Eph. 2:1-10 - Guilty as Charged: The Depth & Delight of God's Grace

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If you will open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention Ephesians 2:1–10

I don't know if you agree with me, but I feel like we have upheld our promise so far.

We're four weeks into Ephesians and we're in chapter 2.

We're making good progress through the book of Ephesians.

We are, however, going to stop for two weeks and consider verses 1 through 10.

Will and I are. I'm excited to take a first pass and Will will clean up my mess next week,

so I'm excited about that as well.

Let me review, if I could, what we've covered in chapter 1.

So far in Ephesians, Paul has given us a thoughtful and thorough doxology.

He has been elevating and praising God for who He is, praising God for His power, His love, His character.

Paul began in chapter 1 by affirming God's will and work in the Ephesian church.

He then detailed the work of salvation that God has done in the Ephesian church that He does in our lives.

And then in a few long and passionate sentences, Paul expressed his worship and his praise to God who dwells,

he says, in all power, all majesty, all authority, all glory, all love, and in divine headship.

We ended chapter 1 hearing how Paul describes Christ as dwelling in heaven, seated above all authority,

and He is the head over the church.

The church, Paul tells us, is Christ's body, His manifested power of His grace on earth,

and that we are the ones who fill the earth as His representatives.

So with these things in mind, Paul has been focused on the divine, and now his eyes, his focus,

his sight is going to turn towards us as God's people.

His sight is going to be focused on the condition, the state we were in without God the Father.

So with these things in mind, let's look at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 2:1–10

Chapter 2, verses 1 through 10, they say this,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us,

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,

so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace

in 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.

Let's pray together.

Father, this is Your Word, these are Your truths,

this is Your time, this is Your pulpit.

So would You allow me to get out of the way?

May my words be only Your words,

may whatever truth comes out of my mouth

only be because of You working in my heart,

You working in this place.

And Father, as we consider this condition,

this state that we live in,

it's not good news, Father.

It's bad news.

It's the bad news of the gospel.

So will You prepare our hearts even now

to consider the state that we stand in without a Savior,

the state that we stand in when we are separated from You.

Father, be with us, give us Your Spirit.

May we be changed by Your Word during this time.

I pray these things in Your heavenly Son's name.

Amen.

Elementary school was a very formative time for me,

and I'm sure that it was a formative time for you.

I want you to go back with me and consider

one part of elementary school that maybe you want to block out.

There was lots of coming-of-age lessons

that we learned in elementary school, right?

We learned about friendships.

We learned about enemies.

We learned about boys liking girls and girls liking boys.

There are all kinds of things that we experience.

There's one particular experience, though.

Certain memories that I bet are burned into your memory,

and those were discipline.

Times when your teacher entered into your world

and pointed out ways in which you have sinned,

things that you had done wrong.

Being a middle child, I knew that my misbehavior

would have my teachers and my parents disappointed.

I hated that, and so that was my motivation,

for the most part, to stay out of trouble.

At least I didn't get caught.

There were a few words that you hated to hear

when you misbehaved and got caught in elementary school, right?

Go to the principal's office.

Those are the words you didn't want to hear.

Go to the principal's office.

It was the death sentence.

It was the place where you were going to go,

where you knew that you couldn't escape the penalty

for what you had done.

You were going to have to face it.

You were going to have to look your wrongdoing in the eye.

Some of my first emotions of self-awareness in elementary school

came when I saw my classmates in trouble.

I remember being so thankful that I was not sitting in their shoes.

I did not want to be in the hot seat.

I did not want to have that criticism focused on me.

Well, that all changed.

One sunny day when I was in fourth grade,

and the sunny day came after five days of rain.

Our teacher was sick of us, and so we had to get outside.

We walked outside and decided we were going to take a lap around the school.

Well, since it had rained for five days,

that meant there were lots of puddles.

And being a competitive fourth grader,

me and my buddy decided we would start a competition

to see how far we could jump across puddles.

The bigger the puddle,

the greater your reputation grew in fourth grade.

I remember our teacher seeing what we were doing.

She asked us to stop a few times.

We did not stop.

Eventually, she asked us to come up to the front of the line by her.

We went up to the front of the line,

and my buddy and I was not going to end our competitive spirit,

and so we kept jumping over puddles.

The last puddle that I jumped over,

I didn't actually jump over.

I landed in the middle,

and I splashed water all over my teacher,

all over a few of my classmates,

and I heard those words,

go to the principal's office.

