Recap and Background

It is good to have you back as we continue looking through the book of Ephesians. We are now in the third episode, and in chapter 2. I hope many of you will have heard the earlier episodes, which give an amazing account of Paul’s understanding of the Christian life, the power of salvation, the wonderful initiative of God, the great purposes God has for the church, and the incredible power that is given to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit living within us, which Paul said in the last episode, was like the power that God exercised when he raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Ephesians 1 is a wonderful chapter - very popular with Christians Preachers who want to encourage their congregations will often use parts of Ephesians 1 to help them and to increase their faith.

Ephesians 2:1 - 10 is one of the most important passages in the whole New Testament, because here Paul explains the gospel in a few verses more clearly than almost anywhere else in his writing. In fact, there are two places in Paul’s letters where he explains the gospel very clearly in a few short verses. The other one is in Romans 3: 21 - 26. You might want to turn to that passage and have a look at it as a parallel passage to the one that we are talking about now in Ephesians 2. Paul is focusing on the power of atonement and the way that Christ’s death sets us free from the power of sin. I have given a detailed study on that in our Collection in Word Online on Romans.

Many of you will be familiar with the passage here in Ephesians, but if you are not familiar with it, can I encourage you to study this passage? If you have not realized the significance of this passage, can I encourage you to memorize it or to study it, or to think about it carefully? Here is a great way that Paul explains the heart of the Christian message in detail. We will find some remarkable truths in it that are very important for our understanding of the Christian gospel.

Death is Separation

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, pacifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest we were by nature deserving of wrath.”

Ephesians 2:1-3, NIV

The key to understand this passage is to work out what Paul means by being ‘dead in transgressions and sins’. He is using the concept of death in a very important way. When we think of death, we think of physical death meaning the end of something; when somebody dies, in one sense, that is the end of their life on earth. When your animal dies, that is the end of their life. But Paul is using the concept of death here in a different way. The main thing he is saying, when he uses the expression ‘dead in your transgressions and sins’ is separation, not termination. Let me explain this.

Physical death Is actually a separation. The soul and the body separate at physical death. It was never God’s intention that should ever happen. He wanted human beings to live permanently in a sinless way in the Garden of Eden, without ever experiencing what we would call physical death. So even physical death is mainly about separation. The body goes into the ground, the soul, if you are a believer, goes into heaven; you enter heaven. If you are an unbeliever, the soul enters into the place of preparation for judgement. On the day when Christ returns, for believers their bodies will be raised, and their soul and body will be reunited. The separation is temporary because the physical body is raised. Paul is talking here not primarily about physical death, but about spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God pronounced a judgment - that in the day of their sin, they would die, but they didn’t die physically. What happened when Adam and Eve sinned? They were expelled from the garden and separated from the presence of God in the garden. There was a spiritual separation. Paul is saying

unbelievers are separated from God. They are not connected to the Creator. We see the same thing happen in the parable of the prodigal son. This is a very powerful story, which I am going to use in this episode to illustrate some of the points that Paul is making. You can study the story in Luke 15 in the Life of Jesus Collection in Word Online in more detail. The father had a farm and two sons. One son wanted to take his inheritance early. He was given money rather than land, and he went off. It says in the story that he went to a distant country; he left the country of Israel and went far, far away. Then he got into difficulties and eventually came back. That story is a story about separation. He chose to go into a different place. Adam and Eve’s story is a story about separation; they chose to sin, and God separated from them and in order to prevent them ever coming back, he placed angels around the Garden of Eden to prevent them from ever coming back.

Sin is separation from God and that, Paul says, is like death. In fact, we could describe it as spiritual death. In the book of Revelation, we find this idea developed further when the book of Revelation talks about the second death. The second death is separation from God - not just in this life, but in eternity. Unbelievers will be separated from God permanently in eternity. In all these cases, the concept of death is about separation. Paul speaking to the Ephesians says, ‘Before the gospel came to you, you were dead in your sins.’ In other words, you were separated from God. You were following the ways of the world, just like the prodigal son did when he walked out on his father and went to live a life of self-indulgence, luxury and pleasure as best he could.

