Ephesians 2:1-10 Know
Ephesians 2:1-10 (Evangelical Heritage Version)
1You were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey.
3Formerly, we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.
4But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! 6He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 7He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by works, so that no one can boast.
10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.
Know
No fancy colors or special tops adorn mine, it just keeps things hot or cold. The current fad surrounding Stanley is to get your special tumbler in whatever hot new color or pattern is out there. Yours can be had for $45, if you are among the select few to get in the door of the store and grab one, otherwise you might pay over $100 to someone who got there first and then put it up for sale. My Stanley is just a regular thermos bottle, still about $25.
One day a teacher was explaining how a thermos works to the students. “If you bring hot soup for your lunch, the thermos will keep it hot.” “If you bring an ice-cold beverage, the thermos will keep it cold.” One student wanted to know, “How does it know?” How does the thermos know whether to keep what’s inside it hot or cold?
Paul gives some important things to know about ourselves and God in this reading from his Letter to the Ephesians.
I.
Where did we come from? Perhaps we ought to know.
Sometimes in the Bible, the natural human condition is spoken of as spiritual blindness. Those who are blind have to rely on other senses to function. The problem with spiritual blindness is that there is no amount of stumbling about relying on other senses that the natural human self will find the true God.
Paul mentions the other two ways the Bible speaks of our natural condition as human beings in today’s Second Reading: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey.” (Ephesians 2:1-2, EHV).
Start with the second one first. Paul says that, by nature, people follow Satan. He is the ruler of the air and the spirit at work in people who disobey God. Following Satan means that we are enemies of God. Satan certainly wants nothing to do with God, and he intends to keep all his fellow enemies of God firmly in his camp.
Most profound of the three ways the Bible speaks of our natural human condition is spiritually dead. “Dead in your trespasses and sins,” Paul says here. Someone who is dead can do absolutely nothing for him- or herself.
Knowing where we came from means knowing we came from spiritual death and alienation to God.
In case you might be inclined to think that, while this might apply to others, it doesn’t apply to me, Paul continues. “Formerly, we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath” (Ephesians 2:3, EHV). Human beings are all born this way.
II.
“But...” (Ephesians 2:4, EHV). Paul doesn’t plan to leave you, his reader, down in the dumps about your natural human condition. It’s important to know that God had a plan to change the natural human condition.
There was one exception to all humans being born dead in trespasses and sins: Jesus. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, as we confess in our creeds, and will do again in a few minutes, Jesus was born completely sin-free. He did not have the sin passed on from generation to generation.
Today’s Gospel included the so-called Gospel in a nutshell, the whole plan of salvation in one verse. The verses before and after it, however, give some important context. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up... 16For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:14, 16-17, EHV).
Jesus is the key to God’s plan of salvation. God’s plan was to send his only-begotten Son into the world to live a perfect life and then carry the sins of the whole world to the cross to pay for them. God didn’t send his Son into the world to leave you in a spiritually dead condition, but to save the world—including you—through him.
Paul says it this way: “But God... 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses” (Ephesians 2:4-5, EHV). It is important to know that, when you were dead in trespasses and sins, God changed your natural human condition. He made you spiritually alive in Christ Jesus, the One who was lifted up on the cross to pay for the sins of the world.
Paul makes this news even more dramatic. “He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6, EHV). As important as it is to know that God has made you spiritually alive, it is equally important to know that your spiritual life will continue forever. Earthly death is not spiritual death. You will be in heaven with Christ Jesus forever.
III.
Know that you were once dead, but now you are alive in Christ Jesus and will be for all eternity. But why? Why was this done for you? What prompted God to do make you alive?
Back to the words that I left out between “God” and “made us alive” a moment ago: “But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!” (Ephesians 2:4-5, EHV).
You don’t have to wonder whether you have been good enough to stay in God’s good graces. If you are feeling doubt, if you have a guilty conscience, if you are troubled, it is important to know that new life in Christ Jesus has absolutely nothing to do with your suitability or unsuitability. Know that God making a person alive is always a free gift of God’s rich mercy and great love. Know that it is God’s grace by which you have been saved. Nothing more; nothing less.
IV.
It is important to know when this happened. Paul says God made us alive “even when we were dead in trespasses.” For most of us, we were baptized as little babies. Before we were old enough to understand what was going on, God made us alive through the rebirth of baptism. Paul says to Titus: “[God] saved us...through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5, EHV).
V.
Related to knowing when you were made alive is knowing how much you contributed. So many things in our world have certain essential requirements for success—you need a particular degree or license, or some natural talent—something. Not so with being alive in Christ. Expanding on what he has already said, Paul continues: “Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, EHV).
No part of your salvation depends on your own actions—or lack of action. If it did, you would be forced to live in constant fear that you hadn’t done enough to get in God’s good graces or to stay there. Grace is God’s undeserved love. He loved us even when we didn’t deserve it; he loved us while we were still dead in sins, and gave us the gift of faith in Jesus.
VI.
How does it know? The student in the classroom wondered how the thermos knew whether to keep something hot or cold.
How does the world know about all these things God has done for us? How does the world know that God did all these things for all people?
It’s kind of like the Stanley thermos—or really, the Stanley tumbler, which is all the rage right now. It’s all about product placement. Movies and TV shows have done it for years. YouTube influencers do it, too. Just assure that the chosen product, like the Stanley tumbler, has its logo facing the camera. Make sure people see you with it. The buzz grows. Other people want to be seen with their tumbler in their own pictures. It doesn’t take long and that special color or design becomes so important that the company can build on the hype and sell still more products with limited designs or colors so that people snatch them up.
How does the world know about something far more important than the Stanley tumbler? You are the answer.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, EHV).
The most basic meaning of the word “create,” especially in Scripture, is to make something out of nothing. When God created the world, he didn’t start with some blob of matter in the great void, there was nothing. You and I are created by God; he made something out of nothing when he brought us, by his grace, to faith in Christ Jesus.
Now he wants what he has created to be on display. God has a purpose for us. He didn’t make you alive by his grace to sit in your spiritual easy chair and bask in his grace. In fact, faith siting still begins to atrophy.
Paul said you and I are created by God for good works. The definition of a good work is something done out of love for God. He created good works for us to do. Everything we do is to be done for the glory of God, Paul says elsewhere.
Perhaps the best good work that shows our love for God is to display that logo by sharing the message of God’s grace and mercy and love to others who don’t deserve it, even as we didn’t.
Make sure your logo “God’s workmanship” is facing the camera. Put your faith as a child of God on display so that many others might know. Amen.