Grace to You and Peace (Ephesians 2)

C.S. Lewis has a famous analogy about a child playing with mud. He says, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (The Weight of Glory, 26).

This analogy got me thinking. The child making mud pies in the slum has no categories for imagining what a holiday at sea would be. He knows nothing other than the slum he grew up in and the mud pies he makes. That’s it. For him that is life and he cannot see beyond it to other possible glories. Someone may even offer him a holiday at sea, but would choose to play in the mud because that is what he knows. He is comfortable playing in the mud. Yet, the moment the child would get a glimpse (or a taste) of the holiday at sea, he would immediately throw down the mud and run to the sea. That’s what Paul is trying to do in this passage. He is trying to point us past “playing with mud” to the treasures God has laid up for us in Christ. Let’s read Ephesians 2.

I have one quick question, that I want you to answer in your head. When we responsively read Question and Answer 5 from the Heidelberg Catechism, did the answer stick in your throat a bit? “I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.”  Was that difficult for you to say? Did you find yourself thinking, “Well, not really. I don’t really have that tendency. Others may, but not me.”? I think we have this knee jerk reaction to statements like this because we are so used to playing with mud. We’re so used to living in sin--in a sin-filled, sin-stained world--that we don’t recognize the reality of our own situation. We seem to think “we’re not that bad.” Yet, Paul want us to recognize the reality of our situation. It does us no good to pretend like we’re “pretty good.” In reality, it hinders our worship, it hinders our gratitude, and it hinders our walk with Christ.

I want you to notice something before I begin to walk through this passage with you. This chapter is split into two sections. The first section is Ephesians 2:1-10 and the second Ephesians 2:11-22. Each section has three parts: Guilt (1-3; 11-12), Grace (4-9; 13-18), and Gratitude (10; 19-22).  The Heidelberg Catechism has the same three parts. My sermon is also going to have the same three parts and you’ll see me jumping between both sections as I work through this.

Now, if you had a hard time saying that you have a natural tendency to hate God and neighbor, you most likely had a hard time hearing some of Paul’s words in this chapter. He doesn't pull any punches when talking about the condition of mankind. Here’s how de describes our condition apart from Christ: we were DEAD in our trespasses and sins (2:1), we were following the course of this world (2:2), we were following Satan (the prince of the air who is at work in the sons of disobedience) (2:2), we lived according to the passions of our flesh (2:3), we did whatever our bodies or minds wanted to do (2:3), by nature we were children of wrath (2:3), we were separated from Christ (2:12), we were alienated from God’s people (2:12), we were strangers to God’s promises (2:13), we were without hope (2:13), and we were without God in the world (2:13). Pretty bleak picture isn’t it?

If you are not a believer in Christ this morning, this IS who you are. You are a dead man/woman walking in your sins, enslaved to your desires, under the wrath of God, separated from Christ, strangers from God’s promises and without hope in this world. It does you no good to ignore this reality. It does you no good to pretend like these things are not true about you. Take an honest look at your life and recognize that this is true about you. Take a moment to acknowledge that you have been settling for mud pies in a slum when a holiday at sea is being offered to you.

If you ARE a believer in Christ, you are being transformed from this into a new creation in Christ. However, the process of transformation doesn’t happen with the snap of a finger. It can take a long time. As we are being transformed into Christ’s likeness a battle rages within us between the old man and the new man--between our sinful nature and our redeemed nature. So, some of these tendencies still remain. Although we are in Christ and no longer dead in our sins--we still have a tendency to walk in our sins. Although we are in Christ and our our desires are being transformed--we still have a tendency to desire things we shouldn’t desire. Although we are in Christ and are united with Christ and know his promises and should have hope in this world--we still find ourselves distancing ourselves from Christ, forgetting his promises, and living without hope. Although we have already received a holiday at sea, we still choose to make mud pies in the slum because we are used to it.

BUT GOD... There are some who have said the gospel can be summed up by the phrase “But God...” We see this phrase twice in this chapter, in verses 4 and 13. It comes directly after all of this “bad news.” It comes directly after we begin to fully understand the grim reality of our situation. At the moment when we may begin to feel beat-down, overwhelmed, or dismayed, Paul turns to us and says, “But God...” In the midst of our own misery, in the midst of our own sinfulness, in the midst of our own rebellion, God steps in and acts on our behalf. He raises our eyes above the mud pies and directs our eyes to his glorious work in our lives.

