Grace, Period. | Ephesians 2:1–10

Transcript is automatically produced. Errors may be present.

We’re in this series in the book of Ephesians. We’re going to be in Ephesians chapter 2 today, so if you could go ahead and open your Bibles there with me. Last week, Alex told you, he promised you, that I’m going to get you a slide that’s going to show the leader and the congregation reading. And I have to tell you something: the man delivered. We have a slide. And by “the man delivered,” what I really mean is Teresa made the slide weeks ago, and he forgot to use it the first two weeks.

So would you stand with me as we read God’s Word together? This is Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 1:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. 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.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Come, South Fellowship, walk in the grace of the Lord.

We will walk in the unforced rhythms of grace.

You may be seated.

As I said before, we’re in this series going through the book of Ephesians. And something that Alex said in week one of this series was that the problem in Ephesus was that there was no problem. Typically, Paul would write to a group of people for a specific reason. He writes to Rome because he hasn’t met them yet, so he wants to introduce himself and introduce his theology. He writes to the church in Corinth because they were living wildly. And he writes to the church in Galatia because they had gotten their theology, their way of thinking and believing, all mixed up, and he needed to help correct that. But in Ephesus, there is not a particular problem that he’s solving.

Grace is just something that’s really hard to grasp. The gospel is something that’s really hard to grasp. That’s what our text is all about. It’s all about the gospel. It’s this term which means “good news.” If you’ve been around church for a while, you’ve likely heard this term gospel before. You may have heard this good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection before. But it’s so important that we are regularly reminded of the gospel.

Because when we go days, when we go weeks, when we go months, or even years without remembering the sacrifice of Jesus, without remembering the grace and the love of God, we start to live without the grace and the love of God. We start to live as if God doesn’t love us, as if his grace isn’t for us, and we try to earn his favor. So let’s pray as we center our hearts and our minds on what God has for us today.

Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice. I thank you for your good news, for your death and resurrection. Would you open our hearts and our minds to what you might have for us today? God, if there’s anyone in here who hasn’t heard this good news, would you open their hearts and their minds to this good news? For those of us who may have heard this good news before, God, would you make it fresh for us? Would you help us to live in your grace and in your love? In Jesus’ name, amen.

I’ve titled our sermon today, “The Gospel: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, and What Now?” We’re going to be asking a whole lot of questions about our text. And my hope is that these questions will guide us through this passage, guide us toward a greater understanding of what the gospel really is. Some of these questions will have really quick answers. Some of them will take a little bit more time to understand. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump into Ephesians 2:1.

Let’s find out: Who is this relevant to? Well, Paul says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” We’ve already got answer number one. Look at us. He says, “As for you.” He is speaking to the church in Ephesus, but that also applies to us. If you already wrote “you” down, that’s okay. It’s basically the same thing. Who? Us.

He says, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins.” What does this mean? What does it mean to be dead in our transgressions and sins? In the Genesis creation narrative, we see God create the world. And after each thing is created, we see, “And God saw it, and it was good.” God saw the forests, and it was good. He saw the bushes, and it was good. He saw the plants and the animals, and it was good. But when humans are created, God doesn’t just say that it was good. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Not just good, but very good.

But humans are given choices. We get to make decisions. And sometimes we make pretty horrific decisions. Sometimes we do really horrible things. A few statistics to back that up. Did you know that $236 billion in illegal annual revenue is generated from forced labor? That is almost the net worth of Jeff Bezos, one of the top 10 richest people in the world. $236 billion a year from slavery. Did you know that there are more slaves now than at any other time in human history?

Did you know that 160 million children are engaged in child labor globally? That’s one in 10. Statistically, a classroom normally has about 20 kids. Eighteen of those kids, those kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, would be there to learn. They’d be there to shape their minds, to grow. But two of those kids wouldn’t be in the classroom. They’d be in factories. They’d be in mines. They’d be working jobs that adults can’t do because adults have too big of hands or too big of bodies. Often those jobs are dangerous. Those kids are risking their lives for pennies on the dollar.