Demonic Forces

Paul also goes on to say in these verses that unbelievers, like the Ephesians before they believed in Christ, are not only under the power of their own selfishness and sin, but they are also under the power of demonic forces. This is a very strong statement. “The ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient”. This is a reference to Satan and demonic forces who are operating against the gospel. He calls him the “ruler of the kingdom of the air”. This is a strange expression, but we find that the New Testament explains to us that we live on the earth, God lives in the highest heaven, and in between the highest heaven and the earth, is a spiritual realm where at this time Satan can operate with senior demonic powers influencing the earth and sending smaller demons to operate on the earth. That is the spiritual framework within which Paul is thinking, and within which the Church is operating in this life. Those evil powers deceive people who are unbelievers. They are deceived by their own sin, but spiritual forces come and reinforce that deception to prevent people believing the gospel. Paul says, the Ephesians were like that before God came to save them.

The implication of living outside the gospel and outside faith in Christ is that we are deserving wrath, meaning God’s final judgment. We see this in verse 3. Paul is explaining the gospel. First of all, by making clear what the situation of unbelievers actually is and it’s worse than we like to think. ‘Being dead in your sins and transgression’ is a terrible situation to be in, and you are under the power of evil spirits operating. They don’t often have to do very much if you are determined to follow that path, but they are there to reinforce your decisions, and you are subject to God’s judgment unless you reach out to Christ for salvation. There might be people listening to this episode who are not sure of their faith. This is the moment to decide to believe in Christ. Listen to the rest of this episode and see the incredibly good news that Paul has to share.

The Good News

“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. 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 2:4-9, NIV

Wow, this is amazing, isn’t it? In these two passages, we have terribly bad news followed by incredibly good news. That is the nature of the Christian gospel. You need both to understand it. We need to realize that people outside Christ are in a terrible position. They are dead in their sins, facing eternal judgment, greatly in need of help, and deceived. Yet we also need to realize that the gospel transforms everything. It doesn’t just improve our lives slightly and make us feel better about ourselves or give us more money through faith. The gospel transforms our lives at a fundamental level. In verse 4 we see the reason for this - God’s love. God’s love and his mercy have reached down to the desperate state that humanity is in, through the person of Jesus Christ. Paul found this a captivating and wonderful thought. He had preached about the love of God for 25 years before this time, as he travelled around the Eastern Mediterranean planting churches. He risked his life on many occasions to help people understand the incredible love of God who sent Jesus Christ to rescue us.

A picture to help describe this: Imagine you have fallen into a fast-flowing river. It is so powerful that you can’t fight against the current of the river sweeping you down. It is so powerful that you are not a strong enough swimmer to swim to the side and reach out for the side of the river. You begin to swallow water; you are losing strength, and your life is in danger. That is how serious the human condition can be described. Then imagine that you see on one of the banks, a man just in front of you. He calls out to you, and he says, ‘I have come to rescue you. I can rescue you, and you don’t need to drown.’ He throws a rope into the river. At the end of the rope is a big stick tied on firmly. He is good at throwing, so he throws the stick so that it is very close to where you are in the water. He says, ‘Reach out with both hands and hold on to the stick, and then I can pull you to the shore.’ You have a choice, then. Are you going to trust this man, or are you going to try to swim and get to the side yourself? That is basically the situation of people when the gospel comes. Jesus is reaching down to us. He is making an effort through love and mercy to reach our difficult situation. He is, as it were, running along the side of the river. He sees us in trouble and throws in the rope to help us. He is quite strong enough to pull us to the shore, but we need to grasp hold of it. We have to trust him. We must use our strength to follow Christ. We are in a desperate situation. If we don’t take hold of this opportunity, then almost certainly we will drown in the fast-flowing, deep and wide river. The gospel can be explained in these dramatic ways. The need is so urgent, and the power of the gospel is so great that people’s lives can be completely changed by trusting.