If you are an unbeliever, this is the work God promises to do in your life if you would turn to him in faith. If you are a believer, this is the work that God has already done in your life and continues to do in your life as you look to him in faith. “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. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4–7, NIV). So, here we are dead in our sins and God--the God who is rich in mercy and has a great love for us--makes us alive (brings us from death to life), then raises us with Christ and seats us with Christ in the heavenly realms. He does all of this so that he may continue to pour out the riches of his grace and kindness on us for eternity.

If you look at the second half of this chapter, Paul goes on about what God does. Not only have you been made alive, raised with Christ, and brought into the heavenly realms where God will continue to pour out the riches of his kindness and mercy, BUT GOD will also draw you near to himself so that you are no longer far away (2:13), he will reconcile you to God so that you have a right relationship with him (2:16), he will give you peace (2:14), he will become your peace (2:14), he will draw people from different walks and backgrounds--different personalities, different gifts--together to form ONE people of God--one new humanity (2:14-15), he has given you access to himself through Christ’s sacrifice and by the Holy Spirit (2:18). Isn’t all of this amazing?!?! In all reality, the analogy of a holiday at sea falls very short of the glorious reality which God promises to give us. It is almost impossible to for us to comprehend the riches of God’s grace and mercy poured out on his people. It cannot be compared to anything else on this earth.

Then Paul reminds us of one important reality. “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, NIV). You didn’t earn any of this. You don’t deserve any of this. It is all grace--which is undeserved favor. It is completely a gift of God which was given to you when you looked to Him in faith (which was also a gift from God). You cannot work harder to earn these things from God. You cannot attend church more often to earn these things from God. You cannot do more good deeds in the world to earn these. “...THIS IS NOT FROM YOURSELVES...” It is all grace and all a gift from God. You cannot boast. You can only get on your knees and thank God and praise Him for the work he has done in your life.

The question comes, How then should we live? Now that we know who we once were, now that we know what God has done for us in Christ, what should our lives look like? That’s the final part of these sections--the section I titled “Gratitude.” The Heidelberg Catechism asks the question, “Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works?” it then answers the question by saying, “Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also restoring us by his Spirit into his image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, so that he may be praised through us, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.” (HC Q&A 86). So, we are not saved by good works and we cannot earn our salvation in any way, yet once we are saved from making mud pies in the slum, we WANT to serve our Savior and we WANT to do these good works out of gratitude and love for the one who saved us.

That’s why Paul says in verse 10: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV). Notice what he says in this verse. He says that we were created in Christ Jesus--we were raised to life and made new creations--in order that we would do good works. So, again, we were not saved because of works, but we were saved so that we would do good works. In the second half of this chapter, Paul says that we “...are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,” (Ephesians 2:19, NIV). This is another part of the outworking of God’s grace and salvation in our lives. Now we are joined together with all of the redeemed in Christ. We are all now members of the same kingdom--the kingdom of God. We are brought into the same home and made part of God’s family--along with all of the other redeemed people. We are gathered into a congregation with many different types of people, with many different types of personalities, with many different musical tastes, with many different opinions about how things should be done, and we are made ONE family. God calls us to live as one family as part of the good works that he created us to walk in--the good works prepared in advance for us.

Then Paul changes the metaphor a little and begins to talk about the temple. He says, “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21–22, NIV). Not only have we become citizens of the kingdom of God, and not only have we become members of the same family, we are also being joined together into the temple of the Lord--the place where God manifests his presence more fully. Each member of this congregation is a different stone in God’s temple. Each member plays a different part. As we are joined together, as individual stones in God’s temple, God’s presence is manifested more fully in this place and in the world. Paul also says that we “are being built” into this temple. That means it’s not finished, it’s still a work in progress. We are still being shaped and transformed into a temple in which God lives by his Spirit. Again, this is part of the “good works” in which God has prepared for each of us to walk.

I encourage each of us in the congregation this week to spend some time asking God to open our eyes to the reality of our situation. Pray that God would help us to recognize our own sinful tendencies--our tendency to hate God and our neighbor. Pray that God would help us to see our need for Savior. Then Pray that God would open our eyes to see more clearly his grace and mercy in our lives. That God would lift our eyes from making mud pies in the slum to actually seeing the riches of his grace and mercy. Then, Pray that God would open your eyes to the good works that he has prepared for you to walk in. Ask him to make those clear in you mind that he would lead you in those things. Ask God to continue to draw this congregation together into one family--into the temple of God where he would live by his Spirit. Pray that God would be glorified through our lives and the life of this congregation. Pray that he would be praised because of our lives and the life of this congregation. And Pray that people would be won to Christ because of our lives and the life of this congregation.