That's all I heard,

go to the principal's office.

So I started that slow, slow walk to Mrs. Broussik's office,

immediately regretting that I had gotten caught,

hating that I knew what was coming next.

I was going to have to sit in her office

and explain to her what I had done wrong,

and so I did that.

I detailed my wrongdoing,

and I remember her writing me up on a slip of paper,

and then I looked out the window.

She had a small window in the door to her office,

and the tables had turned.

I watched my friends walk by,

and now I was the one in the hot seat.

I was the one sitting there whose wrongdoing had been pointed out.

I had been caught up in my sin.

I could no longer hide from my wrongdoing.

I had to face the punishment.

Like me,

the Ephesians are now being forced to the principal's office.

Their nature without God is being presented to them.

The judge is standing before them.

They have given an account of their wrongdoing,

and the punishment is now being explained.

And much like the Ephesians,

I would imagine that we too don't want to sit in the hot seat.

We don't want to have to face the reality of our sin.

Paul's going to detail for us in very vivid ways

the reality of man's condition without God the Father,

without the intervention of the Father in our lives.

Just as I sat that day without excuse,

we too sit today with no answer,

no rationale,

no excuse for our wrongdoing.

Our state before the Father,

Paul will tell us,

guilty as charged.

And it's there.

It's there with his sights focused on us

that Paul details for us this situation.

He explains to us the depth of our sin.

Paul recognizes three ways in which we are indicted

in his first few verses.

Three ways in which sin has impacted

our standing before the Father.

The first, Paul tells us,

is that we are dead in our sins.

Paul begins with this grim reality

that there's nothing that we could do

to save ourselves.

A dead man can't rise, right?

That's what we would say.

And what were we dead?

Well, according to Paul,

we were dead in our sins

and our transgressions,

both the active and the passive

disobedience of our hearts.

Paul's intentional here to explain

that we were dead in both our trespasses

and our sins.

Trespasses would be those false steps

that we take in our lives.

Trespasses involve us crossing a known boundary

or deviating from a path.

Our trespasses are those willful acts

of disobedience,

those ones that violate

what we're required to not do.

In our household,

we have a drawer that is within reach

of our three-year-old daughter.

And in this drawer are cups and plates

that she can access.

And then we also put snacks in the drawer.

Well, we are very careful

to not put too many fruit snacks

because that's her favorite snack.

And we know if we don't regulate

her fruit snack intake,

that will be her entire diet, right?

So she knows that before she can get fruit snacks

out of her drawer,

she must ask us.

If our daughter goes into the kitchen,

pulls fruit snacks out of the drawer,

opens them and starts eating them,

she has transgressed the rules

that we have put in place for her.

In addition to these things,

Paul says that we are dead in our sins,

not just our trespasses,

but also in our sins.

Sins, as Paul intends,

means those ways in which we miss the mark,

the ways in which we fall short

of the standard that he has placed in our lives.

This would be the ways in which we fall short

in what we don't do,

the passive disobedience of our hearts.

After Lila has committed the trespass

of grabbing the fruit snacks without asking,

she may very likely walk in

and sit in her favorite chair,

start enjoying her fruit snacks,

and totally ignore her eight-month-old brother

who has pinned himself

between three pieces of furniture,

which he's known to do.

And he'll get cords all wrapped up in himself

because he loves to play with cords.

If she sits there and listens to her brother cry

and doesn't go to his aid to help him out,

she has sinned against her brother.

She's sinned in not offering help.

She's missed the mark,

the standard that we have set for her,

that God has set for her

to care for those in need.

In the fruit snack and the crying brother incident,

Lila has both actively and passively disobeyed.

She's disobeyed in what she did do,

and she's also disobeyed in what she didn't do.

Paul's explaining that in our human condition,

we are both rebels and failures.

We both rebel against God,

and we also fail to uphold the standard

that he has for our lives.

In these things, Paul tells us we're dead.

He'll later refer to us as alienated from the life of God.

Without Christ, Paul says, all are dead.

Every one of us is a spiritual corpse before the Father.

But not only are we dead in our trespasses and sins,

Paul tells us,

but we're also enslaved in our allegiance to the enemy.

Verse two tells us that we followed the course of this world

and that we followed the prince of the power of the air.

Perhaps you remember from our opening sermon on Ephesians

that Paul was very concerned about making the distinction

between the Ephesian church existing in Ephesus,

but also existing with Christ in heaven.

