Ephesians 2:1-10
We have to remember that when Paul wrote his letters he did not use chapter or verse divisions. These were added later to help us find our way around the Bible. So Paul’s flow of thought continues on from what we have seen at the end of chapter 1. The power available to the church is essentially the same power that lifted Jesus out of a graveyard and placed Him on the throne of the universe. That is some strength, and our first encounter with it occurred when God sovereignly and graciously moved in our lives to bring us to life out of a state of spiritual death. We actually shared Christ’s resurrection, and that is one way of looking at Christian conversion (John 5:24). We ‘’were dead’’ (1, 5) but that is now past tense. God ‘’made us alive with Christ…raised us up with Christ…’’ (5, 6). The ‘’But God’’ at the heart of this passage has been called ‘’a mighty adversative’’. The big change hinges on this. God has graciously and mercifully and lovingly and kindly stepped in to rescue us from our spiritual enemies (4, 5, 7, and 8). Mercy and grace have been defined like this: ‘’God, in His mercy, does not give us what we do deserve; and God, in His grace, gives us what we do not deserve.’’ Everyone who belongs to Christ can truthfully say, ‘I am what I am by the grace of God. I was stone cold dead and deserved to stay dead. But the Lord came to my tomb, just like He turned up at Lazarus’s, and He called me out into life and daylight.’ (You will see how Paul hammers the point that it is God’s ‘’grace’’ that lies behind this miracle.)
So who are these spiritual enemies who hold us in a vice-like grip until Jesus rescues us? They are the world, the flesh (i.e. the sinful nature) and the devil. All three are mentioned in ( 1-3). I heard a story about a robbery that took place involving three people. During the day, one of them managed to secrete himself away inside the target premises. At night, when everyone else had gone home, he just opened the door and let his two accomplices in, and together they made off with the valuables! Sin is an ‘inside job’. The sinful nature, on the inside, opens up the entryway when the devil comes knocking, using the world as bait. We are sinners by nature and practice, and therefore we are spiritually dead in the sense of Ephesians 4: 18: ‘’separated from the life of God’’. Sin brings death. We are born in sin, and what we are by nature we quickly become by choice. So we need to be rescued by God because only He can provide a resurrection, and nothing other than resurrection life will do. So, we can say:
• We have evacuated the grave with Jesus
• We are enthroned with Jesus (6). Just think, if we are in Jesus and sharing His throne, the devil and all demonic powers are beneath our feet too (1:21ff.)
• We are exhibits for Jesus (7), displaying the kindness of God. It’s interesting that the ‘’we are God’s workmanship’’ of (10) literally means God’s ‘masterpieces’; we are His works of art. The painting does not glorify itself. People admire the painting but rightly give all the credit and praise to the artist.
What a remarkable change in our personal situations. When you live under the strong influence of the world, the flesh and the devil, you live a ‘’dead’’ life of sin, and so you are under the ‘’wrath’’ of God (3b). You are destined to face His judgment and condemnation. But what a difference the mercy and grace of God make. When God intervenes, your entire trajectory changes. You no longer ‘follow’ the ‘’ways of this world’’ (2), which are really the ways of the devil and the flesh (2, 3). Rather, you move in a whole new direction which is set for you by God Himself (10).

Prayer: Lord I marvel at your grace in my life. It truly is ‘amazing.’