Text: Ephesians 2:1-7

In the present global fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, we hear moving stories of the great sacrifices made by frontline healthcare workers. They have to cancel their leave and change their holiday plans. They work under very difficult conditions – wearing personal protective gear which is uncomfortable, being overwhelmed with an endless stream of patients to look after, etc. Some of them are so tired that they fell asleep at their post.

They risk their own health and life – According to reports at least nine health workers in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak have died, and thousands of health workers been infected while they were treating the sick and saving lives. These are the heroes of our present war against a highly infectious disease. They deserve all the honour and gratitude that can be given to them especially by their patients who have fully recovered through their care.

But let all of us realize that we owe an even greater debt of gratitude and honour to God for going through greater lengths than anyone else to save us. Although God is holy and cannot tolerate any sin, He saved us from sin and from eternal damnation. He did everything that was necessary to rescue us from our greatest distress, even to the extent of dying on the cross to bear the awful judgment that we all deserved for our sins. This should move us deeply to tears. What have we done to deserve such great mercy and grace from God? Why should He love us so? This is what we shall consider as we study the passage in Ephesians chapter 2 this morning.

You may recall that in our first sermon on Ephesians we had seen that the book can be outlined using the six letters of the name EFESUS. The first letter stands for Eternal plan of God for us and all Creation. This summarises all that we have learnt from the first chapter. And it made us realise that salvation is God’s work, exalting all three persons of the Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the next three sermons we will be studying Ephesians chapter 2, which is about the Favour of God upon undeserving sinners. The purpose of this chapter is to make us all marvel with gratitude and joy at the tremendous favour that God has shown to us.

Perhaps many of us can still remember the wonderful peace and joy we had at the time when we heard the Gospel and turned to Christ for salvation. What we are about to learn from this chapter reminds us about how we were saved. In fact, you will notice that the outline of this sermon is like a story in three parts – Before we were saved, we were dead in sins (vv.1-3). Then as we hear the Gospel and respond to it, we are made alive in Christ (vv.4-7). Since then, our life is being changed and eventually we shall glorify God in eternity (v.7). So let us trace the story of our salvation from the time when…

1. We Were Dead in Sins (vv.1-3)

In the first three verses the apostle paints a very dark but accurate picture of the unsaved state we were in. Firstly, according to v.2, we “walked [or lived] according to the course of this world.” This is the sinful course that the world has been taking ever since the Fall of man. Genesis 6:5 records, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The entire populated world was grossly infected with sin.

Soon after this, the world was washed or disinfected with a Great worldwide Flood, and the human race was then given a fresh new start with Noah’s family. But not long after that, as the world was repopulated, it went straight back into the same sinful course it had before. This was the sad observation made by the prophet Jeremiah, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) This is still true of the entire world that we live in today. It is dominated by ungodliness, selfish ambition, pride, materialism and sinful pleasures and perversions. Before we were saved, we were conformed to the world and its values. We were just going along with its trends blindly.

But that’s not all of the picture of our unsaved state. Besides walking according to the course of this world, we were also walking “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” This means that we were living under Satan’s dominion though we didn’t even know it. Satan is the chief enemy of God. He continually opposes God. And he uses every means to turn everyone against God. Hence all who are under his power are called ‘children of disobedience.’ This means that their lives are characterized by disobedience and rebellion. And that’s what we all were, in our unsaved state – disobedient and rebellious people.

It is already bad enough that we were living according to the course of this world, and according to the prince of the power of the air. But now to make things much worse, there was a powerful force within us that attracted us to them like a strong magnet. According to verse 3 we lived to satisfy the lusts and desires of the flesh – “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.”

Here we must be careful not confuse the desires of the flesh with the natural appetites of the body. God made our body with a natural appetite for food when we need to eat, a natural thirst for water when we need to drink, and a natural desire for sleep when we need to rest. Even animals have natural appetites that enable them to meet their own physical needs. It is only when these appetites become horribly distorted by sin to crave for more than what the body should have, or even to crave for things that are morally depraved or harmful to the body, that they become the lusts of the flesh.

Thus we have seen that in our former unsaved state, we lived under the powerful influence of the world, under the Devil’s domination, and controlled by the lusts of the flesh. What an awful picture this is, of our sinful state before we were saved! It is a very dark picture indeed of sinful depravity. And it placed us in a very terrible position – we rightly deserved the wrath of God! God’s wrath was just like a huge storm cloud hovering over us, ready to break forth in furious judgment upon us!

