Marvelous and Amazing Grace! Ephesians 2:1-10

Yesterday we saw an important truth surface very early on in Scripture. The truth is an established pattern that we will see throughout Scripture; which is Sin, Judgment, Grace. This morning I would like to write on grace. I think everyone would agree that they don't like people talking much about Sin and God's Judgment. However, they would rather on the other hand hear about God's marvelous grace! In Ephesians 2 Paul writes about this grace. He tells us, "you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked... and were by nature children of wrath..." So we see the first two aspects of the pattern. Paul tell the church in Ephesus, that at one time you were marked by judgment because of your sins and trespasses against God. No matter how good we think we are or how better we think we are than others, we still smell and look and taste like sin to God. Paul describes us as dead in this state. In other words, Paul said spiritual as human beings who are sinners, we are dead in that sin. Sin has left our spiritual life dead. Yea, we are alive physically, but slowly decaying (because of sin). But our spiritual nature that is suppose to be connected to God in a vital relationship with Him, is dead because of sin.

Let's say that you go in to the hospital for surgery and while on the table, you flat line. Your heart stops beating, you have no pulse. You are dead! Unless the doctors and nurses begin to try and revive you from this lifeless state. Let me ask you a question: Would you want them to try and revive you? Of course you would! The somber news when it comes to God is that He didn't have to revive us. He could have left us dead in our sins and trespasses. In other words, He had and has every right to leave us, because we all have chosen to sin and disobey and trespass against a holy and loving God. That's the cruel and somber reality. However, this is where God's marvelous and amazing grace comes into play.

Paul continues on in verse 4, "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... 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 works, so that no one may boast." Unbelievable! Amazing! Incredible! If you are saved and are a child of God today, that means at some point in your life God resuscitated you. Maybe you were reading Scripture, sitting in a service, talking with a friend or family member, reading a tract, or watching Billy Graham on television, but nevertheless you were confronted with the gospel and God resuscitated your heart to respond in faith to the gospel of grace. By grace you have been saved! You did nothing! You don't deserve grace! God gracefully chose to make you alive.

So what should we do? How should we respond? Great question. Paul goes on to say in verse 10, "For we His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Understand that God's act of grace on your life was His handiwork so that you might be a vessel of grace used for good works for the kingdom of God. What will you do today for Him? How will you live this week for Him? Will it be for Him and His kingdom? I pray we would.