[8:00 a.m.] The Grace and Glory of God’s Workmanship (Ephesians 2:4-10)

And now if you turn your attention to the reading of

God's word, our Scripture reading from today comes from

great surprise, the book of Ephesians.

We are still there. Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

We actually have the same scripture passage we had last

week. This week.

I'll do my best to to kind of go and dive deeper into the

richness that are there. But we'll, we'll have our eyes

towards verse 10 for this week, but we'll read verses 4 through

10. But God being rich in mercy

because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we

are dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him, and

seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable

riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not

your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a

result of work, so that no one may boast.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good

works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk

in them. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God, you may be seated.

I think it's fair to say that we could all agree that there is

quite a bit of public outrage these days.

Feels like you can't escape it before the next outrage comes

out. From day-to-day could be outrage

over public speakers, moves by political leaders, outrage when

we feel like those who are called to represent us don't

embody what they feel they should embody.

Much ink could be spilled on the subject.

But I think I think that this outrage occurs because it's a

collision of two very different ideals.

The first ideal is the ideal of individualism, individual

expression as a secular society. As we move in that direction,

yes, even here in Texas, in our quest for knowledge, we have

also moved into this hyper individualism where the

individual has almost the divine responsibility to create an

identity for themselves, believe what they want to believe, value

what they want to value. This ideal is in conflict with

another ideal that we actually still retain in parts even as a

modern society. And that is the idea of federal

representation, legal representation.

That is even in our increasing distrust of institutions, I do

think we are increasing in our distrust of institutions.

We has still retained some level as a Society of representation

through others. Parents are legal

representatives of their children.

Lawyers are able to represent their clients and however good

or bad they may be, that is the verdict that is given.

Elected officials in our democracy represents their

constituents and our national governments.

Even if you don't vote for the president, you feel as if that

president represents you to the world.

We carry on this idea of a federal head, even if there's a

growing culture of distrust and we hold this idea of radical

individualism. I think this is perhaps the

reason for our outrage. They collide.

That's why we believe a public speaker at our university should

represent all those of the university.

But we also can't handle it. Their opinion they hold, it

feels in conflict with something we hold dear as individuals, and

so we land on outrage. I bring up this idea because I

want God to use His Word to shape our lives, to shape us and

to form us in light of the culture that we live in.

And I want us to see where His Word affirms, where His truth

affirms what the culture might believe, and also where it

critiques it. See this idea of someone

representing us beyond our own opinion of ourselves, that that

idea is extremely important. This dynamic of Ephesians one

and two, and really the whole of the New Testament.

And from a more theological term, the theological term that

helps illuminate the truths here in Scripture are Christ's union

with us, our union with Christ. This phrase in Jesus Christ was

all over our text. It's been all over our text.

We can't escape from our union with Christ.

So in this idea, our union with Christ commends society's

remnant belief of our institutions being able to

represent us as legal heads, federal heads.

We believe as Christians and federal representation because

without it we would be dead in our trespasses and sins.

Our union with Christ critiques secular cultures desire to say

that how we define ourselves as being the most important thing

about us because the most important thing about a

Christian is being in Christ. Our union with Him has granted

us everything we need for life and godliness in this age and

the one to come. Let's look at how our confession

of faith teaches us to understand our union with Christ

in the Shorter Catechism. Questions 29 through 32 really

do pertain to this topic. I'm just going to read questions

29 and 30 to you all. It's a question and an answer

from our Shorter Catechism. This is question 29.

How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer. We are made partakers of the

redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual application of

it to us by his Holy Spirit. Simple enough, right?

How are we made to partake or share in these benefits and is

in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ that He purchased for us, and

His cross and resurrection? They must be applied to us by

the work of the Holy Spirit. But how exactly does the Spirit

do this? That's the next question.

Question 30. How doth the Spirit applied to

us the redemption purchased by Christ?

The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ

by working faith in US and thereby uniting us to Christ and

our effectual calling. That is how we get from

Ephesians 1 to Ephesians 2, union with Christ.

Let me remind you, chapter 1. Go back just a little bit in

your Bibles, verses 18 to 20, having the eyes of your hearts

enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has

called you? What are the riches of His

glorious inheritance in the Saints?

And what is the measurable greatness of His power towards

us who believe according to the working of His great might, that

He worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and

seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

This is a prayer, a doxological prayer of worship and

Thanksgiving. Paul is is making and it's all

about Christ. Christ was raised from the dead.

Christ was seated at the right hand in the heavenly places.

And then chapter 2, verses 5 and 6, even when we were dead in our

trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace

you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us

with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

This should blow our minds. What was true of Jesus in

chapter 1 is true of us united with Christ in chapter 2.

Remember, these are past tenses of the verbs.

This has already happened for believers.

You have been made alive. Do not forget it.

