Ephesians 2:1-10
By Grace Through Faith
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are all born dead in sin. Period. No exceptions. This is inherited sin of a fallen nature passed down in our spiritual DNA from Adam as made clear in Romans 5:12, 17-18 and continued in our daily sins of our ongoing failure to keep the entirety of God’s Law (Romans 3:23, James 2:10) and earning more wrath. We are as all born of woman from this corrupted seed initially made good but which the deceit of the adversary turned our fore-bearers to doubt God’s word and try to gain our own understanding of good and evil as continues to echo down through the ages ever since. We who have been gifted with faith to take God at His word in the work and person of His Son Jesus Christ now have been delivered from sin’s penalty in the grace of His goodness which we do not deserve. We no longer live in step with the deceiver in the course the world still takes in disbelief and disobedience to the gospel, but we look back at our rebellious nature and acts with disdain and relief in thankfulness of this grace. Yes, we no longer pursue the inordinate desires which once ruled our corrupt nature as those apart from Christ still do (1 John 2:15-16) and now seek to live to please the Lord (1 John 2:17) in willing obedience and holiness as we reflect on the fact that we are no longer children of wrath on our sin but children adopted by God in Christ Jesus as children of grace and love by acting on this faith to trust God’s work and wisdom to know good and evil. We understand that it is through the mercy of God in heaven expressed in his love for we whom He has called, chosen (Matthew 20:16, Revelation 17:14), and drawn to Himself (John 6:44) and given a new life (John 5:24, Galatians 2:20) together with and in Christ. This Grace has raised us from death in our sins to life in Him with a certain hope of promise to love before His face forever after death when our bodies are raised incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Peter 1:4) and we sit with Him apart from the presence of sin at last! This promise and work on our behalf gives us the reason to glorify the Father in Heaven for these indescribable riches (2 Corinthians 9:15) of Grace and kind goodness freely bestowed on we who believe the gospel. Yes, only by this grace does true faith save us because it originates in Him and not in our own understanding or efforts, and we grasp that this gift of faith to know and choose with a new regenerated soul can receive (John 1:12) the Son of God for deliverance from His wrath on our sin. We have no boast in seeking, finding, or choosing Jesus Christ. We then who are called and chosen have chosen Him in faith and now live according to the Law put into our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33, Romans 2:15, 2 Corinthians 3:3) to willingly follow and do these works prepared for us to do for Him out of thanksgiving and because He has written these into the scripts of our regenerated lives to be His well-pleasing adopted children. May we who know Him keep His word in our sight as it moves from our hearts where it is chiseled to our hands and feet where it is designed to be worked out (Philippians 2:12-13) as He continues to work His saving grace of eternal life in and through us. Amen!
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