Did you know that since 1980, marine plastic pollution has increased 10 times, affecting 86% of marine turtles, 44% of seabirds, and 43% of marine mammals? Did you know that just over half of all sea turtles that are found dead, when autopsied, are found to have ingested plastic that contributed to their death?

When I read statistics like this, my gut instinct, my feeling, is: We need justice. We need justice for those slaves. We need justice for those kids. We need justice for the animals, for creation, for all the harm that is caused. Romans 6 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” If we’re causing all this damage, the solution to getting rid of the damage is getting rid of the people causing the damage. For the wages of sin is death.

And I read that and I go, “Okay, we need justice. But maybe not for me. Maybe for other people, but not for me, right?” Because I don’t have any slaves. I don’t have children working in factories or mines. I don’t throw plastic straight into the ocean. But we do buy from companies that have slaves. We do buy from companies that have child labor because I like these clothes. I like this technology. I want to have it around. I may not throw plastic in the ocean, but I use plastic every single day, and I throw it away every single day. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Maybe I do the third one now that it’s state-mandated, but reduce and reuse? I don’t do any of that.

We don’t want justice when we’re the defendant. We may say, “Yeah, God, bring justice for the people that have slaves. But God, don’t bring justice for me because I haven’t done anything wrong.” But that’s not true at all. The truth is that we’ve caused untold damage through what we’ve said and what we’ve done.

We say, “No, I haven’t done anything wrong. Just ignore that time that I berated my kids for no reason. Ignore that time that I treated my spouse really poorly. Just ignore that time that I was gossiping at work about a coworker and making them feel worse. Ignore that time I was bullying that person. I’m a good person. Just ignore that time that I lied to my boss or my spouse or my kids. I’m a good person. Just ignore all the terrible things that I do.”

Paul says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” Paul says, “Hey, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, and like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” Our damage that we caused needed justice.

So, what is the gospel? Well, it starts with us being dead in our sin. It’s not the full story. It’s just the first bit. Paul says, “You were dead in your sin.” He continues on in verse 4: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions.” He says even though you were dead in your sin, God has made you alive in Christ. Even though your brokenness, your damage, was rampant, God has given you this life in Christ.

But what does that mean? What does it mean that we’re made alive in Christ? The most famous verse of the Bible, which we sang about in our first song this morning: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Typically, when you hear this verse talked about and you hear this term “eternal life,” we have this expectation that after I die, then I’m invited into this relationship with God and I’m invited to be with him. And that’s not entirely wrong.

But eternal doesn’t start after you die. Eternal starts right now. It doesn’t mean that we never die, because we will still physically perish. It means we won’t spiritually perish. It means we get to have this relationship with God. It means we’re never separated from God.

In the Old Testament, if you wanted to go encounter God, if you wanted to be with him, you had to go to the temple. And not just the temple. You had to go to the Holy of Holies. It was this place within the temple that was set apart. If you wanted to go there, you had to do all these rituals so that you were clean, so that you were perfect going into there. And when Jesus died on the cross, that veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was ripped clean in half, signifying that we’re not separated from God anymore. We get to have relationship with him right here, right now. And, yeah, also after we die.

But to be made alive in Christ, this new life that we’re given isn’t just after we die. That new life is this relationship with God that we have right here, right now. He says, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” So when did this happen? When were we dead in our sin and made alive in Christ? Well, he says when Christ was raised, we were raised as well. So when Jesus rose from the dead, we rose too. We were given this new relationship, this invitation to time with God.

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” So where will we be? Well, right now we’re here with Christ. And after we die, we will continue to be with Christ in the heavenly realms. So who? Us. What? We were dead in our sin and were made alive in Christ. When did this happen? When Jesus rose from the dead. Where will we be? We’ll be with Christ even right now. And we’ll also be with him after we die in the heavenly realms.

But why would God do this? Why would God make this kind of choice? Why wouldn’t God just say, “You know what? They’re too broken. They’ve caused too much damage. I’m done with them. I’m giving up. I’m starting a new project. Clean slate.” Why wouldn’t God do something different? Why would God have this good news for us?