We talked about how God's people had a physical dwelling in Ephesus,

but they had a spiritual dwelling with Christ.

By recognizing our state without God

as walking in the course of the world,

Paul is distinguishing how our spiritual state

did not always exist with Christ.

Before God intervened,

our allegiances, our desires, our pleasures,

our very will was entirely Ephesian.

Our wills, our desires, our passions were worldly,

and they were secular.

We had no reference or orientation to the truths of God.

The influence of the age,

the influence of the world was persuasive,

and it was prevalent in our lives.

We were enslaved to the kingdom of the world.

We did not belong to the kingdom of heaven.

Accordingly, we also followed the prince

of the power of the air.

Now, this is the one that'll make us squirm a little bit.

This one makes us uncomfortable

because what Paul's saying is that

we had allegiance to the evil one,

to Satan himself,

we followed the prince of the power of the air.

Paul's language and application

gets a little bit close to home

because now he reorients our understanding

of our condition to be one

where we followed the one

that we never thought we could follow.

You see, that's the deceptive nature of our sin

is that in our sinful pride

and our lack of self-awareness,

we would never attribute our sin

as being caused by a heart

that's been taken over by the enemy.

But that's exactly what Paul was saying.

You belonged to the enemy.

You followed Satan.

We're sure that there's someone more sinful,

someone more evil,

someone more dangerous than we are.

But Paul says,

no, your allegiances,

they didn't belong to God.

They belonged to the enemy.

Paul's message is clear.

The indictment of sin is so deep

and it's so wide that you Ephesians,

you Southwood,

without the father,

followed the prince of the power of the air,

Satan himself.

As you chased after your own personal desires and wills,

you were fulfilling the desires of the enemy.

Oh, wow.

Paul, as if it wasn't enough,

you're dead in your trespasses and sins.

You followed Satan.

He has more to tell us.

He tells the readers of the text,

as if they haven't heard enough,

one final aspect of their indictment.

And that is that in your sin,

you were condemned.

In verse 3,

Paul tells us that

we lived in the passions of our flesh.

We carried out the desires of our bodies and our minds

and were by very nature children of wrath

like the rest of mankind.

Paul's actually almost giving us a sense of relief

as if to say,

don't worry about it.

There wasn't much that you could do

about those sins and trespasses

that you were dead in

because you were living the way that you were

by your very nature.

You were born into sin.

You were born as an enemy of God.

Paul's indictment now sweeps throughout all time.

And he says that your sin is an indictment

based upon Adam,

based upon the fall that existed in the Garden of Eden.

Paul makes this idea clear in Romans chapter 5

Romans 5 · chapter mention

when he explains how just as sin came into the world

through one man,

that is through Adam,

and death through sin,

so death spread to all men

because all sinned.

The condemnation of sin is a problem

that all of mankind now faces

because of Adam's fall.

Our transgressions and sins that we were dead in

according to Paul are not what caused our death.

Adam's fall caused our death.

We are sinners not because we sinned,

but because of our very nature.

We sin because we are sinners.

We sin because just like all of mankind,

by our very nature,

we stood as enemies to the Father.

My question to you then is this.

Are you comfortable there?

Are you comfortable plumbing the depths of your depravity?

It's what Paul wants us to do for a little bit,

to consider carefully the depths of our depravity.

We could spend entire sermons

talking about these verses,

about the applications that they have in our lives,

how sin so steadily and subtly

creeps into all the corners of our lives.

Because of our very nature,

sin has made its way into our personal lives.

It's made its way into our marriages,

into our parenting,

into our work.

And with the same subtlety,

it's manifested itself in a variety of vices,

obsessions, coping mechanisms,

insecurities, weaknesses, and flaws

that are lived out in our daily lives.

And Paul details how our nature is lived out

as both rebels and failures.

He tells us that not only are we guilty,

but the charge against our sin is death.

And it hurts.

And it pains us.

And if the Spirit's working in our life,

we don't want to hear anymore.

We can't stand the side of our sin anymore

if our hearts have been changed.

And it's there in our moment of hurt

when our hearts are devastated by our sin.

In our moment of great hurt,

there's healing offered by Paul.

The salve to our wound is offered.

The bread to our empty stomach

is given in these words,

but God.

But God.

With these two words,

Paul delivers the divine antithesis of Ephesians.

