Where New Life Begins

Where New Life Begins

“Where New Life Begins”

(Ephesians 2:1-10)

Series: The Gospel for Real Life (1 of 8 )

 

  • Take your Bibles and join me in the Book of Ephesians, chapter 2 (p. 787).

 

We are pausing our study in the Book of Luke for a special 8-week emphasis on the Gospel.  In Sunday school we are reading through this book, The Gospel for Real Life.  And I read again the first two chapters last night as I was walking on the treadmill and just letting the great teaching of Jerry Bridges sink down even more deeply.  Most of you have picked up your copy of the book in your Sunday school classes and if you are not in a class, now is best the time to get into a class and begin this study in your small group.  Our teaches will be teaching through a couple chapters a week.

 

During the worship time I will be bringing a message related to the material you will have read each week.  And beginning next week Brother Rich is going to help as we do some team preaching.  And let me say that if you have never been here when we’ve done this team preaching, I think you’re going to like it.  It is different and it is effective when done sparingly and so beginning next week Brother Rich will join me on the platform and we’ll share together insights from our study as we preach the Word.

 

This morning’s introductory message is entitled, “Where New Life Begins.”  And this text in Ephesians is, in my estimation, the best passage of Scripture that explains how the Gospel brings us to new life in Christ.  So let me read the passage and invite you to hear the Word of God.

 

  • Please stand for the reading of the Word.

 

1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

Some years ago when the boys were smaller we visited the zoo.  And I think it was in Evansville where this happened.  We were going through the turnstiles at the gate that leads into the zoo and they were these tall full height turnstiles with the short metal bars protruding outward like this and the gate frame that surrounded it.  And I’m still not sure exactly how it happened, but those of you with two boys know what they’re capable of getting into.  Somehow as Matthew and Nicholas were entering in through the turnstile Matthew, I think was in front and Nicholas in back, I think Matthew, having entered then moved the turnstile back while Nicholas was still in and somehow, Nicholas came through the gate, but then it jammed and he got stuck somehow in this little small space where moving the turnstile forward wouldn’t get him out and it was impossible to move it backward.  And he was just sort of stuck in this little “no man’s land.”  I’m still not sure how it happened and I don’t recall how we got him out of that, but of course he’s here today!

 

Most of us know that the Gospel is the door to salvation.  It is the door we walk through in order to get to heaven and to avoid hell.  For far too many Christians, however, the Gospel is only a door to salvation.  And far too many Christians have come through the door and, while initially enjoying the thought of eternal life in Christ, they then begin to slip into a life of bondage.  Because of recurring sins and private battles these Christians know that God loves them, but they wonder whether He really likes them.  Their lives are marked by recurring feelings of guilt, condemnation, and alienation from God.  It’s as though these Christians have come through the right door but then they got stuck in a small place and they don’t know how to get free.

 

Jerry Bridges’ book, The Gospel for Real Life, is a powerful book that sets us free from the jammed turnstile that locks us into feelings of guilt, condemnation, and alienation from God.  And much of the book may be summed up by this statement.  Bridges writes:

 

We don’t have to feel guilt-ridden and insecure in our relationship with God.  We don’t have to wonder if He likes us.  We can begin each day with the deeply encouraging realization that I am accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ (p.18).

 

That statement is found on page 18 of the book and we’ll be repeating it frequently.  I am accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

 

Well, this passage in Ephesians 2 gets us into the door, or through the turnstile, of salvation.  It is arguably the best place to begin our study and this may be one reason why Bridges refers to it in chapter 1 of his book.  Let me suggest that we can get our arms around Paul’s teachings in Ephesians 2 if we’ll think of this passage in three main actions.  First, Paul says to Christians:

 

I. Remember What You Were (1-3)

 

That is, remember who you were and what you were before you got saved, before you passed through the door of salvation.  Remember what you were.  Look at verse 1:

 

1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

 

