Ephesians Explained | Grace SwaggerSample

Day 3 | Ephesians 2 | United by Grace

Hello, Through the Word! Ephesians chapter 2 today, and we left off with our eyes opened. To see hope. To see we are treasured. And to see God’s power to raise the dead. And for some of us, we might think, “Wow. That’s really cool... if I needed raising from the dead. But I’m okay.”

Actually, no you’re not. At least you weren’t. Chapter 2, verse 1:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live” (Ephesians 2:1-2).

This is an important reality check. To truly understand who you are in Christ, you need to recognize who you were without Him. You were dead. 

In the Bible, there is more than one kind of death. And death is not an extinction but a separation. Physical death is separation of the person from the body. But verse 1 is about spiritual death - the separation of you from God. 

“You were dead in your transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).

All the junk - every lie, every act of greed, lust, arrogance, hypocrisy, hatred - all of it separated you from God. It killed you. And verse 2 says you lived in it. The Greek word here is walk. Your every step...

“...when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air…” (Ephesians 2:2).

I’m not saying your every move was wicked. I’m saying your walk gave you away. When you follow the world and the devil that is separate from God. Lies, cheating, rage, lust, greed - that’s dead stuff. And that makes you, well, the walking dead.

When you’re dead, you don’t get that. “I am not dead.” But the dead are not so good at self-diagnosis. I didn’t get it. But looking back now, I was dead. Verse 3:

“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:3).

Notice it’s not about one action here or there it’s what we followed after. Our walk. And he says all of us...

“...were by nature deserving of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).

We deserved wrath. Watch that. If ever you think, “I just want what I deserve,” bad idea. Verse 4:

“But 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” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

God loves us. So much. And in that love and deep mercy, He made us alive. He did it “when we were dead.” Right in the middle of sinning against Him, He loved us. That is grace. A gift that we do not deserve. 

Now God didn’t just raise us from the grave back to earth. Look at verse 6:

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

God raises us all the way to Heaven and seats us. Sitting is something you do at rest at home at a table where you belong. Back in the kingdom picture, the King’s home is our home now. Though we may walk in this world, Heaven is our true home. 

Now all of this has a purpose that is bigger than you or me. It’s for us, but it’s also bigger than us. God is accomplishing something. Verse 7 tells us that God seated us...

“...in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7).

God is an artist like no other. His works are beyond words. Nothing compares. And He shows off his works in the most spectacular ways. Look to the sunset, to the galaxies, to the majesty of all creation. But the work that He will show off for ages to come is the work of grace. Incomparable. 

Verse 8 is big:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

Memorize that verse. It changes everything. You were saved, forgiven, brought from death to life by grace - don’t deserve it, can’t earn it, God just loves you - grace. 

Grace is a gift and you receive that gift “through faith.” The gift arrives at the door of your heart, and you open the door to accept the gift by faith in Jesus. But you don’t earn anything. None of this salvation is “from yourselves” it’s all God’s gift. In verse 9:

“...not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:9).

This is big. This is the reason that God planned salvation this way. See, the challenge for God is if He let people earn salvation, let them work for it, then they could boast, brag, and walk with an arrogant swagger looking down on the unsaved. In short: self-righteous. 

But God hates boasting. 

If my Christianity makes me arrogant in any way, I’m doing it wrong. I misunderstood. And we do it - but it’s wrong. Grace humbles us. Verse 10:

“For we are God’s handiwork...” (Ephesians 2:10). 

Handiwork is the Greek word poeima. Like a poem. It’s a work of art - a masterpiece. God is an artist, and He expresses Himself - He tells His story - through His art. And that’s us. We are the story of His grace, the expression of His love, back in verse 10:

“…created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10).

Aha! So we do good works! Not to earn, but in gratitude. Not got-to, get-to. Good works...

“...which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

This is that path God marked out for us. This is our “meant to be.” Good works. But the way we go about them, our walk, is different now. It’s humble - changed by grace.

In verse 11, Paul calls us to remember where we were. He brings us back to how things were - before Jesus - between Jews and Gentiles (or non-Jews). This is Old Testament. The Jews, God’s people, were brought near to God. They had a Temple where they could come close to God’s presence. Gentiles were allowed to visit, but they were separated by a dividing wall, kept at a distance. 

And that picture pretty well describes where most of us stood with God. Other people got close but we stood at a distance. In verse 12:

“...separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

And that wall that separated Jews and Gentiles, well, that wall created some hostility. Religion does that. It creates division. But God has a plan. 

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:13-14).

Watch that. Jesus made peace. Jesus is peace. He destroyed the wall that divides us. 

Picture two brothers fighting. Sin started it: one got greedy, the other revenge, and the fight is on. Enter God’s law, and one kid takes to it. But he’s arrogant about it and kind of a hypocrite - uses the law on his brother more than himself. And a wall goes up between them. But that’s not what God wants. Enter grace. Jesus paid the price so both are forgiven, both are humbled, and the walls come down. Verse 15:

“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15-16).

Sin separated us, the law built a wall between us, and the cross tore it down. That’s the power of grace. And now in verse 22, we who were once enemies are all...

“...being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).

Together we don’t just get close to the temple, we are God’s temple.

Read Ephesians 2. There’s so much more here, so dig in, and I’ll see you back here in chapter 3. 

Join us next time as we continue the journey one chapter at a time. And remember, faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word.