You have been raised, you have been seated, and this expresses

our union with Christ. But how are we to understand the

nature of our being made alive together with Christ, being

raised, being seated with him? I think this is important

because we know, and we must say because what the Scriptures tell

us, Christ was literally dead, physically dead, and then was

made alive. His heart was beating.

Cycles could touch him and feel him.

He was alive and we also know Christ was physically ascended

into heaven. It was a physical act.

It was a moment of wow and amazement.

And we know that Christ is seated at the right hand of God

in heavenly places. We have been united to Christ

but are being made alive. Being raised and being seated in

this earthly life is in the spiritual sense and in the legal

sense. Because of our union with

Christ, we have been made spiritually live.

We've been spiritually ascended and spiritually seated with

Christ. His righteousness has been

imputed to us. It has been granted to us in the

legal sense, in every sense of the term.

Because of His representation, we are called innocent.

We are called forgiven. We talked about last week how

Paul, he made-up these three verbs, made a new word using

some verbal conjunctions that the Greek, the original

language, allows him to do. Made alive together, raised

together, seated together in the past tense.

He does so by adding the prefix sin syn.

We use that prefix in some of our English words still like or

the same. Paul has done this throughout

his letters. He does it in other writings.

And so these are the other ways in which he's made us together

with Christ. Galatians 220 we have been

crucified with Christ. Romans 64 We have been buried

with Christ and share with him in his death.

First Corinthians 39 and Philippians 2IN different parts

we work together with Christ. Pastor Rob mentioned that in our

in our time of confession, Philippians 310 we imitate

Christ and are conformed to who he is.

Past tense of the verbs that now makes sense of a present tense

reality of being Christ's workmanship.

Look at me Ephesians 210. For we are his workmanship

present tense. We are his workmanship created

in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand

that we should walk in them. I think that first phrase of the

verse, it enlightens much of what we're to gain from the

Scriptures today. We first person plural, not just

Paul, not just an I, but a we. That is what has been given to

the church, to the apostles in the Apostolic ages, now made

true for all those who are in Christ.

We are present tense. It is real right now, and it's

not a it will be or when we're made perfect, but it's actually

right now. We are his workmanship, His

union with Christ. Again, we are His because he has

made it so. Workmanship, the expression of

his work of salvation. It's the collective body of

Christ, exemplifying his glory on earth as it is in heaven.

This word for workmanship in the original language is poema.

It's actually used only one other time in the New Testament

from the first chapter of Romans, and it's actually very

simply stated there that just things that are made.

It's used in terms of the general revelation, special

revelation topic of 1st and chapter 1 of Romans, things that

are made. It's very simple noun.

What makes the difference here and why it's translated

workmanship is the presence of the possessive pronoun His.

We are His thing that was made, but in a special way.

We are His workmanship. We're not just anything that was

made, but we are His that was made.

He who united us to Christ is also the one who made us.

Created for good works in Christ Jesus union.

Again, being united with Christ is the best work that God could

ever have prepared for us beforehand.

And also as we are to understand this truth that is lived out, we

see that God uses that plan for His glory here on earth.

I heard a beautiful, beautiful testimony this week from a

brother, a fellow member of our church.

He actually serves as a chaplain in the hospital.

And as a chaplain in the hospital, he's often meeting

people in their worst moments in life, a time when diagnosis are

given, the time where life actually ends.

He's often in the room with them and always trying to assess what

is the situation of the room that he's going into because he,

he never knows. It's often the first time that

he meets them and that's when he's called to serve them.

This particular time recently, he was called as a patient was

getting ready to, to die and the, and the family was present.

And so he didn't know what to expect.

What he entered into, though, was a time of worship.

This family knew that their loved one was united with

Christ, and that union was about ready to be made more full.

So how they expressed that was by singing hymns.

And the hymn singing lasted for probably 45 minutes straight.

This member of our church didn't know what he was stepping into,

but as he walked into that room, the hymns just began to come out

of him. He didn't know what hymns they

were singing next. And he said he knew those hymns

because he learned them at this church.

He remembered being a part of the children's choir, and those

hymns were taught to him from a young age.

And so imagine the God that we serve that knew that this young

man, probably ages of five and six, was learning the hymns that

would then be giving God glory many decades later as he's

serving him in the hospital in this room of worship filled the

air in this moment that could be seen as a moment of sadness, but

they were giving glory to God who is uniting this brother or

sister in Christ to him. This brother walked out of the

hospital room and said that the the doctors, the nurses, the

texts, they had never seen something like this before,

singing that did not stop for that period of time, and that

Matthew got to join him in that process.

God has prepared good works for us, and because He has prepared

those good works for us, which is ultimately that we are united

with Christ and will be in the heavenly places.

We can wait for that with patience, with perseverance, as

we wait for being united with Him physically and fully

forever. I say that because I think the

encouragement that we have here from verse 10 is if we're being

honest in our following condition, we don't always feel

like the good works are being produced and we're tempted to

either feel bad or feel good about that truth.

