution is found in recognizing one’s union with Christ. In vv. 6-7, three times the phrase “with

Christ” or “in Christ” is used.  In verse 21, we read that Jesus is far above ALL rule and authority, power and dominion, even over those forces of evil that seek to hold us under the power of sin.

If you have been raised in Christ, you have been raised above all rule and authority, power and

dominion (in Him)! The Greek for “you have been saved” in perfect tense means: You have been and are being saved. The truth is - Salvation was secured at a point in the past, but its power extends to the present and beyond.  It is only as you and I realize this power, acknowledge our need, ask, receive, and depend, that the glory of God is fully disclosed in our lives.  Put God to the test. Trust Him. Call on Him. Allow others to witness his work in and through you.  How SAD it is for the witness of Christ when you and I often act like this happens very little in our salvation.

QUESTION: Who makes this glorious change?

v. 8-9: “. . . not of yourselves. . . it is the gift of God.”

Why would God extend such a gift?

Barclay: “All this was done by God with a single end in view. It is to demonstrate in successive ages

Hendrickson: “God’s purpose in saving his people reaches beyond man. His own glory is his chief

III. We must affirm the irrefutable purpose we now live for (v.10).

Here we find that our participation in good work is not just to make us look good before God, but to

exalt and display his glory in us!  You see, we need to be concerned about His glory; we need to be concerned about participating in good works with a whole new outlook: As believers we don’t simply participate in good works because we have to but because our participation in good works displays the glory of God! And that is our goal (our new goal, our obtainable goal) in life!

CONCLUSION: The story is told of a Roman matron. When asked: “Where are your jewels?” She called her two sons and pointing to them, said, “These are my jewels!” This God does in those he saves: Our reconciliation is the testimony of His love; our new nature is the testimony of His power; and our works of righteousness (done in His power) are the testimony of the magnitude of His grace!

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