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*Introduction*
We’re looking at verses 1-10 of Ephesians 2 under the title “Amazing Grace”.
It divides into three parts.
Verses 1-3 – “Dead Men Walking”.
It speaks of our sin and the absolute impossibility of our helping ourselves.
Verses 4-9 – “But God . .
.”
We will see in this section what God has done given that we could not help ourselves.
Then verse 10 – “New Men Walking” -- life after salvation.
Another way to look at these verses is man without God, but God and man with God.
Or you could title them, our sin, our Savior and our service.
It is clearly one of the great passages in all of Scripture and I hope that you are beginning to get the drift.
In verses 4-9 so far we have seen God passion – the mercy and love that drove Him to provide a solution for the unsolvable sin problem that man found himself in.
Then we have seen his power – by which he has raised us up together in heavenly places and provided a new intimacy with Him.
Today, we look at His process and His purpose.
*III.
His Process*
Now we come to 2 of the greatest verses in all the Bible.
This is the pinnacle.
These verses are elegant in their simplicity and they offer hope in a world dead to God.
We’ve arrived at amazing grace.
We’ve already seen from Christ’s perspective our need for reconciliation and the fact that there was nothing we could do on our own to achieve it.
But God has been moved by his passion, His love and mercy, to provide a solution.
By His power, He has made believers alive, literally establishing us spiritually as residents of heaven where we will one day dwell spiritually.
Now verses 8-9 will explain His process for accomplishing this reconciliation between God and man.
I have called this section “His Process” for two reasons.
First it is His process because being God, He sets the rules.
It is very common today, very common to hear – “Oh, there are many ways to God.
He is not exclusive.
What makes Christians think they have a market on God?” To that we can only humbly reply, while that may make sense from a human perspective, we don’t make the rules.
God does.
It is His process, not ours and it is decidedly narrow even by the words of Jesus Himself in His parable about the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life.
Second, it is “His Process” in the sense that He is fully and completely invested in it and He does it all.
It’s his process because it cost Him the life of His son.
It’s His process because in our rebellion we would never come to Him apart from His call.
It is His from start to finish.
So how does God bring us from spiritual death to life?
How does he reverse the curse of the Garden of Eden?
How does He save us?
Three simple but profound points: He does it by grace, through faith and apart from works.
Here is the basis for the watchword of Reformation theology: sola gratia, sola fide, soli Deo Gloria (by grace alone, through faith alone, to God alone be glory).
Let’s look.
*A.
By Grace*
Look at verse 8: 8) For by grace you have been saved through faith.
Note the words “you have been saved”.
They are very interesting.
The verb used here is in the perfect tense which in Greek indicates a past action with continuing results in the present.
A good literal translation would be, “you are constantly in the state of having been saved.”
It emphasizes nothing can take that away from you once it is achieved.
It is yours forever.
Now, we might ask, saved from what?
And the answer from this context, of course, is saved from the state of death brought on by sin.
That is what we have been saved from.
That is what he has just explained when he talked about being made alive with Christ and raised with Christ and seated with Christ.
That is being saved.
And what is the objective means by which that happens?
It is by grace.
Love put into action – grace.
Here is that wonderful word that we have seen before.
Grace.
What does it mean to be saved by grace?
Listen closely now.
You have heard this many times, but hear it again.
Being saved by grace means that our salvation is based on God’s completely unmerited, unearned, undeserved, unfathomable favor.
Being saved by grace is the opposite of being saved by merit.
It is the opposite of being saved by inherent goodness which we might suppose we have or by strenuous effort.
The great nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote, “Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified and saved.
It is not because of anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy and grace of God.” We’ve reached amazing grace!
C. S. Lewis once joined a group of academics just in time to hear the question posed, “What separates Christianity from other religions?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis.
“It’s grace.”
And when he said that, the room fell silent.
Lewis continued on saying that Christianity makes the unique claim that God’s love comes free of charge with no strings attached.
Lewis cited that NO other religion on earth makes this claim.
After a moment of shocked silence, one of the scholars in the room commented that Lewis had a point.
He stated that the Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment, theirs is NOT a free ride.
He also informed the crowd that had gathered that Hindus believe in karma.
Which means that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you, and thus how God sees you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions.
Another scholar spoke up and observed that the Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to Him and that in Islam God is a God of Judgment… that He is NOT a God of love.
In Islam you live your life to appease His judgment!
At the end of the discussion everyone concluded Lewis had a point.
And it is true, only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love for humanity is unconditional.
Salvation can never be earned; it can only be accepted.
As we have seen before.
Every other God demands; the God of the Bible gives.
Every other religion says, “Do this to get to God.”
The Bible says, “Here is what God has done for you.”
Christianity is all about amazing grace – blazing grace – out of control grace!
Christian acting groups have done this skit for years.
A man dies and of course, St. Peter meets him at the pearly gates.
Peter says, “Here’s how it works.
You need 100 points to make it into heaven.
You tell me all the good things you’ve done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was.
When you reach 100 points, you get in.”
“Okay,” the man says, “I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart.”
“That’s wonderful,” says St. Peter, “that’s worth three points!”
“Wow, just three points?” he says.
“Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and talents.”
“Terrific!” says Peter, “that’s certainly worth a point.”
“Only one point?” the man begins to sweat, “How about this: I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans.”
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