Ephesians 2:1-10 “The Gospel of Grace and The Old Life”
1) Characteristics of The Old Life (v.1-3)
- dead (v.1)
- in trespasses and sins (v.1)
- lacking purpose, blindly following the crowds of the world, which are ultimately led by Satan (v.2)
- disobedient (v.2)
- lived indulging the passions and desires of the flesh (v.3)
- by nature children of wrath (v.3)
2) Christ’s Rescue (v.4-7)
- God’s kindness, rich mercy and great love has motivated Him to save us (v.4) => what incredible grace it is to save and love those who are enemies and unlovely
- in contrast to the death of the old life, has made us alive with Christ in a new life (v.5)
- raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (v.7) => our position and standing in Christ is in glory. As Christ sits and rests for His redemptive work which was completed on the Cross; likewise our endeavours to earn favour with God can cease since we sit and rest on the completed work of Christ on our behalf which has been given to us in His grace (v.6)
3) The New Life of Grace (v.8-10)
- The new life begins and continues in faith of what Christ has done for us
- The new life is a gift, which we need to live in thankfulness for having received it
- Instead of being children of wrath prepared for destruction, we are made God’s workmanship, we are His masterpiece
- We have a purpose: to walk in good works that He has prepared for us
4) Application
- We begin the Christian life in faith and we must continue to walk in faith. Never is the Christian life about our works, our earning greater favour with God, or us needing to impress Him by doing things ourselves. He does the work to save us, He prepares the work for us to walk in, and He gives us the power and enabling to do His work.
- We need to consciously seek to live and apply grace to our lives and ways of thinking; rooting out any of the spiritual pride and self-righteousness that so easily creeps in to detract from God’s work of grace in saving us.
- We need to turn from following the crowds of this world, recognising that that is the way of destruction led by Satan and instead seek to live as God’s workmanship going the other direction
- We need to remember this new life is in Christ, was given by Him and is secured by Him who sits on the throne in Heaven today. We must seek to live holy lives fit and glorifying Him for the grace He has given us; not to say “I owe you” (which is moralism and legalism) but that says “Thank you, I love you” (which is obedience in the face of God’s glorious grace).
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