We turn again this morning to
Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2. As we continue
our studies in the first half of this chapter, the first of
the two great contrasts contained within the chapter. As I have reminded you week by
week, verses 1 to 10 are a contrast between what the Ephesians were
before and after the coming of the grace of God, particularly
viewing them as individuals, whereas the verses 11 through
22 are a contrast of their condition before and after the coming of
the grace of God, not so much as individuals, but with reference
to their relationship to the visible people of God. Follow,
please, as I read Ephesians chapter 2, 1 to 10. And you did he make
alive when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein
ye once walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prints of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now
worketh in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also all once lived
in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the
rest. But God, being rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ,
by grace had He been saved, and raised us up with Him, and made
us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace
have ye been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should glory. For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God aforeprepared, that we should walk in them." If you were to ask the average
man in the street the simple question, what is a Christian? Or rephrase it and ask him, what
constitutes a man a Christian, or change it to this, what must
be true of a person in order rightly to call him a Christian,
you would be amazed at the discrepancies in the answers given. Perhaps
no major matter of concern has more misconception surrounding
it than this issue, what constitutes a man a Christian. And just as
there are few issues concerning which there is greater confusion,
there are few portions of the Word of God which speak to that
issue with greater clarity than does Ephesians 2, 1-10. What does it mean to be a Christian
in the fullest, most biblical sense of that word? Ephesians
2, 1-10 is one of the most clear, comprehensive statements of the
answer of Holy Scripture. The Apostle Paul is concerned
that the believers be established in sound doctrine, as he intimates
in chapter 4. In fact, he says, the end for
which apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers have been
given to the Church is that the people of God may no longer be
tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. And what doctrine
is more fundamental to the stability of the people of God than the
doctrine of salvation? What does it mean to be saved? For that's the biblical word
that is used here. Twice we have it, by grace ye
have been saved. This is a portion which tells
us what it means to be saved. And the Apostle lays out this
great doctrine by means of this striking contrast. Verses 1 to
3 have been a delineation of the condition of men by nature. And all of us, without exception,
are dead because of trespasses and sin. We are in a state of
spiritual bondage. The Apostle uses the words, doing
the things willed by the flesh and by the mind. We are in bondage
to Satan. We walk according to the prints
of the powers of the air. And so he describes us as spiritually
dead. No spark of divine life in us. Spiritually bound. And he closes
with that somber note that we exist under a canopy of divine
disfavor. We are by nature children of
wrath. And until we come to some appreciation
of what man is by nature, we will not appreciate what it means
for him to become a child of God by grace. And most of the
misconceptions with relationship to that question, what is a Christian,
are rooted in misconceptions of a previous question, namely,
what is a sinner? And until we understand the Bible's
answer to the former question, what is a sinner, we will never
understand its answer to the latter question, what is a Christian?
And so the apostle cannot establish the Ephesians in the Bible doctrine
of salvation, unless he first of all establishes them in the
Bible doctrine of sin. And therefore he begins with
this before picture. ye were dead, ye were in bondage,
ye were under wrath, and then and only then does he open up
in verses 4 to 10 this amazing description of what a man or
woman is who is touched by the grace of God. Thus far in our
study of the after picture, verses 4 to 10, we have seen but two
things. Who is the author of this great
transformation? The Apostle at the outset points
our attention to God and to God alone. But God, and whatever
transformation occurs, it must be viewed as a manifestation
of the mighty direct influence of the living God. The second
question to which he addresses himself is this, why did God
effect this transformation? In other words, what motives
moved him to intervene on behalf of sinners? And as we saw in
our study last week, the two words that confront us are mercy
and love. but not naked mercy or naked
love. It is rich mercy and it is great
love. And so two questions have been
asked and answered as we think our way through the passage.
Who is the author of this transformation? God. Why does he affect the transformation? Because of his great mercy, or
his great love, and his rich mercy. Now we come to a third
question that is answered in the passage, and that question
is this. What is the method God uses in
bringing about this transformation? God is the author, but God. His motive? Mercy and love. rich in mercy on account of his
great love wherewith he loved us, but what is the method that
he uses in making this transformation? How does he work in transforming
dead sinners into living saints? Having asked and answered the
question, who makes the change? Why did he do it? We are now
in the orbit of this concern, how does God make this change. And before we descend to the
particulars, and that will bring us into the concern that Mr.