His entire gospel presentation

hinges upon these two words,

but God.

And we all take a collective sigh

because it means that our story

doesn't stop with our sin.

Our story isn't over after I fail again

and again and again.

The story isn't over in our broken relationships.

The story isn't over with our struggles

with self-image and our desire to lose weight.

The story isn't over with my empty friendships

that I have with alcohol,

with food,

or with my material possessions.

The story isn't over with my surprising,

hostile anger that I have towards my kids.

The story isn't over with my heart and my flesh

that so often lead me astray.

But God.

But God entered into the sinful, broken state

that you are indicted in.

And what did he offer you?

Grace.

He offered you grace.

He meets us with the gospel.

Paul illustrates how God reaches into the depths

of our depravity

and elevates his own glory,

his own grace,

by going from low into the depths

to now high,

describing that we are seated with Christ

because of God's grace.

Because of God's justification through his Son,

we now have hope.

In verses 1 through 3,

we were by nature a whole host of things.

But now Paul tells us how we've been changed.

Ways in which the old man is gone

and now the new man is in place

because of his great love,

because of his divine intervention.

We have three things.

First, we have life in Christ.

Verse 4 continues by telling us

that God being rich in mercy

because of the great love which he loved us,

even when we are dead in our trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ.

Do you see the logical process

that Paul's explaining?

That we who were dead in our trespasses

had no way of saving ourselves.

The only way that we would be saved or redeemed

is if someone came in

and took what was dead

and made it alive.

Paul anticipates our sinful heart's desire

to even make our salvation about ourselves

when he tells us in verses 8 and 9

that salvation came from the Father,

not from our own doing.

It was only a gift from God.

A runner with an injury to their leg

can do the proper stretching,

can follow the doctor's orders to be healed.

An overweight individual

can stick with a weight loss plan,

can exercise,

and they can lose weight.

A high school student

can apply themselves

and be excellent undergraduate

and graduate students.

But Paul understands,

and we must understand,

that there is nothing that we can do

to save ourselves from this situation.

There's nothing we can do

to help ourselves.

Your salvation,

my salvation,

was a product of God's great love

working in our lives.

It was nothing that we did.

It was his mercy

and his mercy alone.

And it's there,

in the midst of our broken situations,

the enormous messes of our lives

that God comes to us,

helpless,

indicted in our sin.

He takes what was dead

and he makes it alive.

There is life,

there is hope,

there is joy,

there is peace

because of what God did.

He gave us life in Christ.

He also gives us union with Christ.

As God makes us alive,

he enlivens our souls,

he gives righteousness to us.

A part of this process,

as well,

is our union with Christ.

Look at this language

from the second half of our passage.

It says this,

even when we were dead

in our trespasses,

that's actually not the right passage.

I'm going to read it for us.

Even when we were dead

in our trespasses,

God 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.

That was the right passage.

What I want you to see

is this language

of being together with Christ,

raised up with him.

He seated us with him

in the heavenly places

in Christ Jesus.

We were created in Christ Jesus

for good works,

verse 10 tells us.

In your salvation,

your heart was not just enlivened,

your record was not just cleared,

but you were joined together

in an intimate connection,

an intimate relationship

with God the Father.

You were united together

with Jesus Christ to the Father.

This relationship to Jesus

is a primary distinctive

of our Christian faith.

We don't just admire

or worship Jesus

as an honorable teacher,

an eminent deity,

or that we now live

according to a set of standards.

Being in Christ

means that we actually share

in his resurrection.

We have shared

in his ascension into heaven

and we share

in his place in heaven.

Through our union with Christ,

we are given the credit

of an earthly life,

ministry, and obedience.

And we have been taken

from death to life,

united to the Son.

Through our relationship

with Christ,

though we were in captivity,

we were now enthroned

on high with him

in eternity.

So we have life in Christ,

we have union with Christ,

we're also given security

through Christ.

By grace you have been saved

according to verses 5 and 8.

The use of this word salvation

in these verses

in the original language

is a perfect participle.

And what Paul has wanted

to communicate

is that God's saving action

saved you in the past

and it will forever keep you

in the future.

The life and the union

that you have are sealed

in the perfect atoning sacrifice

of Jesus.

Nothing can change

your standing with the Father.

You are secured in Jesus.

It's also important

that we remember

how Paul frames our state

when he begins

in verses 1 and 2,

saying that you were dead

in the trespasses and sins

in which you once walked.