And so at the end of verse 3, Paul says that we “were by nature the children of wrath.” The words ‘by nature’ here are very significant. It means that this is something which we have inherited from our ancestors. And so even before we were born, sin was already part of our nature. As King David testified in Psalm 51:5, “Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

This sinful nature does not make us robots with no will to choose. Everyone is still free to choose. Thus we all make our own choices through life. But since our will was dominated by our sinful nature, we were unable to choose spiritual good over evil. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 3:10-12, “there is none righteous, no not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one.”

It is true however that many unsaved people, when judged by human standards, do possess remarkable qualities. Many of them perform virtuous selfless acts. There are many heart-warming accounts of human kindness, heroism and voluntary self-sacrifice especially during the present coronavirus outbreak. But in the spiritual realm, when judged by God's standards, every person who is unsaved is incapable of doing good. Why is this so? It is because his spirit, which is the most vital part of his personality, is dead to God! Every person, including you and me, is born in sin and spiritually dead by nature (v.1,5). That accurately sums up the state of our souls before we were saved: We were all spiritually dead. And that makes us completely incapable of doing what we ought to do!

You may ask: How can I be held accountable for something that I am not able to do? The answer is this: Our accountability comes from knowing what we ought to do. When we know what we ought to do and we don’t do it, we are accountable for refusing to do it. The lack of capability has no bearing on our accountability. This means that we were all in a terrible dilemma before we were saved: As sinners we stood condemned by our own sins, which we knew are wrong in God’s sight through our own conscience and through God's Laws. And yet we were unable to turn away from our sins and do what we ought to do, because we were spiritually dead.

Thus we have seen how awful our situation was when we were dead in sin, disobedient, depraved and doomed to be destroyed by the wrath of a Holy God. How can we dead children of wrath ever be saved from this awful situation? Well thankfully, when everything seemed totally hopeless for us, God Himself came to our rescue. This good news begins in v.4 with the words, “But God…” These two wonderful words mark the turning point in our passage, and they are like music to our ears: “But God…” These words bring us now to the most thrilling part of the story of our salvation. The part where…

2. We Are Made Alive in Christ (vv.4-6)

Verses 4-5 reads: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)…”

Here, we are told that God has quickened us! This means that He has made us alive. Before salvation, we were not merely morally degraded or diseased. We were dead – spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We all know that dead bodies have absolutely no ability to hear or respond. You may shout at it, scream at it, pinch it, shake it and still not get the slightest response from it. Likewise, those who are spiritually dead are not able to respond to the Gospel at all, even though there may be nothing wrong with their sense of hearing. The Gospel of salvation will have no effect on their lives, and they will often find it quite meaningless and difficult to understand.

And those who are spiritually dead cannot do anything to change their state. No amount of efforts to reform themselves can help. In order to respond to the Gospel they must first be made alive by a source outside of themselves. This is what the word ‘quicken’ in our passage means. God made us spiritually alive. Then (and only then) were we able to respond to the Gospel when we heard it. This work of making alive is God’s unseen work in our hearts. It is also called ‘being born again’ (John 3:3) or regeneration.

From all this, it very plain to see that we actually contributed nothing to our salvation. If we had to play a part, even the smallest part, in our salvation, then we would be able to boast that we were at least willing to contribute that very small and yet decisive part to our salvation. Charles Spurgeon put it very well, when he said, “If there be one stitch in the celestial garment of my righteousness, which I am to insert myself, then I am lost.” Do you know that even the faith that we had in order to believe in Christ, was entirely given to us by God? Jesus Himself said: “No man can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44) Jesus reiterated this in v.65, “Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father.”

If God the Father had not drawn us to Christ, and caused us to believe in Him, none of us would have been saved at all! Thus, although at the moment of salvation, we seemed to have contributed something to our salvation – whether it is faith or a willingness to turn to Christ – in the final analysis, salvation is 100% God’s work and initiative, and 0% ours. We notice in verse 6 how God is the One who initiates everything: God is the One who raised us up together with Christ. God is also the One who made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

What does all this mean? It means that salvation is of the Lord! When I became a Christian a long time ago, I was totally ignorant of all this. I thought that the only thing God does in salvation is to make salvation possible through Christ’s death, and available to all who would want to have it. I thought that ultimately it was still up to me to decide whether or not I would be saved by turning to Christ. I possess a free will, and my eternal destiny depends entirely on how I use it.

But as I began to study the Bible seriously I came across many scripture passages like this. That was when I realized that my salvation was completely up to God alone. It was entirely by His sovereign grace and mercy that I was made alive and drawn to Christ for salvation from sin. And when I realized this, tears came to my eyes, and I bowed down to thank God for being so gracious to me. If not for His undeserved grace, I would never be able to respond to the Gospel at all. This truth that salvation is completely of the Lord humbled me right down to the dust, and I could only say, “Lord, who am I, or what am I that You should save me? Why did You choose me when I am really no better than any other sinner on earth?”