Rogers will touch on tonight, the doctrine of union with Christ,
which is obviously set before us in verses 5 and following,
made us alive together with Christ. raised us up with Christ, seated
us with Christ, created us anew in Christ, and we'll enter into
some of the most profound concepts to be found anywhere in the Word
of God. But before we begin a detailed
exposition of these things that the Apostle teaches us, What
I want us to do is to stand, as it were, back at a distance
and go through the passage and catch the major strands of emphasis
in answer to the question, how does God transform dead sinners
into living saints? In other words, we're going to
look at the woods before we examine the individual trees so that
we won't failed to see the woods once we get amidst the trees,
for you've heard the proverbial statement, he couldn't see the
woods for the trees. Well, we don't want that to happen
to us. And there are three lines of
thought that I suggest to you this morning, because three are
forced upon us by the passage, and the first is this. In answer
to the question, how does God transform dead sinners into living
saints, the first thing that strikes us in this passage is
this. Jesus Christ is central in that
work of transformation. Jesus Christ is central in the
work of transformation. In the first three verses, there
is no mention of Christ. It is a picture of what we are
when we are without Christ and without God. Verse 4 introduces
us to the divine activity, but God. Divine activity rooted in
His mercy and His love. But then from verse 5 to the
end of the paragraph, verse 10, there are no fewer than four
explicit references to Jesus Christ. Look at them. Verse 5.
even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ. Verse 6, made us sit in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Verse 7, the riches of His grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Verse 10, for we are His
workmanship created in Christ Jesus. There is one reference
to Christ, three references to Christ Jesus. What is He telling
us? He is telling us and the Ephesians,
or the Ephesians and us, that whenever we think of the after
picture, when we move from the before of verses 1 to 3 to the
after of verses 4 to 10, When we consider the question, how
are dead sinners, bound sinners, condemned sinners made living
saints, liberated saints, forgiving saints? We are not thinking biblically
unless Jesus Christ is central in all of our conceptions concerning
that work of transformation. It is not the Church which is
central in the transformation. Most frequently the Church has
a part, for the Gospel is spread by means of the Church in its
evangelistic and missionary enterprises. But the Church is not to be central
in the transforming work. nor are the sacraments central. Some can never think of the transformation
of grace apart from having baptism and the Lord's Supper central. Others would have the sinner's
activity central. His activity in decision, His
activity in commitment, or some other term which describes human
activity. Others would have the minister's
activity central. Now, dear people, none of these
things is central. As the apostle contemplates the
transformation that occurred in the Ephesians, as he conjures
in his own mind the before and the after pictures, he thinks
of that transformation as focusing in the person and work of Jesus
Christ our Lord. But notice, it is not just Jesus,
nor just Christ, but the Apostle is careful to focus our attention
upon Jesus, who is the Christ, as the central figure in the
work of transformation. That title is full of significance
for the Apostle Paul, and it must be full of significance
for us if our faith is biblical Christian faith. When Paul says,
Jesus, what does he mean? He means nothing less than that
historic personage who confronts us in the pages of the New Testament.
He means nothing less or no one other than the Jesus who was
supernaturally conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, at which
time the name Jesus was conferred upon Him, Matthew 1.21. The virgin
shall conceive, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus." He is thinking of no other person than the Jesus
of Nazareth, who in true humanity manifested himself as a man amongst
men. but who claimed to be equal with
God, who claimed that those who had seen Him had seen the Father,
who claimed that no one could know the Father save the Son,
no one could know the Son save the Father, who made explicit
claims to His own deity, who made explicit claims to the fact
that all that He did and said was in fulfillment of the Father's
will and purpose, which had its roots in eternity. When Paul
says, central to this transformation is Jesus Christ. He's identifying
that figure as Jesus of Nazareth in the reality of his essential
deity, in the reality of his true humanity, in all that the
gospel records tell us about him, in the miracles he performed,
in the death that he died, in the resurrection that was his,
and in his ascension to the right hand of God the Father. Oh, you
say you're reading an awful lot into the passage. No, I'm not.
