God's Amazing Grace Series

Series: Experiencing the Riches of Christ

THE RICHES OF GOD’S AMAZING GRACE

Ephesians 2:1-10

I. MAN’S HOPELESS CONDITION APART FROM CHRIST

A. We Were Dead (2:1)

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

B. We Were Dominated (2:2-3a)

by the World (2:2a)

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,

by the Devil (2:b)

according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

(John 8:43-44) Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil , and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning

B. We Were Doomed (3:3b)

and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

II. GOD’S AMAZING GRACE EXTENDED TO MAN

“grace” xaris: gift, that which affords pleasure; God’s unmerited favor

• Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve.

• Grace is the goodness of God shown to people who don’t deserve it; mercy is the goodness of God shown to people who are in a miserable plight.

A. The Source of God’s Grace (2:4)

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

“Since sin always brings misery, and misery is always experienced by sinners, therefore all of God’s acts of grace are also acts of mercy, and all his acts of mercy are also acts of grace. Every act of grace shown to a person because he is a sinner is also an act of mercy because his sin brings misery. And every act of mercy shown to a person because of his miserable plight is also an act of grace because he doesn’t deserve it.........In a courtroom you might look at the same act of acquittal from two angles. From behind the judge you might see his black robe and huge bench and all the papers with convicting evidence spread out before him. This would make the acquittal look like an amazing act of grace. Sin and justice call for conviction, not acquittal. But it you moved around to the front of the bench and saw the tears in the judge’s eyes and noticed the utterly miserable plight of the criminal, this would make the acquittal look like an act of mercy. The act of goodness is one act, not two. What changes is the angle from which we view it” (John Piper, Future Grace, p77).

B. The Power of God’s Grace (2:5-6)

Power to Change our Condition (2:5)

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Power to Change our Position (2:6)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

C. The Glory of God’s Grace (2:7)

That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

The glory of God is the manifestations of God’s person and works. God’s grace reveals his glorious nature.

It was Friday night, November 8, 2002 in McDermott, Ohio. A lop-sided high school football game was about to conclude. The Waverly High Tigers were tearing apart the home team, Northwest High School, 42-0. Surprisingly, with only a few seconds left, Northwest coach Dave Frantz called a time out. Even more surprisingly, Tiger coach Derek Dewitt met him at midfield. The two had actually talked during the week about getting in a Northwest player who had never played in a real game. Jake Porter, a 17-year-old who was mentally retarded from birth, was brought into the Northwest huddle. What happened next was the most beautiful moment in sports this year, a real life parable of grace.

Coach Frantz just wanted Jake to take the ball and take a knee. He asked that Coach Dewitt instruct his players not to hit him, because of his fragile condition. Coach Dewitt went one better. Not only would Jake get into the ball game, and not only would Jake get the ball, but Jake was about to score a touchdown. Seconds later, Jake Porter took the most thrilling 49-yard run of his life, right into the end zone. Jake jumped. Players cheered. Parents cried. God was glorified.

- God is glorified when grace is displayed.

- God was glorified because Jake scored in spite of his total inability to do so. Could this young man really have broken through an opposing line, all by himself, and outrun better and faster boys for the touchdown?

- God was glorified because coaches Frantz and Dewitt chose Jake to score the touchdown based not on what Jake had done or could do, but because they genuinely loved and cared about him.