Here’s the audio and notes for my sermon on Ephesians 2:4-7 “God’s SOLUTION” preached at Cross of Christ Fellowship on 10/13/2024.
Eph 2:4-7 “GOD’S SOLUTION TO OUR SIN”
Intro: MLJ’s observation: ‘Loss of wonder in God…’
-Part of solution is remembering our hopeless state before we came to Christ=Last week.
-Other part: rejoicing and beholding the amazing solution God brought about.
M.S.: We regain our sense of wonder in God as we behold how he saved by his grace.
CONTEXT: Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church
-Ch 1: Paul’s prayers. 1 Prayer of Praise (3-14); 2 Prayer for the Church (15-23)
-Ch 2: 2:1-10 recounting the gospel: PROBLEM (1-3); SOLUTION (4-10)
-Last week=PROBLEM: Desperate, hopeless plight of humanity (1-3)
-Today=GOD’S SOLUTION (4-7)
-God saves us by His grace! (4-7)
-This passage leads us to behold and remember God’s amazing and perfect solution to our sin.
STRUCTURE: 1 “Who” of our salvation, 2 “How” of our salvation, 3 “What” of our salvation, and 4 “Why” of our Salvation.
M.S.: We regain our sense of wonder in God as we behold how he saved by his grace.
1. WHO of our Salvation: GOD
After you consider the truth of Eph 2:1-3, ask yourself the question: Who can possibly save us from our hopeless state?
-We need deliverance from: spiritual death, enslavement to what is evil, rescue from wrath (the just punishment for our sins)
-No politician, no technological innovation, no medicine, no amount of money can deliver us from this. *Bible’s ANSWER: God Himself saves His people!
-REASON FOR HOPE: “But God” = MLJ “gospel in two words”
-“BUT”àwe can have hope, even though Eph 2:1-3 is true.
-Christianity really is a religion of hope. And not empty hope, but real hope.
-GOD is the “WHO” of our salvation
-“God” is the subject of this paragraph, acting to save us.
-Only God can save us and it is God alone who does the saving
-“Monergism”=God alone saves us, not us or God +us.
-CONTRAST: “Synergism”=God does some of the work and we do some of the work (many religions)
*NOTE Character of God: “God, being rich in mercy”
-God is RICH in mercy, not poor: VAST supply of mercy to extend to sinners in need of mercy and help.
–MERCY=God not giving us the punishment we deserve
-The God who save us has the NECESSARY resources needed to procure our salvation.
-IMPLICATION: We look outside of ourselves to discover our salvation and find it in God Himself.
*Hope strengthened: God Himself saves us!
-This is good news! àWe don’t save ourselves, but God comes to save us.
-Wonder is restored as behold the truth God Himself saves us.
2. HOW of our Salvation: GRACE
How is getting at the “manner” of our salvation. How was this salvation accomplished? In what manner?
-It was accomplished by GRACE *KEY PHRASE: Commentators note that the summary of the passage is found here: “by grace you have been saved”
-“Saved”=saved from all that is described in Eph 2:1-3
–Biblical view: we need to get saved! Saved from power and penalty of sin, and just wrath of God.
-“by grace”=God’s unearned, undeserved kindness toward sinner
-Biblical Emphasis=Saved by GRACE, not by our works: Eph 2:8-9
IMPLICATION: Religious obedience can save no one, but God saves a people who do not deserve it
-Here is where we differ from Roman Catholicism=We are justified by grace alone, through alone, in Christ alone!
-R.C.=Jesus PLUS our Water baptism, PLUS ‘Treasury of Merit’, PLUS our works of penance
-Salvation by grace alone is shockingàWe contribute nothing to our salvation except sin that made it nec.!
-Sounds TOO good to be true, but actually is true. And transforms us when we behold it.
*UNBELIEVER: Believe today in Jesus and you will be saved from all your sins!
