Introduction

There is a hush that falls on the heart when grace comes close. Like dawn quietly lifting the night off the hills, grace slips in—soft, steady, sure—and before you know it, the frost of fear begins to melt. Maybe you’ve felt it on a hard day when your own strength ran out, or in a quiet moment when your regrets felt louder than your prayers. Grace has a way of meeting us in the muddle. It finds us when we feel spent, speaks when we feel silenced, and steadies us when the ground seems to give way.

I remember hearing about a man who kept a notebook labeled “Do Better.” Every day he wrote reminders: Be kinder. Try harder. Keep up. He meant well. But his smile said “fine” while his shoulders told another story. The weight of “do better” can wear a person thin. The wonder of the gospel is that it doesn’t hand us another notebook; it hands us new life. Grace is not another box to check. Grace is a gift that changes everything—our past, our present, and our future—because it gives us Christ.

J. I. Packer says it this way: “The grace of God is love freely shown toward guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit; it is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity.” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God)

If your heart is hungry for that kind of goodness today, you’re in the right place. Ephesians 2 is a love letter to the weary, the wandering, and the worn out. It is oxygen for suffocating souls and sunlight for shivering hearts. Paul uses words like mercy, kindness, riches, gift. He writes about a God who makes the dead alive, who brings the far-off near, who seats the undeserving in heavenly places with Christ. Can you imagine? Grace doesn’t give us a head start; grace gives us a Savior. Grace doesn’t patch us up; grace makes us alive. Grace doesn’t bargain; grace blesses.

Maybe you’ve been carrying a private ledger—what you should have said, what you shouldn’t have done, where you fell short. Bring it into the light of Ephesians 2. Hear the good news tumbling like a waterfall over every dry patch in your soul: mercy is rich, love is great, kindness is abundant, and salvation is a gift. Grace meets us in our mess and then moves us into God’s marvelous newness. It lifts us, links us to Christ, and leads us into good works prepared beforehand. Not as payback, but as overflow. Not to earn, but to enjoy. Imagine walking out the doors today lighter than you walked in. Imagine a heart no longer held hostage by yesterday, because grace has spoken a better word.

Listen now to the Scripture. Let these words wash over you and win you:

Ephesians 2:1-8 (KJV) 1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Before we go further, let’s ask God to open our eyes and soften our hearts.

Opening Prayer: Father of mercies and God of all comfort, we come with open hands and hopeful hearts. Thank You for loving us with great love and for showing us the exceeding riches of Your grace in Christ Jesus. Breathe life into weary places today. Calm anxious thoughts. Clear away the fog of shame and the clamor of self-reliance. Let Your Word run swiftly and be glorified in us. Lift our eyes to Jesus—our Life, our Lord, our righteousness—and let faith rise as we hear Your truth. Make us alive to Your presence, attentive to Your voice, and responsive to Your kindness. Shape our steps for the good works You have prepared, and let all we receive today bring praise to the name of Jesus. Amen.

Grace makes the dead alive

Paul does not clean up the language. He says we were dead. That is hard to hear. Dead means unresponsive. Cold to God. Unable to move toward Him. This is how grace starts. It starts with the truth about us.

Death in the soul is quiet at first. It looks like going with the crowds. It looks like chasing every urge. It looks like listening to lies that feel like air. It looks normal on the outside. It empties us on the inside.

Grace steps in where there is no pulse. God acts. He brings life where there was none. He does this in Jesus. He ties us to His Son. What happened to Jesus begins to shape us.

When Christ rose, a new kind of life broke into the world. That life reaches us. It does not come from our effort. It comes from God’s heart. We receive it by trusting Him. We open our hands. He fills them.

This life changes our place. We share in what belongs to Christ. We belong to Him. We sit with Him. That means safety. That means welcome. That means a home that will not fall.

There is reason behind it. God means to show how kind He is. He means to keep showing it, age after age. Our lives become signs of His goodness. People see mercy when they see us breathe with new breath.

This life goes down into our habits. It reaches how we think and choose. New desires rise. New loves grow. There is strength to say yes to what is clean and true. There is light in rooms that used to stay dark.

And this life points forward. There is more coming. The same grace that starts us will carry us. The same Lord who raised us will keep us. Hope stretches long and wide.

Paul begins with the hard state of the human heart. “Dead in trespasses and sins.” That means cut off from the life of God. We walked in step with the age we live in. We breathed in the values around us without a question. We were moved along by a dark ruler who works behind the scenes. We lived by urges in the body and schemes in the mind. This was everyone’s story. No one stood outside this line. It was our nature to resist God’s holy rule. That placed us under His good anger. This is clear and honest. It guards us from soft words that miss the point. Without God’s action, we had no power to change this state. A body can move itself. A dead heart cannot. We did not need tips. We needed life.

Then the tone shifts with God Himself. He is rich in mercy. His love is vast. He looked on us when we were still dead. He acted while we were unable to act. He made us alive together with Christ. This is new birth. This is a new creation. Grace is the cause. Not our will. Not our record. Not our promise to try again. God’s kindness does the work. Union with Christ is the way He gives it. To be “with Christ” means His life becomes ours. Like a branch tied to a living tree, sap begins to flow. The same power that raised Jesus now works in us. Old patterns begin to loosen. A new core begins to form. It is a work only God can do. It is free. It is personal. It is sure.

Paul goes further. We were raised up together and seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is present language. It names our position right now. In Christ, we share His status before the Father. Welcome. Nearness. Access. Honor. The throne room is open. Prayer is a seated life, not a frightened crawl. We belong in the place where Christ is. This gives peace in a loud world. This gives courage when shame tries to speak. This gives a new center when old labels try to stick. We live on earth, but our address is linked to heaven. Our life flows from there. Our future is secured there. Our battles are fought from there. Seated with Christ means the war’s outcome is settled, even while the skirmishes continue.

And Paul tells us why God did this and how it comes to us. He did it so that, in the ages to come, He would show the immeasurable wealth of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ. Our salvation is a living display. It keeps pointing to God’s heart. It keeps pointing to Christ’s worth. The way we receive this saving work is faith. Open hands. Trust in Jesus. Rest in what He has done. This saving is by grace. It is God’s doing from top to bottom. We cannot brag. We cannot pay Him back. We can praise. We can walk in new ways He lays out for us. Faith keeps looking to Christ. Grace keeps supplying what faith needs. And the story keeps giving God all the credit.

Grace delivers us from wrath into mercy

Mercy moves to the center in these verses ... View this full PRO sermon free with PRO