The answer is given right here in the words of v.4 – “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.” What brings out the full extent of God’s love here is the fact that He loved us when we were still dead in trespasses and sins. Why should He love us at all when we were totally incapable of loving Him or doing anything worthy of His love? And why should He love us enough to make us alive with Christ, to raise us up with Christ, and make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ?

Has this world ever known any love that is greater than this? Such great love, such rich mercy when it is fully known and revealed in all its magnificent glory, should melt our hearts and make realise how much we owe to God. We should never cease to be amazed at how greatly indebted we are to God now, for all the things He has done for us out of His great love for us!

In order to understand how spectacular God’s mercy and love really is, let us consider how difficult it is to restore something that is completely broken. When a porcelain bowl is completely broken, it becomes useless. Isn’t it so much easier to throw it away, and then make or buy a brand new one? We can draw an analogy from kintsugi which is the Japanese art of restoring broken bowls with gold. Every kintsugi product is unique, because each bowl breaks in different ways. The product is even more valuable than the original unbroken bowl. Why? Because it has been mended with pure gold.

In the same way, we who are saved and raised with Christ have become so much more valuable than before. Why? Because we are mended not with gold, but with the blood of Christ. And that is so much more precious than gold! Sin had made us useless. But now the Son has made us priceless! Can you see now what great love and mercy God has shown to us? Surely we must never cease to praise and thank God for this great work that He has done in our salvation!

Perhaps there may be someone here in whom God is working at this very moment. Perhaps you have come to realise through the preaching of God’s Word today that you deserve God’s awful wrath because of your sins. But you have also realized that God loves sinners like you so much that He went through the greatest lengths to rescue you from your helpless situation. If your heart is now responding to all this, then listen carefully: the Word of God says that He will save you when you trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. What does it mean to believe in Christ?

First, you must accept everything that the Bible says about Christ and about yourself as true – that He is the Son of God who came down from heaven to be made a sacrifice for sin, and that you are a sinner who deserves nothing but the wrath of God.

Then, you need to confess to Him personally that you are a sinner in need of His salvation. Put your trust in the completed work of Jesus Christ alone, and stop trusting in your own good works to save you.

And third, to trust in Christ is also to commit your life to Him once and for all, with no thought of turning back. Let Him be your Lord and master from now on. And as you trust in Christ now for salvation, He will assure you that you are His. He will give you the assurance that you have been quickened together with Christ, raised up together with Him, and you now have the privilege to sit together with Christ in heavenly places!

If your life has been broken by sin, and there is no hope left for you, please take heart. No life is ever too broken to be rescued and restored by God. The lives of some people have been ruined to such a great extent that even their own families and friends had given up on them and rejected them. But where all human efforts have failed, God has worked wonderfully to deliver them and transform their lives! Today there are many ex-offenders, drug addicts, and even convicts on death row who have testified of God’s work in rescuing them and restoring their lives. All of them will eventually be displayed together with us as fine trophies of God’s amazing love. This brings us now to the grand climax of the story of salvation…

3. We Shall Glorify God in Eternity (v.7)

Look at verse 7 – “That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” This grand show of God’s grace will take place after God has gathered together in one all things in Christ, as Paul had mentioned in chapter 1. The phrase “in the ages to come” indicates that this will go on indefinitely into eternity. We will be permanently displayed to all the angels in heaven and all creation as the greatest trophies of God’s amazing love. Through His kindness to us, God will reveal exactly how exceedingly rich His grace is!

This will then provide us as well as all the angels in heaven endless grounds to offer praise to God forever and ever. This is so well-expressed in the last stanza of John Newton’s famous hymn: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we’ve first begun.”

Then at last, we will all finally fulfill the chief end of man, which is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Just listen to John’s description of the heavenly praise that he had a glimpse of in Revelation 5:11-13 – “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”

So our salvation will ultimately glorify God for His love and grace. This morning we have seen the story of our salvation from beginning to end in Ephesians 2:1-7. Here is the summary of this amazing story: We were dead in sins (vv.1-3); we are made alive in Christ (vv.4-6) and we shall glorify God in eternity (v.7). This is a story of hope and love. It begins with the deepest darkness of sinners, and it ends with the brightest light of saints. It is far better than all the ‘rags-to-riches’ stories you may have heard before, because it magnifies the amazing grace of God for us unworthy sinners.

I think that you will agree with me that this is truly the greatest story ever told. And since we who are saved by Christ are the blessed objects of this story, we must never grow tired of hearing it. We must now see everything in life in relation to this story, so that we may live our lives meaningfully in deep gratitude and praise to God. And let us tell this great story boldly and widely so that all the world may know it, and many more people may come to experience its great impact on their lives.

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