For all you need do is turn to passages such as Colossians 1,
1 Corinthians chapter 15, Philippians chapter 2, and in these passages
the Apostle Paul insists upon every aspect that I've enunciated
for you this morning. And whenever the Apostle said,
Jesus, that's what he was thinking, nothing less than that. Central
then in this transformation is the activity of Jesus of Nazareth,
the true, the only, the unique God-man, the historic figure
who is presented in the Gospels. But he does not call him simply
Jesus. He does not initiate some kind of a Jesus cult. He says
he is the Christ. He uses the term Christ once
and Jesus Christ three times. Now again. The term Christ for
the Apostle was not a barren, verbal symbol, simply another
name, such as we may have, a first name, a middle name, and a last
name, and it's just a help to identify us. There may be a lot
of people with our last name, quite a few with our first, so
if we stick in a middle name, that narrows the mathematical
chances that we'll get mixed up with someone else. Well, when
Paul said, Jesus Christ, he was not adding Christ. simply as
sort of verbal filler. No, no. To him, the term Christ
was pregnant with rich connotations. Christ, as you often have been
told from this pulpit, is the Greek word for the Old Testament
Hebrew word Messiah, the Anointed One of God. that One who fulfilled
every Old Testament prophecy as to His identity. Unto us a
Son is given, unto us a Child is born, and His name shall be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, or Father
of Eternity, the One prophesied in Micah 5, 2, whose goings forth
have been from of old, even from everlasting. the one who would
gather into himself all that was typified in the priestly
functions of the Old Testament. He would be God's anointed and
final priest to offer an acceptable sacrifice on behalf of his people
and to intercede on their behalf. the One in whom all the types
and shadows of the kingly rule of Israel would find its full
expression. This King who would sit upon
David's throne, this One anointed by the Father, this One who would
fulfill all that was signified in the prophetic ministry, the
Prophet that Moses spoke about, whom the Lord would raise up
like unto Him, The Word Christ brings into it, and this is not
stretching it, beating it thin at the edges. You do not understand
the Word unless you learn to think self-consciously. Christ
means nothing less than the Anointed One, the Anointed Prophet who
is God's final Word to man, Hebrews 1. the anointed priest who is
God's final priest, the book of Hebrews, the anointed king
all throughout the teaching in the book of Acts, that God has
exalted him and the sure mercies of David are fulfilled in him. The word Christ then brings together
all of the richness of the messianic concepts of the Old Testament
fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, and the Apostle says, You Ephesians,
when you think of the transformation from your state of death, when
you think of the transformation from your condition of bondage,
when you think of your transformation from a position of wrath, you
must think, as the answer to the question comes before you,
how did God bring about the transformation? It centers in this personage,
Jesus, who is the Christ. By application, let me say to
you, my dear people, don't be deceived. There are life-changing
experiences to be had outside the orbit of biblical Christianity,
and they may or may not have the name of Jesus in them. There are young men whose lives
have been utterly transformed simply because they fell Here's
a young man, shiftless, irresponsible, never holds a job for longer
than three weeks, makes enough money to just go off on his next
pleasure trip. Totally irresponsible, shiftless. What happens? His affections
are set upon a young woman. Whether it's just the motion
of his hormones or something more than that, we'll not go
into what so-called falling in love is. But nonetheless, it
happens to him, whatever we want to call it. And he begins to
show an interest and talk about marriage. And she says, not on
your life. I'm not going to be married to
some lazy, good-for-nothing guy that can't hold down a job. You
want me, you get a job and hold it. You know what happens? He
gets a job. And he does hold it. His whole
lifestyle is radically transformed from a purposeless, shiftless,
irresponsible young kid. Almost overnight, he becomes
a responsible purposeful young man. He's had a life-transforming
experience, but it had nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Many
a young man has been transformed because he fell in love. That's
right. Other people have been transformed
because they saw something that deeply moved them. Albert Schweitzer,
for instance, from a man who could have made millions in the
fields of music and philosophy, or thousands anyway, He turned
his back upon that lie because he saw human need and responded
to it and had nothing to do with Jesus Christ of Holy Scripture.
He wrote a book in quest for the historical Jesus. He didn't
know who he was. Nothing to do with what Paul
is saying, but it transformed his life. Transformed. There are people
that are transformed when they get hold of a religious idea.