Well, we actually already read why, and we gloss over it so easily because we’re so used to reading it that it doesn’t even register. We read it right here. It says, “But because of his great obligation to us.” Oh, I’m sorry. “But because he felt like he had to.” Oh, wait. Sorry. I’m terrible at reading. This is why I have glasses, guys. They’re just not working. It says, “Because of his great love for us.”

He didn’t have to. He chose to because of his great love for us. The most famous verse in the Bible: “For God so was forced to…” “For God so, oh man, somebody’s got to do it…” “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It’s because of his great love for us.

So this morning, if you’re here and you don’t know how incredibly loved you are, hear me when I tell you this: If you were the only person that Jesus would save, and Jesus was told this while he’s on the cross, that the only person he’s going to save is you, he wouldn’t get down. Because God demonstrates his own love for you in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for you, for us.

So why would God do this? Because of his great love for us. And we didn’t do anything to earn that love. We didn’t do anything to be good enough for him. In fact, all we did, well, not all we did, but a lot of what we did is cause a whole lot of damage, do a whole lot of terrible things. But because of his great love for us, we’re invited into this relationship with him.

Let’s continue on to verse 8: “For it is by grace you’ve been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” So how can I enter into this relationship with God? Well, I can do it by grace. Period. Not grace plus.

Grace, period. Not grace plus. He says it is by grace you’ve been saved, and that’s it. By grace through faith. There is no additional add-on. He says it’s not from yourselves. It’s not by works. But we like to add on some pluses. We like to say, “Yeah, it’s by grace. Plus, you’ve got to live a certain way. You’ve got to do certain things. You’ve got to believe certain extra things.” It’s by grace plus something else.

So I’ve got three pluses that I want us to walk through. There are many more pluses than just these, but these are three that I believe we run into all the time. Let’s go ahead and start out with the one that’s going to make us all the most uncomfortable.

Grace plus politics.

Are you ready to be uncomfortable? I’m already uncomfortable. On the screen is a list of political hot topics. There are many more hot topics than just these, but these are six that tend to make some people’s blood boil. They tend to lead to a lot of conversation and debate and arguments. You likely have opinions about many of, if not all of, these issues.

And you may have been told that in order to be a Christian, you have to have a certain take on any of these issues. That you’re not a Christian if you believe this about abortion or that about guns. That you’re not a Christian if you believe this about healthcare or that about immigration. That you’re not a Christian if you believe this about LGBTQ+ issues or that about war. That you’re not a Christian if you voted for this political party or for that political candidate, or you’re not a Christian if you didn’t vote at all.

But when we read the text, what we see is, “It is by grace you’ve been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves.” It’s not from your opinion on abortion. It’s not from your take on immigration. It’s not from your view on LGBTQ+ issues or war or guns or healthcare. “It is the gift of God, not by works.” It’s not by your voting ballot, “so that no one can boast.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I do believe that as we study Scripture, as we come to know what it means to live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus, we can come to see what God might have to say about these issues. And one of the things that I love about South is that if you were to find all of our voting records throughout our whole lives, what you would see is we are all over the map.

We are all seeking to live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus. We all take the Bible deadly seriously. And you can find any two people here at South who take the Bible deadly seriously, who study Scripture, and they’ll end up with different views on their ballot. They’ll end up voting in different directions because, turns out, these issues maybe aren’t as black and white as we sometimes make them seem. It is by grace you’ve been saved, not your views on any of those hot topics.

So a litmus test that you can use to see if this has become a plus for you: Can you disagree with someone on politics and they know that you still love them? Key words there: they know. Because you might think, “Yeah, I disagree with them and I still love them,” but you might treat them pretty poorly. You might look at them as less than. You might say they’re still a Christian, but deep down in your heart, with the way that you’re acting, you don’t really believe that.

