Hymn before the message: "Amazing Grace"
“Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” We love that hymn, and arguably one of the most beloved hymns in all the hymn book. John Newton wrote that hymn and many other. In the late 1700’s. John Newton was a an ordained minister in the Anglican Church and was quite the evangelist. What many do not know about John Newton was that in his younger days he was a slave trader and was a captain of several ships involved in the slave trade. After his conversion, he felt called into the ministry and he was very active in the abolition of the slave trade working with people like William Wilberforce.
Up to the time of his death at age 82 in 1807, the same year the British Parliament abolished the slave trade through-out the British empire, John never ceased marvel at God’s mercy and grace that so dramatically changed his life. Shortly before his death with failing health, eyesight and memory, John Newton was heard to say “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: ‘That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!’ ” [1]
Paul wrote to the Ephesians about this “Amazing Grace” of God, in one of the best descriptions of God's grace in all of Scripture.
Ephesians 2:1–9
One of my favorite commentators is A.W. Tozer who had minimal education, was quite the prolific writer about the things of God and he was awarded many honorary doctorates. He had this to say about God’s grace: “The first truth is that no one ever was saved, no one is now saved and no one ever will be saved except by grace.” And “The second truth is that grace always comes by Jesus Christ.” [2]
John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
We are saved by God’s grace that only comes through Jesus .
We have to understand the meaning of this word “grace.” In Scripture and it is often translated as favor. For instance, in Genesis 6:8 we read “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (NKJV) and other translations will say Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord” (NASB, NIV, ESV). Grace and favor have similar meanings.
Another word often found when using the word “grace” is the word “mercy.” Both words are complementary but there is an important difference. Speaking in terms of God: God’s mercy towards us is God not giving us what we deserve. We deserve condemnation and eternal punishment. We deserve the wrath of God, but God withholds His wrath. That’s mercy.
God’s grace is giving to us what we don’t deserve. He gives us His salvation and His blessings. That is grace.
Today’s passage explains God amazing grace and His great mercy. But bear with me a minute as I explain some highlights of the Greek in today’s passage.
Verse 1 through 7 is just one sentence in the Greek. Paul is known for writing these long sentences, and they are not run-on sentences connected with the word “and,” but are full of phrases emphasizing what is being said. Let me illustrate. The subject of this long sentence is God in verse 4. The verbs or the action God is performing is: “made alive” in verse 5, “raised up” in verse 6, and “seated” also in verse 6. The object of these actions is “us,” that is you and me.
So to simplify what is being said in verses 1-7: God mad us alive (when we were dead); God raises us up (with Christ); God seated us (with Christ in heaven). Everything else reflects on these actions of God. Keep this in mind as we examine this passage.
The first three verses talks about our deplorable condition prior to God taking action.
Ephesians 2:1–2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Prior to our salvation, prior to be called by God, we were dead, only we did not know it. We were dead men, and dead women walking. Yes dead spiritual, but being dead spiritual, if unchanged will render us dead eternally. Being dead eternally does not mean a cessation of existence, but it does mean an eternal separation from God in a place of torment.
And we were dead, “in your trespasses and sins.” That word “sins” in the Greek means to miss the mark. We have a sin nature, and on our own, we cannot hit the mark (the standard of holy as defined by God) no matter how hard we try. The word “trespasses” in the Greek means to overstep a boundary. Both these words together indicated intentionality. We not only sinned because its our nature to sin, we intentionally overstepped the boundaries, the limits, broke the rules intentionally, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world.” Because we walked with the world. We followed the crowd. We went along with the current culture. And world and our culture is ruled by “according to the prince of the power of the air” which is Satan. The world follows Satan. If you don’t believe me, then you haven’t listen to the news lately.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Satan rules this world, but his day is coming and He knows it. Here is the big problem:
2 Corinthians 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Satan has blinded the eyes of those in the world. They cannot see what is happening around them. Folks who come to Christ, often feel they have had a veil, or blinders removed and they begin to see the world as God sees the world. We call this our Biblical worldview and this puts us at odds with the rest of the world.