The good works aren't always being produced or sometimes they

might be there in parts and we're tempted to not see the

good works in Christ Jesus, but to see them for just what they

are, good or bad. We actually read in our Easter

Whitney today a little bit about what happened to with Jesus and

how he angered. We use that phrase a lot for the

words of John Christostum. Let me just read it one more

time. By descending into death, he

made death captive. He angered it when it tasted of

his flesh. It was angered for it was

defeated. It was angered for it was

mocked. It was angered for it was

abolished. It was angered for it was

overthrown. It was angered for it was bound

in chains. So as we think about being

encouraged about the works before us, want to remind us

that we are in a battle. We are in a battle with our

flesh. And I was reminded of my late

professor from seminary, Doctor Tim Keller, and how you used to

talk about this battle with sin before being in Christ and after

being in Christ. And he often used the imagery of

like a bear, a bear that was in the wild in our Easter Whitney

here today. That reminded me of this as

well. Doctor Keller would say before

our sin, it sort of lied dormant.

It sort of did what it wanted in the wild.

It wasn't too bothered as it just roamed around.

And that was like our sinful nature before we were in Christ,

because remember, our eyes had to be opened.

The Spirit had to renew our wills in such that we could

actually see our sin for what it was, sin, and agree with God

that it was bad. But before that it was roaming

around like a bear in the wild. What happened though?

We became alive in Christ. It was like that bear was shot

with a gun. What happened?

It became angered, It didn't like it.

It became aware that it was sin and it tried to attack.

Doctor Keller would say that this is when the real battle

with our flesh ensues. Before we are numb to it.

We didn't have a category for it.

But now that we are alive to it, we also have to realize that

it's been taken a shot at and the ultimate shot.

We know that Christ's death on the cross was the ultimate shot.

It's nothing it can actually do to harm us.

But as we wait for our full reality of that, it's angry.

It's waging war against our spiritual nature.

Spiritual nature has its legal standing united with Christ.

There's nothing that can be separated from it.

But our flesh is angry. So I believe this message is for

those Christians who feel discouraged in the battle.

They feel like they are losing it.

This is who Paul is writing to be reminded, dear brother, dear

sister, of the past tense nature of reunion with Christ.

It is already happened and let us be renewed in our minds that

our good works are in Christ. There are results of reunion

with him, not on our actions here today.

The radical nature that we were dead and that he made us alive

is meant to be an encouragement in our battle with sin to

confess, persevere and endure until Christ comes back again.

Spiritual maturity is not purely sinning less, but it's

shortening the amount of time between sin and confession,

celebrating our union even quicker with Christ by going to

Him and talking to Him about our battle with sin.

But I also believe this message is for Christians who are

feeling overconfident in their battle with sin, like they have

it under control. But I believe this is because

their good works are not in Christ Jesus, but are in the

flesh. This is also who Paul would be

writing to. If we are overconfident in our

good works, it's probably because we think that we are

earning something to God by doing them.

If you heard these words today that God had prepared good works

for us, and you think about it, you say, wow, I must be really

good at this. There may be a sense in which we

don't understand how dead we were, which is just dead,

period, and how radical it was that God has imputed His

righteousness to us. How we had to forsake His Son on

the cross to do it. And how even each week as we

practice offering to God a portion of what He's giving back

to us, there's nothing that we can do to offer back to Him

anything to make it equal. Celebrating our union with

Christ allows Christ best work, His work on the cross to shine

in our lives and help us as we are tempted to be overconfident

in our battle with sin. In my list of new verbs that

Paul made-up with us, I left one off the list.

I think it's important to us as we close and as we look to the

table, and it comes from Romans 816 to 17.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are

children of God. And if children then heirs,

heirs of Christ, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

provided we suffer with him in order that we also may be

glorified with him. That's sin doxid, sin doxid.

So that's that with glorified with him has that sin prefix.

And you hear that word that we say often in our Church of

Doxazo. It's our what we use for our

doxology means to give glory, to give praise so that we will be

Co glorified with Christ and all of our battle with sin.

Even though the simple nature persists, even though we have

been united with Christ, because we've been legally counted

righteousness in Christ and all of that, God also tells us that

we'll also be glorified with Christ, the reigning Son of God

and the ages to come. Let that encourage us as we

March forward towards that reality.

Let us pray God has become to the table.

And as we ponder Your word for us today, let us be reminded of

these truths in a way that would give you glory.

God, our feeble minds are weak to comprehend and to respond to

these beautiful realities that we see in Scripture.

And so I thank you for any little bit of the Holy Spirit

illuminating it to us and making it real to us and applying it to

us and reminding us that we are yours.

It's in Christ Jesus that we come to this table, as in Christ

Jesus that we desire to live lives of honour and glory,

giving thanks to you, our Heavenly Father.

And it's in Jesus Christ name that we pray, Amen.