Paul reminds those of us who are Christians—and by the way, how many of us here this morning are Christians?  Can I see your hands?  I raise mine with you—Paul says that those of us who just raised our hands, we need to remember that we once were “dead in trespasses and sins.”  In fact, the phrase there in verse 1, “And you He made alive, who were dead,” in the original Greek does not contain the words “He made alive.”  That’s why some of you have translations where the words are italicized.  The translators want you to know that they are not part of the original, but that this verbal phrase was supplied in order to give the sense of what Paul was teaching.  Literally the text reads, “And you—DEAD—in trespasses and sins.”  You were so dead you didn’t get a verb!  I mean, you were dead.  Do you remember?  You were spiritually dead.  Verse 2:

 

2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

 

So those of us who raised our hands, we Christians, were once dead in trespasses and sins and we lived just like the unbelievers.  That’s what the phrase “sons of disobedience” refers to, unbelievers.  We all were under the influence of “the prince of the power of the air,” that is, Satan.  We were under the influence of the devil, lost, unsaved, sons of disobedience, dead in trespasses and sins.  It doesn’t say we were bad.  It says we were dead.  Some of us thought of ourselves as good, morally upright people.  But the Bible says we were dead in trespasses and sins.  We once walked with the unbelievers.  Verse 3:

 

3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

 

So in some sense Paul is saying, “Don’t think more highly of yourselves than you ought!”  You were once just as those people you’re looking down your noses upon.  You were “just as the others.”  You once lived according to your own desires and your own interests and your own thoughts and actions.  That’s who you were.  You were lost.

 

One of the signs of spiritual maturity is a growing awareness of sin.  Yesterday we were with Matthew at Cedarville University and one of the professors there made the statement, “The more education I get, the more I realize what I don’t know.”  And for the Christian, the more we grow in Christ, the more realize how much of a sinner we are.  We grow in our awareness of sin.

 

Bridges does a great job in pointing out our inability to keep the Old Testament law perfectly.  If any of us thought we were doing okay, I hope Bridges’ illustration of the Great Commandment was enough to knock us off our high horses!  Do you remember in the Bible how Jesus summed up the entirety of the Old Testament Law by saying, “The law is summed up in this commandment: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.’”  And then He added, “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37, 39).’”

 

Bridges asks, “Have you ever thought about what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind?  I don’t think any of us can fully plumb the depths of that commandment, but here are some obvious aspects (and I mention just a few of these for our benefit this morning; pp. 25-27):

 

  • Your love for God transcends all other desires (see Exodus 20:3).
  • You rejoice in meditating on His word, and, like Jesus, you rise early to pray (see Psalm 110:97, Mark 1:35).
  • A regard for His glory governs and motivates everything you do—your eating and drinking, your working and playing, your buying and selling, your reading and speaking—and, dare I mention it, even your driving (see 1 Corinthians 10:31).
  • You are never discouraged or frustrated by adverse circumstances because you are confident God is working all things together for your good (see Romans 8:28).
  • You recognize His sovereignty in every event of your life and consequently receive both success and failure from His hand (see 1 Samuel 2:7; Psalm 75:6-7).

 

How do you measure up?  Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?  How about loving your neighbor as yourself?  What does this look like?

 

  • In your dealings with them you never show selfishness, irritability, peevishness, or indifference.
  • You never regard them with a feeling of prideful superiority, nor do you ever talk about their failings.
  • You never resent any wrongs they do to you, but instead are always ready to forgive.
  • To paraphrase 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, you are always patient and kind, never envious or boastful, never proud or rude, never self-seeking.  You are not easily angered and you keep no record, even in your mind, of wrongs done to you.

 

If we’re honest, we’ll admit, none of us do these things consistently and perfectly.  And in order to please God we must do these things perfectly.  And we do not do these things perfectly because we are “by nature children of wrath.”  Did you note that phrase?  Last part of verse 3: “we were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

 

To sin is our nature.  We were born with this condition.  David said in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”  David traces his sin nature all the way back to before he was even born.  Our sin nature is inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve.