I've met people who've never been the same. since they came
in contact with Christian science and Mary Baker Eddy's thoughts
and writings. Transformed! I mean, it's transformed
them! They've had a thorough conversion!
It's had nothing to do with biblical Christianity. Now follow, listen
carefully. There can even be something of
the name of Jesus, something of the name of Christ, something
of the Bible. and apparently a transformation
of life that may be as far removed from what Paul is talking about
in Ephesians chapter 2 as night and day. Listen, here's the acid
test to which you put your own so-called experience of transformation. This is the acid test that you
apply to all teaching and preaching that says it is setting forth
the provisions of God for the transformation of dead sinners
into living saints. Here is the acid test. What place
does Jesus Christ have in it all? Not just the name Jesus,
not just some abstract concept, but Jesus the Christ as we've
defined Him this morning. That unique personage who is
God in man, Jesus of Nazareth, who lived in history, died in
history, was buried in history, rose in history, ascended to
the right hand of the Father in history, was seated at the
Father's right hand and rules in history now, that Jesus, that
Jesus who is the Christ, the anointed prophet, priest, and
king, whose word is law, whose word is final, whose sacrifice
is complete, whose intercession is all-prevailing, whose kingship
is all-embracing? That's the question you ask.
What place is given to Jesus Christ? Well, when the apostle
says, as he does in verse 5, Even when we were dead, made
us alive together with Christ. By grace, ye have been saved.
He is paralleling salvation by grace and salvation by Christ. Now, dear people, apply that
to some of the most popular religious leaders of our day, and what
do you come up with? I had in my notes before I had in my hands
the sheet of paper I now have to speak just a moment about
Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who is being pushed upon us from
every corner, television, radio, paper, and his radio, newspaper,
and his followers come to our door, identifying themselves
as part of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World
Christianity. Ain't that a mouthful? It has
nothing to do with the Holy Ghost. It has nothing to do with Christianity.
What place is given to Jesus Christ? And from the excerpt
of one of his speeches, you read through, and the name of God
is mentioned time after time, but the name of Jesus is not
found once. The name of Christ is not found
once. And God is only mentioned as
a means to the end to attract you to this man who says, in
essence, I am the hope of America and the hope of the world. And
God is only brought into the issue as a springboard to bring
people to his own feet. Herbert W. Armstrong, The World
Tomorrow. Listen to that word-making machine
for a half an hour, and if you're listening for anything of the
fragrance of the name of Christ, you'll listen. What is central
is authoritative interpretation of contemporary problems, which
is all bait to get you to buy the literature that will hook
you into their particular deflection from historic Christianity. Dear
people, apply it to much that is called biblical Christianity
in evangelicalism today. Jesus Christ is peripheral, only
peripheral. Oh, I say to you who sit here
this morning dead in your trespasses and sin, walking according to
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience under
a canopy of divine wrath? What is our message? Our message
is not one that calls upon you to reach in within yourself to
get hold of something that Jesus Christ may come along and assist
you as you employ it. No, no. Our message is Jesus
the Christ is your only hope. Look to Him who in the plentitude
of His power and in His measureless grace receives the vilest of
sinners and is able to cleanse and liberate them and make them
His own. And dear child of God, if you
come from verses 1 to 3 and to verses 4 to 10, know and understand
and remind yourself again and again that Jesus Christ is central
in the transformation that has been wrought in your heart and
life. And if He is central, then feed
upon Him, then love Him, then serve Him, then pray that you
may walk and live to His praise. But now there's a second thing
in the passage before us. Not only is Jesus Christ central
in the transformation, but secondly, The biblical concept of grace
is dominant in the transformation. Look at the references to grace,
verse 5. Even when we were dead through
our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and before
he can even go on to complete his thought, he says, I've got
to get in a plug for free grace. And he puts in a little parenthesis,
for by grace have you been saved. And then he goes on to say, and
we've been raised up with him and seated with him, you see,
it's a break in the flow of thought. But no sooner does the apostle's
mind focus, zero in, lock in upon the concept that dead sinners
have been quickened by divine power in union with Christ, that
he must sound the note of free grace. For by grace have he been
saved. Then he goes on to say that God's
purpose, as we shall see in a subsequent exposition, is, verse 7, that
in the ages to come, God Himself may display, what? The exceeding
riches of His grace. When dead sinners get quickened,
Paul says, it's grace that did it. When we ask, what was the
ultimate intention? He says that grace may be displayed. And if we've been half asleep
and have missed it, He comes back with a big red pencil in
verse 8 and He underlines it again. Look, for by grace have
ye been saved. So you see, as the Apostle contemplates
the transformation and asks the question, how does God effect
this change? Not only does He instruct us,
to the end that Jesus Christ is central, but that the biblical
concept of grace is dominant in the transformation. Now, what
is at the heart of the biblical notion of grace? Well, it is
kindness to the undeserving. It is blessing upon the non-qualified. And the whole thrust of the biblical
notion of grace is simply this. It points away from the recipient
to the giver as to why the blessing should be conferred. That's why
grace is always set in opposition to merit and to works. Romans
4 is, if it is of works, Paul says, it's no more of grace.