Paul's reference

is not to an impending judgment,

but to a way of life

and allegiance to the enemy

and a hardened heart

that you used to be connected with.

An identity that you used to have.

You don't have it anymore.

You are now forever

made alive and united

by God's grace

to Jesus, his son.

It's all been changed.

The story didn't stop

with your sin.

It extended

into God's extension

of grace to you.

His kindness,

his mercy

shown to you,

not of your works,

but only because

of God's great love.

An illustration of this

would be as simple as this.

Imagine that day

in the principal's office.

Imagine with me again

the anxiety,

the guilt that I was facing.

And then imagine

if my classmate Peter

walked in.

Peter was one of the kindest,

most thoughtful,

most well-behaved

fourth graders

you've ever met.

He had perfect grades.

He had a perfect little life.

All the teachers loved him.

Imagine if Peter walked in

and he said,

I'll take the punishment.

I'll assume the guilt

of puddle jumping.

Mrs. Brusik,

I will stand in Chad's place.

Now any normal fourth grader

would have taken that, right?

They would have taken

that opportunity.

They would have darted

out of the office

as soon as possible.

But Peter,

imagine him grabbing me

and saying no.

No, Chad,

you and I are best friends now.

All the obedience,

all the good grades,

all the good graces

that I'm in,

you can have them all.

All the puddles

you jump into,

all the rude things

you say,

all the tests

that you cheat on,

you can have

my perfect record

and claim it

as your own.

It's yours.

Paul tells us

that the verdict

was cast,

that we were guilty

as charged

and we deserved death.

Through Christ,

by grace though,

we have been saved.

All these things

are a gift of God.

You did nothing

to save yourself.

Christ did it all.

He paid it all.

And why did God do it?

Verse 7 tells us,

so that we might see

the immeasurable riches

of His grace

and kindness

towards us.

He did it so that

we could see His love,

so that we could see

His kindness,

this great affection

that He has for us.

I'll conclude

with a few questions

of application.

Do you live

as someone

who's been saved?

Do you live

as someone

whose life

has been changed

by verses 4

through 10?

Do you live

as someone

who's been freed

from the ways

in which you once walked?

Have you felt

the freedom

from shame

from your poor decisions?

Have you felt

the freedom

the gospel offers

people like you

and people like me

who have hurt

lots of people,

who have broken

relationships

and messy lives?

And have you

looked death

in the face

and proclaimed

victory over it

because you are

no longer dead

in your trespasses

and sins?

Do you live there?

Do you believe it?

And lastly,

do you see

what God

has designed you

for now?

What does verse 10

tell us?

It says that we are

now to be

His workmanship

created for

good works.

We'll discuss

next week

the implications

of this verse.

We'll consider

the fundamental

understanding

of our good works

as it relates

to how our standing

has now been changed

by the Father.

We must first see

how we've been justified.

We are now made right.

Now that you've been

made right,

go.

Go and be

God's workmanship

in the world.

You were created

for good works.

You've done nothing

to earn your salvation.

Don't worry about that.

Now go.

Go and be

my people.

We'll consider

what it means

to be a new creation,

to be God's people

in the world.

He has ordained

and prepared

for you

and for me

to go

and to be

His ambassadors

again.

Take up

your new identity.

Take it up.

Go and be

God's people.

Has the gospel

moved your heart

in such a way

that you would

want to respond?

Not as a merit

of your salvation

but because

of your salvation.

By grace

you have been saved,

Paul tells us.

Death to life,

slave to free,

from the depth

of your indictment

to the delight

of Christ's

heavenly salvation,

it has all been

offered to you.

Let's pray.

Father,

these are

powerful truths.

They are truths

that will only

make sense

in our lives

if you first

come and change

who we are.

You must take

this heart of stone

and make it

a heart of flesh.

You must show us

not only our sin

but also offer us

the good news

of Jesus.

Our hearts

can't take it.

If we're left

just with our sin

to wrestle

just with our sin

our hearts

wouldn't be able

to handle it.

So Father,

just as Paul

tells us,

you intervened

but God,

but God

intervened

into our lives

and into our stories

and offered us grace.

Thank you

that we have a life

that's now changed,

that we live

with Christ,

that we are united

with Christ,

that we dwell

as your church

forever sealed

in your son.

Help us to apply

these truths

to our lives,

to believe them

more and more

every day.

Pray these things

in your heavenly son's name.

Amen.

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