 

Adam is the representative of all humanity.  When Adam sinned, he brought sin into the world.  He was our representative, the federal head of all humanity.  To understand this matter of Adam’s being our representative, or our federal head of all humanity, we need only think of how Jesus Christ is our representative, or federal head of all humanity.  Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross as our representative.  He died so that all may live.  It is a reversal of what Adam did.  Adam sinned so that all died; Jesus Christ died so that all may live.  When Adam sinned, there is a sense in which we too, sinned, right there with him.

 

We’ll talk more about this next week when we study Romans 5 together.  For now, understand that this phrase in verse 3, “we were by nature children of wrath,” means that God’s wrath is directed to us because of our sin.  This is all bad news—very bad news.  Paul wants us to remember what we were.  Before Christ we are dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually dead.  We are separated from God and doomed to hell.  Then, Paul says:

 

II. Rejoice in What You Are (4-7)

 

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

 

Those two words at the beginning of verse 4, “But God,” are powerful words.  Paul uses them as a twin floodlights that shine suddenly upon the darkness.  The bad news of verses 1-3, that we are all spiritually dead in trespasses and sins is overcome by these two words: But God.  What a contrast!

 

Even when we were dead in trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ.  God didn’t demand that we “clean up” first.  Sometimes people say, “Well, I’ll get over to that church once I get my life in order.”  No.  God doesn’t demand that we first get our lives in order.  We can’t!  How can a dead person do anything?  It is “even when we were dead in trespasses” that God “made us alive.”  Then read what God did, verse 6:

 

6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

 

That’s a wonderful statement!  In one sense it points forward.  Paul tells us that we can be certain we are going to heaven.  When we die we will be in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  But it not only points forward, it points to the here and now.  So certain is our salvation in Christ Paul writes as though we are already sitting together in the heavenly places! It is as though we are still here, but we’re also there.  That’s how certain is the Christian’s salvation.  God saves us to showcase His grace, verse 7:

 

7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 

God displays us as trophies of His grace.  We once were lost but now we’re found.  We once were blind but now we see.  This is all owing to the “exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

 

I love that phrase, “In Christ Jesus!”  The phrase “in Christ” or “in Him” or “in Christ Jesus” occurs no less than 15 times in the Book of Ephesians.  Note its frequency even in this passage.  See it in verses 6, 7, and 10.  I once was not in Christ.  Now I am in Christ.  I am in Christ Jesus.

 

So remember what you were and rejoice in what you are.  Thirdly:

 

III. Remember how You Got There (8-10)

 

How do we go from lost to found?  How do we go from blind to seeing?  How do we go from unsaved to saved?  Verse 8:

 

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

 

If you have never memorized verses 8 and 9 let me challenge you to memorize these two verses.  Dads and moms memorize these two verses and teach them to your children.  Quiz yourselves on these two verses.  Ask, how are we made fit for heaven?  How is God pleased?  Ephesians 2:8-9, “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

 

We cannot earn our way into heaven.  It is not faith plus works.  It is faith plus nothing.  We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  It is a free gift, God’s gracious gift to us.

 

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

 

This is where the good works come in.  We are not saved by good works.  We are saved for good works.  God has saved us from the penalty of sin that we might live a life that brings others to Him and brings glory to Him.  We saved for good works, not by them.

 

God does the work in us.  “We are His workmanship.”  I love the Greek word here that is translated “workmanship.”  It is the Greek word, “Poema,” from which we get “Poem” or “Poetry.”  You could say we are God’s poem that He is writing.  We are God’s “Masterpiece of mercy.”

 

Have you ever had someone come up to you and ask, “What is about you?  I’ve noticed you seem to get along well with everyone here at the office.  I’ve never heard you say an unkind word.  Never heard you complain like all the others do.  You seem to be so peaceful and content.  What is it about you?”  Then you can share, “Look, I’m not perfect, but let me tell you what happened: I am God’s workmanship.  I am a poem He is writing.  I am His masterpiece of mercy.  I have been saved from sin.  Jesus has done this.  Would you like to know Him, too?”

 

  • Stand for prayer.