So can you disagree with someone on politics and they know that you still love them? That that’s not the most important thing to you? That this hasn’t become a plus greater than the gospel? Can you disagree with a Christian on politics and they know that you still believe that that person is saved, that that person has a relationship with Jesus? Can you disagree with someone on politics and they know that you still love them?

Let’s do another one. Grace plus church.

You may have been told that if you’re going to be a Christian, you have to attend church. That if you’re going to be a Christian, you have to be here on a Sunday morning or throughout the week. Now, I recognize that I’m saying this in a church as someone who works at a church. And don’t get me wrong. I do believe that we were made for community. Living in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus is not something you can do alone. You have to do it in community. So I’m a big believer that church is a great way to get invested in that community, to have people who are helping you, encouraging you, challenging you, and helping you grow.

But you could attend church every Sunday morning of your life. You could go to both services every Sunday morning of your life. You could be involved here throughout your week in so many different ways. But if your relationship with God only looks like what you’re doing here in the building, if your relationship with God disappears the second that you step out of the parking lot, then you might have a great relationship with South, but that’s not the same thing as a relationship with God.

In his song “Sundays,” Josiah Queen says that if you only ate on Sundays, you’d starve, and if you drove your car on empty, you’d never make it home. If your only encounter with God is here Sunday mornings, then you’re starving down to your bones. Your relationship with God is hanging on by a thread because your soul would waste away if you only ate on Sundays.

I’m not saying don’t be involved in a church. I’m a big believer that church is a valuable part of our experience, that it’s important to be in community. If your only experience here is on Sunday morning, in fact, I believe that you are missing out on something so much greater. But are you spending time with God outside of church? Do you have a relationship with him outside of this building?

Because church doesn’t save you. The grace of God saves you. Church is a helpful, useful part of our lives, but it can become a plus if we replace the gospel with church. So are you investing in your relationship with God? Are you taking time to read his Word, to pray, to express your heart to God, to hear God’s heart for you? Are you spending time with him outside of this building?

Let’s do one more. Grace plus performance.

This is actually the one that Paul talks about in our text. He says, “For it is by grace you’ve been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” He proceeds to follow up this statement of “it’s not from yourselves” and “it’s not by works” with, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.”

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, hold up. Wait a minute.” Because we just read that good works don’t save you, and now you’re saying that we should do good works. Which one is it, Paul? Pick a side.

Dallas Willard says that grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. He shows that there’s a difference here. You can’t earn the grace of God. It’s being given to you freely. You cannot possibly do enough good things to earn the grace or the love of God. But we are encouraged to give effort after we’ve already been given grace, to live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.

This is a distinction that’s really hard to make. It’s something that I tend to struggle with because in different seasons I try to earn the grace of God. I say, “God, you can give grace to those other people, but not to me. I need to be good enough for your grace. I need to deserve your grace.” But grace is getting something you don’t deserve. So if you earned grace, then you don’t actually need it. It’s not grace if you deserve it.

You cannot possibly earn the love of God. You cannot possibly earn the grace of God. It’s just given to you freely. In the same way that you can’t earn grace, you can’t lose it. It’s been given to you freely. It’s not like you’re going to do enough bad things that God is going to be like, “Nope, sorry. I had standards for who could have grace and who couldn’t.” No, it’s given to us freely. You cannot lose grace because you never earned it. It’s given to you freely. So stop trying to earn it, and don’t be afraid of losing it.

Now, there’s an argument that can be made: If I can’t lose grace because I never earned it, then can’t I just do whatever the heck I want? Because who cares? There’s always more grace. Paul was given this argument. People would come to him and say, “Why can’t I just do whatever I want? Why do I need to live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus if there’s always more grace?”

And Paul responds in Romans: “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

He says, “You’ve died to sin. That’s your old life.” And when Jesus was raised from the dead, he entered into this new life. And we’re invited into this new life too, this relationship with God. And he says, “If your old life looks identical to your new life, then what is the point of your faith?” We’ve been invited to change, to grow, to live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.