Why? Because if what God gives is
conditioned by what man does, then the reason for the gift
is in the man. The focus is on the man. And
whenever the focus is on the man, the recipient, it cannot
be upon grace, the giver. So he says, if it's of works,
then it's a matter of debt. God just gives the man what he's
worked for. And it's no more of grace. You cannot think grace
parallel to, equal to, standing alongside of anything that the
sinner can perform. That's why the Apostle Paul described
him as dead. If dead people get life, they
didn't cooperate. If sick people get well, they
may have cooperated in the process of healing. They may have soaked
their foot. They may have taken their medicine. But no amount
of soaking the foot of a dead man or giving medicine will bring
life. That's why he says you must think of grace. you must
put the attention upon the donor, not upon the recipient. Grace
is always contrasted with works. Grace is always contrasted with
human works, human merit, human performance. Therefore, as the
Apostle would instruct the Ephesians and us concerning this great
work of transformation, he says in essence, oh listen people,
don't think of grace as auxiliary. Don't think of grace as something
that is peripheral. As surely as you think of the
transformation with Jesus Christ central, think of the concept
of grace as predominant in the whole work of transformation. And my dear people, listen. If
you think of faith in any other light, you don't understand faith
in the whole economy of salvation. When Paul introduces human faith
in verse 8, he doesn't introduce it to cancel the concept of grace.
Grace is blessing to the undeserving. Whatever then place faith has
in this matter of being saved, I must not think of my faith
as something I present to God that triggers the whole process.
No, I must think of it as something that flows from God in the process
of saving me. And there's all the difference
in the world. I must not think of faith as
something I put into it to trigger it. It's something that flows
out of it and is a part of salvation by grace and by grace alone. Now by application, you see,
we have another very incisive means of assessing the reality
of any professed transformation. And that which is wholly unique
in the pure Christian message is right here. It is the only,
quote, religion that operates on the basis of pure grace. All religions have their holy
books, their holy men, their holy exercises, their holy rituals. And if I may say so without being
irreverent, in that sense Christianity parallels some of the world religions. Holy books, it's holy men, it's
holy rituals. But there is no religion under
heaven. that says the acceptance of the
sinner with the deity rests solely upon the grace of the deity.
In all the religions of the world it is the creature who by his
performance and attainments in one way or another brings himself
into the favor of the deity Whereas the pervasive emphasis of the
Word of God is that it is the offended God Himself who removes
every obstacle in His own character and then in the sinner to bring
the sinner into His favor purely by grace. Undeserved mercy. Mercy and kindness to the ill-deserving. And once again I say, when you
hear anyone preaching what is supposed to be Christian truth,
ask yourself the question, what place does grace have in it all?
