Key Truth: God has revealed the riches of His grace and kindness by making us alive in Christ and building us up in Him.

Introduction:

In what ways have you been helped to see God’s grace and love more clearly?
How has your understanding of your salvation grown in the various circumstances of life?

A Desperate Condition:

Ephesians 2:1-3

“Let this, then, be held as a fixed principle, that the union of our soul with God is the true and only life; and that out of Christ we are altogether dead, because sin, the cause of death, reigns in us.”

John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians

A Great Love:

Ephesians 2:4-7

“…to say ‘justification by faith’ is merely another way of saying ‘justification by Christ.’  Faith has absolutely no value in itself; its value lies solely in its object. Faith is the eye that looks to Christ, the hand that lays hold of Him, the mouth that drinks the water of life.  And the more clearly we see the absolute adequacy of Jesus Christ’s divine-human person and sin-bearing death, the more incongruous does it appear that anybody could suppose that we have anything to offer.”

John Stott, The Cross of Christ

A Divine Gift:

Ephesians 2:8-10

“The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let [Christ] take us over, the more truly ourselves we become…He invented—as an author invents characters in a novel—all the different [people] that you and I were intended to be.  In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to ‘be myself’ without Him.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

How does the demonstration of the riches of God’s grace in Christ affect your view of His commandments?

Application:

Ephesians 2:1-10 teaches us that:

• Our condition apart from Christ was more desperate than we knew,
• But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ
• So that we might rejoice in His grace and walk in His ways to the praise of His grace forever.

Benediction:

Ephesians 3:20-21