Ephesians 2:1-10
“Rewrapping Gifts”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN www.eastridgeumc.com
Several years ago, before GPS systems were the norm, I was driving across the country, and among the people I wanted to meet up with was an old high school buddy.
He lived on the edge of Baltimore…so I was in new territory.
We made plans that I would drive to his apartment that he rented with some other recent college grads, and stay a few days.
He gave me detailed instructions on how to find him.
But, when I was on my way it was dark, and raining, and I managed to get on the wrong highway.
Or, rather, it was the right highway, but I was going the wrong direction on it.
Since he had told me to go ten miles or so before looking for the signs to turn off, I didn’t worry until I’d gone at least twelve or fifteen miles and none of the signs were making sense.
Can any of you relate to this kind of situation?
Anyhow, finally, I turned off and asked for directions.
The guy at the convenience store hadn’t even heard of the part of town I was looking for, never mind the street!!!
I was totally in the wrong part of the city.
Only gradually, when I studied the map, did I realize my mistake.
I had been driving confidently, believing I was doing the right thing, but with every minute I had been going further and further and further away from where I wanted to be.
The story ended happily.
But it illustrates a bit of the point that Paul is making in the first three verses of this chapter.
We live in a world where we human beings, left to ourselves, not only choose the wrong direction, but remain cheerfully confident that it is in fact the right one.
It is, after all, a fine road, much travelled and well worn.
Paul calls it “following the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air…”, and it will lead to disaster and absolute ruin!
The problem is, though, even if we recognize this, what can we do about it?
If we are already heading the wrong way down the road, with no hope of turning off, let alone turning back, and apparently no brake on the car to enable us to stop—what hope can there be?
There are forces which pull us, lure us, and compel us to keep going in the wrong direction.
What power do we have over them?
What power do we have to resist?
And, to top it off, often, what seems right, actually isn’t.
Satan’s deadly ideas and schemes for defacing God’s beautiful creation and in particular—God’s image-bearing human creatures, are, as Paul puts it “in the air.”
So, what is the answer?
The only answer is the one provided by God.
The only way to be saved from the total destruction of our human-ness is provided by God through the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Listen again to verse 4: “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…”
Wow!!!
The sheer, almost unbelievable, magnificent kindness of God!!!
In 4 short verses Paul describes God’s kindness in several different ways!
God is rich in mercy…
God loves us with a great love…
…God’s sheer grace has saved us…
…God’s grace is beyond words…
…God has lavished kindness upon us!!!
If anyone tries to imply that God is a bit stingy, or mean, or small-minded, look at these verses and think again!!!
It’s possible that lots of people who are heading at a high speed in the wrong direction might want to think of God as a joy kill—just as people who are enjoying their drive don’t like it if someone tells them they are going the wrong way, and that they are about to pass the last chance to turn off and head back again.
But God is not a “joy-kill”; God is a “Joy-Giver”!!!
And the crucial factor is Jesus Christ.
Take away His Resurrection, and for all anybody knows, the road to death is the only road there is!
But thanks be to God, there is another way!!!!
And we are all urgently called to turn around and follow it.
But how do we “jump the tracks”?
How do we get going in the right direction?
What can we do?
We have been born with a sinful nature.
That’s where the astonishment and relief come in!!!
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Do we get the force of what Paul is saying here?
When we step into the first three verses of tonight’s Scripture, into that world…do we get the force?
Lots of people, today, may not think that there is much wrong with the human race, and with themselves in particular.
And as a result, they may not see much need for God’s grace.
Perhaps, they think, God might help me out in a tight corner here or there, but basically I can get along fine without God.
But if we think this way, we miss God’s radical rescue from imminent danger and ruin!!!
God’s grace gives life to the dead.
And God’s grace is free and undeserved!!!
Paul speaks of being “saved.”
Salvation has to do with people being rescued from the fate they would have otherwise experienced.
The rescue takes place by the grace and love of God.
God is the One Who so loves you and me and the entire world…
…the world which is “dead” in “transgressions and sins.”
The world which is lost and can’t find its own way home.
God is the One responsible for our rescue.
There is nothing we humans can “do” to save ourselves.
If that were possible, people who had this ability to save themselves would be able to hold their heads up in pride over those who didn’t.
On the contrary, because it’s all a matter of God’s gift, God’s grace…there is no room to boast!!!
It’s often talked about that the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is the craziest day at the malls and department stores.
Some retailers beg to differ.
For after Christmas, that is the time when people return their gifts!
Salvation and even the ability to have faith is the ultimate gift from God.
And we are not forced to accept it.
We can turn our backs.
We can refuse it, and instead choose to follow “the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.”
But where is the joy in this?
Where is the peace?
What is the point?
There are so many folks living this life without a knowledge of God’s unconditional love and kindness.
They are going the wrong way fast, but do not know any other way.
They are lost, anxious, and scared.
They are lonely and living without hope.
They are angry, bitter and resentful.
They know nothing about grace.
What are we who have been loved so much to do?
In His glorious love, God has given us the greatest gift anyone could ever receive.
But it’s not a gift that we just receive and then keep to ourselves.
We don’t just unwrap it and then put it on a shelf.
Instead, we are to rewrap it and give it to someone else!!!
For the way it works with God’s love, the more of it you give away—the more you get back; the more it grows!!!
It never runs out.
Paul stresses that we are saved, “not by works.”
But he does say in verse 10 that we are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.”
Have you ever thought of yourself as God’s workmanship, as God’s piece of art?
In fact, God has been working on all of us our entire lives.
By the grace that goes before us, God’s Holy Spirit has been nudging us and leading us to that place where we see that we are on the wrong road, and thus cry out to Jesus for rescue.
And once Jesus gets us going in the right direction, after the disastrously wrong journey mentioned in verses 1-3, we are set free to do what we were created to do and be the people we were created to be!!!
Paul stresses, that as Christians, we are at the center of God’s new creation.
It’s as if we are a musical score; and the music, which we now have to play, is the genuine way of being human, laid out before us in God’s gracious design, so that we can follow it.
The “good works which God prepared in advance for us to do” are the new way of being human.
And God has a specific and unique purpose for each of us.
What would happen to our moral and spiritual lives if we had never grasped the fact that our entire lives, never mind our salvation, is God’s underserved gift?
Where would we be?
Where would we end up?
What would we be feeling?
There are people in that circumstance right now.
As we are told, we were all “dead in our transgressions and sins…
Who told you that there was another road?
Who took you by the hand and gently led you to the Promised Land?
Who told you about Jesus?
Who showed you Christ’s love and Christ’s grace by their words and actions?
Who rewrapped God’s gift for you?
Where would we be without that gift right now?
God has created us in Christ Jesus to do the good works God prepared in advance for us to do.
What are we going to do about it?