Is grace merely mentioned as a cover-up for a subtle system
of human works? Or is grace the dominant note? And I say to dead, bound, guilty
sinners this morning, your hope is to be found in the fact that
God is a gracious Gracious that He yet causes you to breathe
His air while you defy His laws by your impenitence. Grace that
gives you life while you trample underfoot the blood of His own
dear Son and resist the overtures of mercy. O my friend, if you
are ever to be saved, it will be by grace and grace alone. The song that God will put into
the heart of every person who comes from verses 1 to 3 and
to verses 4 to 10 is the song of John Newton, Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, grace my fears relieved. His grace has brought me safe
thus far. Grace will lead me home. That's
the thing God will put in your heart. A debtor to mercy alone,
of covenant mercy I sing. That's the song God puts within
the heart. Our being chosen in Christ is
called an election of grace. Our calling is called a calling
of grace. Our keeping is the keeping of
grace. And our glorification will be
a manifestation My friend, what place does grace have? As you
profess to be transformed by the Gospel and by God, is grace
dominant? Is grace dominant? Let that be
the basis upon which you assess the peddler of religious thoughts
who comes to your doors. You ask him that question. If
you want to untrack him from his pre... his packaged little
spiel, You just interrupt him and say, sir, ma'am, I'd like
to ask you one simple question. In all that you want to tell
me and teach me, what place does the grace of God have? The poor
fellow gets so derailed he won't be able to find where the tracks
are. Grace? What's grace? And the poor Jehovah's
Witness whose conscience is bound to feel that somehow he's going
to escape Armageddon. He's got to put in his 20 hours
a week peddling his trashy heresy. He knows nothing of grace. Pity
him and seek by God's grace to show him the glories of sovereign
mercy. But then, there is a third strand
of emphasis in the passage as we just look at the woods this
morning, trying to catch the overall thrust before we descend
to the particulars, and it is this. Not only is this transformation,
the method of it, to be found centered in Christ, to be found
in the mentality of the predominance of grace, but thirdly, It's to
be understood in the context of the experimental reality,
and I'll explain what I mean by that, and radical nature of
the transformation. The experimental reality and
the radical nature of the transformation is pervasive. In verses 1 to
3, when Paul described the Ephesians in a state of sin, He said that
this condition was experimental, that is, it was real. It wasn't
something that was theoretical in the record books of heaven.
He says you were dead, and by that he meant there was no living
response to the living God. When he said that they walked
according to the course of this world, he's talking about their
real life, lived in the real world of real activities, on
real Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday activities. When he says that you were fulfilling
the lust of the flesh and of the mind, he's talking about
real lust in their real minds and in their real flesh. In other
words, The bondage to sin which all men have by nature is experimental
and it is pervasive. It pervades the whole of their
being. Now the apostle says when God
is going to put us in the after picture, when he's going to take
us from the before to the after, There will be an experimental
reality and a radical nature in the transformation that pervades
the whole man, the whole woman. Look at it. Were you dead? Was
that your real condition? Now he says in verse 5, he has
made us alive. What can be more radical than
the difference between life and death? You were dead with a true
death. You've been made alive with a
true life. You were enslaved. Look at verse
2. Ye once walked according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of
the air. He pictures them as those who
are in a state of serfdom, a state of slavery and of bondage. Now, he says, you've not only
been made alive, but you've been raised up with him and made to
sit with him. Well, where does he sit? In a
place of enthronement and regal power, he says, from slaves and
serfs. you become kings. From death
to life, from serfdom to a royal throne, he says you were doomed. By nature children of wrath,
now he says you are the objects of divine love. Verse 4, for
his great love wherewith he loved us Before, you were monuments
of Satan's power. Your walk, your talk, your whole
lifestyle was a manifestation of Satanic bondage. Now, he says
in verse 10, we are his workmanship. We are monuments of the power
of God when he works in grace by means of the salvation of
his own dear son. Do you see what he's saying?
He's saying we must never think of the transformation of grace
as a surface transformation, we must never think of it in
terms of a mere juggling of the legal records of heaven. He is
telling us that the transformation is an experimental reality, it's
something that occurs in us, and it is a radical transformation,
death to life, bondage to freedom, and all of the contrasts that
I've enunciated in the passage And then he's telling us that
the transformation is radical and pervasive, so much so that
he calls it a new creation. We are his workmanship created. God has made something new, created
in Christ Jesus. What can we conclude from that?