-John Newton never lost wonder at God’s grace
-You and I also were saved by grace: may we remember this afresh and delight in God’s amazing grace toward us!
-Isn’t God amazing? His grace is toward us and it is a grace that SAVES us!
-Wonder is restored as we rejoice in God’s saving grace.
3. WHAT of our Salvation: Life and Union with Christ in Victory over Sin and Death
What does this salvation look like? What was entailed with it? àGod gave us life and united with Jesus.
1 GOD GAVE US LIFE: “made us alive”
-God made us alive! àRegeneration: God making a spiritually dead person alive. (John 3:3; 5:25)
2 GOD UNITED WITH CHRIST
Paul described what God did as a saving us into a UNION w/Christ.
-UNION WITH CHRIST=a spiritual uniting with Christ where we share in Jesus’ victory over sin and death
–NOTE: “with’s”-“made us alive together with Christ”: Jesus was made alive on the 3rd day, and we were made spiritually alive when we came to Christ
-“and raised us up with him”: God raised Jesus from the dead—and he has never died again.
-We were SPIRITUALLY raised with Jesus
-“and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”: God exalted Jesus into the heavenly places, above angelic powers (Eph 1:20-23)
-God raised us to the heavenly places spiritually
-WEIRD statement to us, but spiritual union with Christ exalts us to be with Christ
–Commentators=We need not fear spiritual darkness, because we’re united to Christ
IMPLICATION: God powerfully saved usàthe power that raised Christ physically raised us spiritually!
-His power is toward us today as we seek Him and depend on Him for daily living.
-Wonder is restored as we see the great power of God which worked to save us!
4. WHY of our Salvation: God’s Love and Glory
WHY would God save us? What motivated God? LOVE AND GLORY
1 What motivated God to save us? LOVE. “because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses,”
-LOVE STATED: “great love with which he loved us”
-Not mere emotional flight, but an intentional decision to do good to us.
-The God who created us is a God who LOVES us!
–WHEN? “even when we were dead in our trespasses”
-Shows the shocking beauty of God’s love.
-God loved a spiritually dead, enslaved to evil, child of wrath!
-God did not wait for us to get our act together, but loved us in our sin
–This is the “BECAUSE”
-Here we see the reason beneath and behind our salvation: God’s love
-Why did God save us? Because He loved us!!
-This is an astonishing and wonderful truth: God loves sinners!
2 Another Reason God Saved us: To DISPLAY THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE!
“so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
-Here we shown another reason why God saved us: future plans to display the glory of His grace.
-AN ETERNAL FUTURE AHEAD: “so that in the coming ages”
-This life is truly a vapor James 4:14
-We all will live forever in heaven or hell.
-God saved us for a glorious future.
-GOD WILL DISPLAY HIS GRACE: “he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
*Analogy: when I was a kid, shared our baseball card collection or video game collection.
-Mixed of good and bad motives: rejoicing in something good; Bad=sinful pride, and envy of others.
-God plans to display the riches of grace in eternity: “show the immeasurable riches of his grace”
-NOT of out of sinful pride: God has no needs, but we are in desperate need of Him!
-God deserves to be worshipped—and nothing can actually satisfy our hearts besides God.
-God’s grace is beautiful and what our hearts were made to rejoice in.
-God will display the riches of this grace—a grace in kindness to us.
-We’ll behold it, rejoice in it and rejoice in God.
–Non-Christian Friend: ‘I don’t want to live forever, it would be boring. Unless God was infinite…’
–Christian response: God is infinite! Always more to learn and discover and rejoice in God!
IMPLICATION: For the Christian, the best is truly yet to come!
-An eternity of knowing and rejoicing God and His grace in kindness to us in incomparably better than all else
-Let’s set our hearts on this, not this world’s riches, achievements and pleasures.
-Wonder is restored, as ponder our amazing future in heaven.
CLOSE: We regain our sense of wonder in God as we behold how he saved by his grace.
