Hi everyone - welcome to our daily devotionals. Today we will be reading Ephesians 2:1-10. The Apostle Paul writes this, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Amen.
We have been saved by grace through faith. That is, I think, the main point of this passage. But I want to dive a little bit deeper into what this grace looks like. In the first three verses, the Apostle Paul, goes into great depth into what we were like before we were saved by Christ. We were once dead in the trespasses of sins in which we once walked. We were following the course of this world, following the prince of power in the air - this is talking mainly about Satan. We were following the ways of Satan, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. We were once living in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our body and mind. We had no regard for God. We had no regard for God's will and his desire and his heart for this world. We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. That is who we were before God.
But I love verse 4 because there is a compelte shift, a complete plot twist. It says, 'But God!" "But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love in which he loved us." God being rich in his mercy and loving us with his love. It's interesting, especially in the second part of verse 4, it says because of the great love with which he loved us. It's almost as if he is emphasizing the kind of love that God has for us by mentioning it twice. He loved us with a great love. And it's this love and this rich mercy that we see this complete plot twist in transforming us from who we once were, dead in our trespasses and sins. But now were made alive together with Christ, we've been raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places, and we have received his great grace through faith.
The primary way of receiving this transformation in our lives is by believing in Jesus and receiving his grace. It's believing the work of Christ on the cross for our sins and our trespasses and to believe in the power in his rich mercy and his love that transforms us from one degree of glory to another, from dead people to alive people in Christ. We are saved by grace through faith. He makes this really clear by saying this is not our own doing. It is a gift from God, not a result from works so that no one may boast. God poured out his grace to us as a gift. We don't deserve it - we didn't deserve it.
So today I want to basque in the grace that God shows us, the grace that he showed us when we came to believe in Jesus but also the grace that he pours out to us each day. The life that he wants us to have with Christ is the kind of life that he wants us to have each day. He wants us to choose to put our faith in Jesus and all of that is by his grace.
And so let's do that today - let's put our faith in Jesus, let's receive his grace, and let's give thanks to the Lord that he has transformed us from the inside out, that we are no longer pursuing the things of the flesh, but now the things of the spirit, the desires of God's heart and his mind. Let's be children of God, not children of wrath. Let's let the Spirit to be working in us, not the prince of the powers of the air. Let's live in his grace through faith.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your Word today and I pray that you would help us to give thanks to you, O Lord, for the ways that you have saved us by grace through faith. God, we thank you for your rich mercy and Your great love in which you loved us. Thank you, Lord that it is by your rich mercy and love that we have been completely transformed. We thank you for each and every one of our plot twists, if you will, changing us from children of wrath and of the evil one, to children of the Holy One, children of God. So we come to you today with gratitude and thanksgiving and we ask that you would help us to continue to respond in faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Thanks everyone for joining us and hope you can join us tomorrow as we take a break from Ephesians to read the Psalms. Thanks everyone - have a great day.