Here is the thing, to be of the world, and not in Jesus is to be defenseless against Satan and the evil in our world. And that is: “the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” We were disobedient because the spirit of the evil one was at work in us whether we realized it or not.
Ephesians 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Paul here is saying “and such was us.” We all were there. Here is the part I don’t want you to miss: “and were by nature children of wrath.” We were not children of God, but we were children of His wrath. The wrath of God is a most fearful thing.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
We cannot fully appreciate the grace and mercy of God without knowing about the wrath of God.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
And the wrath of God is coming in full measure against the ungodly in this world. If you have time, read Revelation 16 where the bowls of God’s wrath is poured out on the earth. God's wrath is to be feared! But know the focus of this passage is being made concerning the grace of God with what is perhaps one of the most eloquent and inspirational transitions in all the Bible:
Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
But God, rich in mercy and grace. “For God so loved the world …” (John 3:16). With a great love (Greek “agape”) that He loved us. This has got to be arguably the best transitional sentence in all literature. We were hopeless and fully deserving of God’s wrath and condemnation:
Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
We were dead, meaning we could not communicate with God, we could not or had no inclination to reach out to Him. We were dead and did not even know it. And this is the meat of the message, God (the subject of this long sentence) “made us alive together with Christ.” (the first verb). Just as God raised Jesus from the dead physically, He raised us from the dead spiritually. And Paul put in a parentheses “by grace you have been saved” meaning it was nothing we did. In the Geek “have been saved is in the past perfect tense meaning is a completed action, a permanent state as the result of a past action. It was all because God great love. God not only made us alive:
Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
We have been positionally resurrected. We are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). All things are new. We have new sight ("I once was blind, but now I see"), we have new thoughts and insights, we have new values. And we have a new home: “and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Spiritually we are with Jesus. And where is Jesus? Jesus is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. Our new home is heaven, with Jesus, not here on earth.
Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
And considering our citizenship is in heaven, we ought to be different people from the rest of the world. As Jesus said, we may be in the world but we are not of the world (John 17:14-18).
Colossians 3:1–2 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
We stand amazed at God’s grace. But what we have of God’s grace is only the beginning. Why all these things? Paul explains:
Ephesians 2:7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
I will need eternity to just begin to praise God for what He has done for me. And I do not know the full extent of His grace, and one day that full extent will be revealed. We can only scarcely grasp the glory of His amazing grace.
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Jesus was sent to be the propitiation (atoning sacrifice in other translations) on our behalf. Whole books have been written on that one word “propitiation.” Why is that so important? Because the justice of God, His wrath against sin must be satisfied. Propitiation means to satisfy God wrath by sacrifice and that is just what Jesus had done for us. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a) and Jesus took that dead upon himself.
That’s God’s grace. We did not deserve His sacrifice but because of His great love for us, and God's grace, the sacrifice for our sins was made. It was all God. None of our salvation was the result of anything we have done.
Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Nothing we could have done to earn God’s grace. If we could earn it, it would be no longer grace. There is nothing we could ever do so that God would owe us.
God’s amazing grace offered through His son Jesus, we only need to accept by faith, and that faith in which we accept this gift of grace, is also a gift from God.
Our whole salvation and our ability to accept that salvation is all wrapped up in God’s grace. He sent His Spirit to draw us to Jesus when we had no ability to even turn towards God and ask for mercy.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Yes, the only boasting we can do is boast on what the Lord has done for us, not ever what we have done for Him. Even our acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior is a work of God.
Ending today on the subject of works, we do no good works until the grace of God is accepted by faith. Then any good we do is only by what He does through us.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
We do not do good to earn God’s grace, but we only do good because of His grace.
[1] Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1982), 30.
[2] A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father’s Heart, vol. 1 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2003–), 101.