Grace Through Faith

What are we saved through? “It is by grace you have been saved.” By grace, through faith. This is the heart of the Christian gospel. Grace means God giving us an opportunity that we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve what he does for us. We are sinners, under the power of sin. We have entered into a very selfish way of living - living for ourselves. Yet he reaches out to us. Mercy, grace and love are all mixed together as the gospel comes to us. But what we need to do is to exercise faith. We must decide. We have to take hold of that piece of wood at the end of the rope that is being offered to us and hold on tight until we get to the shore, and then receive all the help we need to recover from being in the river and being in a very dangerous situation. Paul talks here about ‘saving faith’. Verse 8, “It’s not from yourselves. It is a gift of God”. God is giving you a gift. All you need to do is to exercise faith. Faith means whole-hearted trust; completely trusting God for salvation.

Let us go back to the parable of the prodigal son that we mentioned earlier on. We talked about the separation between the father and his son. The son is in a distant country. He has no intention of ever coming home. He is going to have his own life. He went to another country and had all his own relationships, all his own fun, and made his money. In the story in Luke 15, things go wrong for the prodigal son in the distant country. One day he woke up and thought, ‘I have got to go back to my father.’ This is an incredible moment. This is the waking up to the seriousness of the situation. The gospel calls people to wake up to the seriousness of the situation of being outside of Christ. He woke up. He decided to come back. He thought of a speech that he would make to his father, saying he wasn’t worthy to come back as his son. He was happy to work as a servant and live in the servants quarters on the farm. He just wanted to come back. The father reached out to him and the prodigal son exercised faith. ‘Saving faith’ is actually doing something specific to get right with God. What the son had to do, was to walk a long journey back and to trust that his father would be kind and merciful, even though he was a rebel and had abused all the things that he had been given.

Paul is talking about saving faith in the same way. We need to trust God wholeheartedly; trust the gospel wholeheartedly. This passage carries all the key truths that you need. If you compare it to Romans 3: 21-26 and you put them together, you have got all the key elements of the gospel. All you need to do is to wholeheartedly trust in God, and salvation comes to you. You are saved through faith. It is not of yourselves. It is not your achievement; faith is not an achievement. God isn’t taking into consideration all the good things that you have done when he saves you. He is dealing with all the bad things in your life, and he is offering you salvation free - not based on anything good in yourself, but based entirely on the power of Christ’s death for you. This is the amazing story of the gospel.

God’s Plan for Your Life

The passage comes to a conclusion in the final verse, Ephesians 2: 10. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” This is speaking to those who are believers. You become a believer without doing anything good. You don’t deserve anything. You receive God’s grace and his mercy and his forgiveness. But when you have become a believer, then God has a plan for your life. He has got things he wants you to do for him, and those things in your life will be different from those things in my life. Those things for you will be different from other people in your family, and your other friends in the church. There is an individual path for you of good works that you should be doing. Paul says, our job, once we have been saved, is to offer ourselves to God. What do you want me to do with my life, God? How can I be most productive? I believe that at different phases in your life, he will make it clear what the priorities are. They may be very straightforward, practical priorities about earning money for your family, living a responsible life, serving in the church in ways that you have opportunity to do, witnessing for Christ. But there may be some more specific things that he calls you to do as an individual - things you sense deep down that are your contribution to the Kingdom of God. These may vary at different stages in your life.

Reflections

Firstly, we need to learn the seriousness of being separated from God. It is not a small matter; it is a matter of life and death.

Secondly, we need to really be clear about the wonderful good news of the gospel. It is amazing news.

Thirdly, thinking about verse 10, let me ask you these questions; ‘What is God’s plan for your life right now, in the circumstances that you are in today, this week, this month, this year, this season of your life? Do you know what those purposes are? Do you sense what God wants you to do? If you are unclear about that, can I encourage you to pray and to seek advice from other Christians? What should I be doing with my life? What is pleasing to God for me?’ God has prepared in advance ‘good works for you to do’. Many of those good works will be serving in local church ministries. This is one of the most productive things that a Christian can do with his or her time. I want to invite you to ask that question as well. How can I serve my local church? What are the things that God wants me to do to build up the church community at this time?

The final thing to say is one of the good works that he has called us to do is to share our faith. Who is it that he wants you to share your faith with, in the coming days?

Thank you for listening and do join us again for the next episode as we go into the rest of Ephesians chapter 2.