So Paul says, if your faith isn’t transforming you, then what is it doing? If you’re not growing because of your faith, then what’s the point of it? If someone were to take your life as someone who believes in Jesus and put it up next to someone else’s life who doesn’t believe in Jesus, and they look identical, and you’re not exhibiting any fruit of the Spirit, then what purpose is your faith serving?

Another Dallas Willard quote: “Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort. In fact, nothing inspires and enhances effort like the experience of grace.” So he says you can’t earn the love of God, but he says that effort is an inspired result of grace. He’s saying that as we’re given grace, we’re encouraged to give effort. We’re encouraged to change.

That when we experience the grace and the love of God, we say, “I want to grow in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus. I want to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. I want to reflect Jesus more to my world, to my community. I’m not earning the love of God, but I want to give effort because of the grace that’s already been shown to me.”

So another litmus test: Are your actions an inspired effort or an attempt to earn God’s grace? Are you trying to be good enough for God by doing good works? Or have you already accepted his love and his grace, and that encourages you to change and to grow? Because you can’t earn the love of God. But we can give effort after we’ve already accepted the grace and the love of God.

We went through three pluses, and there are many more than just those three. But I have this little spot on your notes, and I would encourage you to pick a plus. Maybe it’s one that I didn’t talk about. Maybe it’s one that’s on the screen. Because politics doesn’t save me. The grace of God saves me. Church doesn’t save me. The grace of God saves me. Performance doesn’t save me. The grace of God saves me. It’s by grace through faith. This is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

We’ve answered almost all of our questions. Who? Us. What? We were dead in our sin and were made alive in Christ. When did this happen? When Jesus rose from the dead. Where will we be? Well, right now we’re with Christ. And after we die, we’ll be with Christ in the heavenly realms. Why would God do this? Because of his great love for us. How can we enter into this relationship with God? By grace. Period. Not grace plus.

So what now? Where do we go from here?

Let’s read our final verse again: “For we are God’s handiwork.” As Alex said last week, that word can also be translated “masterpiece.” “For we are God’s handiwork, God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

So what now? Do what God’s prepared for you. Do what God’s prepared for you. This will look different for each of us in the room.

Maybe you find yourself here and you haven’t ever accepted this grace, this love of God. You haven’t entered into this relationship with God by grace through faith. If that’s you, I would encourage you to come and receive prayer. During the song, members of the prayer team will be dotted throughout the room. It’s an opportunity to enter into that grace, to say, “God, I want this relationship with you.”

Maybe you’ve heard about the grace of God before, and there have been seasons where you’ve been living in the grace of God, but right now you find yourself trying to earn his love. You find yourself trying to earn his grace. If that’s you, I would also encourage you to come and receive prayer, to step back into grace, to step back into the love of God. Because you can’t earn it. It’s freely given to you.

Maybe God’s been putting something on your heart for a while, and you go, “No, no, no, God. Not that.” He’s been preparing something for you to do, but you’ve been resistant. It could be something really big. It could be a whole life change. He could be asking you to change your career or move across the world or across the country or even across the state.

It could also be something small. It could be that person that you drive past every week on the way home from church who’s on the side of the road. And you think to yourself, “Man, I should show that person some love. I should go buy them lunch. I should hear their story. I should care for them. I should show them the love and the grace that God has shown me.” But you say, “No, no, no. I’ve got Sunday afternoon plans. I’ve got to rush to that. I can’t do that.”

If that’s you, I would encourage you to come receive prayer for confidence, for courage, to step out in faith. That as God is leading you, as he’s preparing something for you, you’re willing to take that leap to say, “Yes, God. I want to do what you’ve been preparing for me.”

And maybe you don’t know what that is. Maybe you’re here and you don’t know what God’s been preparing for you. If that’s you, I would also encourage you to come and receive prayer for discernment, that God would show you what he has for you to do.

Continue to pray, each of us, throughout our weeks, throughout our months, throughout our days: “God, would you show me what you have for me to do?” I don’t know how he’s going to show it to you. I don’t know when he’s going to show it to you. But what I can promise you is this: We are God’s handiwork. We are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.