Well, simply this, that the work of God in saving men is no surface
issue. It is not merely changing a man's
ultimate destiny, and here and now redirecting a few of the
grosser forms of his sinful patterns. It's sad to say that's the average
concept of the transformation of grace. When you trust in Jesus,
God blots out your sins so you won't go to hell when you die,
and then He'll clean up some of the grosser forms of outward
sin here and now. and help you to do a few things
that Christians are supposed to do, and even if you spend
the rest of your days as a carnal Christian, you'll still make
it in the end. That's no caricature, dear people, that's all that's
expected. That won't fit this passage. When dead sinners are
made alive, they begin to manifest the life with which they've been
made alive. And if the characteristic of their death was no communion
with God, no desire to be conformed to the image of God, fulfill
the purpose for which they were created by God, what's the mark
of the life that they have in Christ? They now live to God,
in communion with God, with desire to fulfill the very purpose for
which God put them there. If the mark of their lives before
was one of bondage to the devil and to the world and to lust,
what will be the mark of their reigning with Christ, it will
be in some measure the putting of their lust beneath their feet,
and the manifestation of the liberty wherewith Christ has
made them free. You see, the transformation is
experimentally real, it's radical, and it is pervasive. It extends
to the whole man. As we address ourselves this
morning to this third question, having seen who makes the change,
Why? Because of mercy and love. How? The answer of the Apostle is,
he makes that change in such a way that Jesus Christ is central
to the transformation, in such a way that the biblical notion
of grace is predominant in the transformation, and in such a
way that the change effected is experimentally real, radical,
and pervades the entirety of our existence. Let me ask you
this morning, have I been describing what's happened to you? From
a dead, bound, condemned sinner, has God, by the Spirit and the
Word, confronted you with His own dear Son? Has Jesus, the
Christ of Holy Scripture, by the ministry of the Spirit, been
revealed to your heart? And in embracing Him as He is
revealed, Have you found Him to be your emancipator, your
liberator, the one who has brought you life from death, liberty
out of your bondage? Oh, my dear friend, don't be
content with a so-called Christian experience to which Jesus Christ
is merely peripheral, and the sacraments or the church or your
own activity are central. If He is not central, who have
reason to question if it's true Christian experience. Constantly
evaluate all ministries by that touchstone, not just the mouthing
of the name of Jesus now, but by the setting forth of the biblical
concept of who He is and what He's done, the perfection of
His work, the glory of His person. When you put that to the test,
and the so-called prophets of our day, they come up one path. That's why we refuse to conduct
evangelistic campaigns with big-name preachers and have the faces
of preachers placarded around the town. Our concern is not
to confront men with the face and name of preachers, but to
set before them our glorious Lord. That's how sinners will
be transformed. Let me ask you the second question.
What place does grace have in all your notions of Christianity?
Do you sit this morning self-consciously basking in the wonder that God
did not give you justice, but he's conferred grace upon you?
Is it that sense of holy bafflement, O God, that I should not be any
longer under wrath? that I should no longer be in
bondage, that I should be alive. Lord, think of it. This morning,
when the pastor led us in prayer, my heart actually went out as
he led us in prayer. And when we sang those psalms
in hymns, Lord, there was life within, responding to you. Amazing grace that I, who once
was so dead that prayers were mere noise in my ears, Psalms
and hymns were drudgery upon my lips. These things are real. They're my delight. Is that you? Is it all because of grace? What place does grace have in
your so-called experience? And my third question is, is
your experience 16 ounces to the pound biblical? Has it been
radical, experimental, pervasive? Is there any reason to call you
a new creature? Not just a few new activities tacked on to the
old thing, but new from the inside out. A new wellspring of hope
and desire and longing. What the Bible calls a new heart,
Ezekiel 36. A new creation, 2 Corinthians
5. Oh, dear people, as we work through
this passage, never forget, Paul led the Ephesians to understand
But the only reason they now fit this description is because
of these three things that we've laid before you. God willing,
in our next study, we shall see that the virtue and the saving
merit of Christ is conveyed to us in a very special way by union
with Him. will see that grace operates
within a very distinct orbit and will flesh out, as it were,
the details of these three great concepts. But may the Lord write
the larger principles upon our hearts, that as we come to the
detailed exposition, we may see something of the richness of
that which is ours. in Christ Jesus. And all sinner,
be you boy, girl, man or woman, friend, visitor, someone who
attends this place with regularity, this is our only message. And
God giving us strength, we shall never change it. That your only
hope is Christ, your only hope is grace. And when Christ operates
in grace, you'll know it, because you'll be a new man in Him. Let us pray.