A trick that has stopped beating is dead. And at that point, any advice about heart healthy diet or exercise is no longer helpful.
If a heart can't be resuscitated, nothing else matters. In the same way, the spiritually dead person needs a savior to give the gift of life. And on Truth for Life weekend, Alistair Begg explores what God has done for us and why. Well, I invite you to turn again to these opening verses of Ephesians 2.
We are not moving very quickly through them, but our pace is purposeful. It's important as we come to them that we keep in mind that there is, if you like, a big story, that there is a big idea that Paul is conveying. He emphasizes it twice in the recurring phrase, by grace you have been saved.
And it is that story, it is that emphasis which forms, if you like, the melody line that runs throughout the entire section. And I found it helpful just to pay attention to the fact that our verses are virtually bracketed by one verb, and that is the verb to walk in verse two, and that you will notice that in verse 10, God has good deeds prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That notion of walking is a reference of our way of life, and it is an indication of the company that we keep and the way and the place in which we walk. Previously, he says, you were walking in a different environment. You were submitting to a different master, and you were, understandably, under the condemnation that follows, but now everything has changed. Paul is reminding his readers here that they once listened to the voice of another, they were once walking out with another, and they were enjoying the company of another, that prince of the power of the air.
But all that has now changed. In verses one to three, we saw that he's describing the way that we were. We were dead, we were enslaved, and we were condemned.
Now, I repeat this routinely, and I do so purposefully. It's important for us to recognize what a radically different perspective this is, namely the biblical divine perspective on man. The Bible is making it perfectly clear that man as man is not simply lost and in need of direction, nor is he just confused and in need of instruction, or weak and in need of strength, or sick and in need of medicine, or unhappy and in need of joy.
All those things are true. But rather, he is dead and in need of life. And the raising of the dead is the province of God, and as he has shown his immeasurable power in raising Jesus from the dead, verse 19 of chapter 1, so he is showing now his immeasurable grace in what he has done for these individuals. We are now, he says, made alive, raised up, and seated. Can we pause just one more moment and remind ourselves of the fact that the story of the Bible is that we have been made for a relationship with God, that we have chosen and we choose to live our lives without God, that we are as a result alienated from God, and God is not indifferent to that fact. Our alienation is two-sided, from ourselves to him on account of our sin, from God to us on account of his wrath. And the mystery of his grace is that in Jesus, God has reconciled sinners to himself, that Jesus did not come to tell us what we need to do to try and make ourselves Christians. He came to save us and to reconcile us to God, that the testimony of genuine, believing faith is as it is provided for us here in this section. We once were, but now, verse 4, being rich in mercy, we who, when we were dead in our trespasses, have been made alive, we have been raised up, and we have been seated with him in the heavenly places.
That is what God has done, and we come now to ask the question, why has he done what he has done? And Paul essentially answers this with four statements, and I want you to notice them in turn. Notice verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Let's start, then, with the immensity of God's love. If you know the Bible at all, you know that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The work of Jesus on the cross was not to coerce the Father into granting something that he did not want to give, nor was the work of Jesus on the cross a reluctant engagement in that which the Father had planned, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together working according to the eternal counsel of their will. And although mercy comes first here in our verse 4, we take it first because it is from the fountain of God's love that the streams of mercy flow.
It is out of the fountain of God's love. It is his love which is the guiding force of his mercy. Remember in the Old Testament, God says, I will show mercy? To whom I will show mercy. Well, on what basis does he show mercy, and to whom? On the basis of his love. The story is not clean up and God may have a place for you.
The story is you were completely unable to clean up, and God reached down and washed you and raised you and made you new and set you free. This is what he's saying. He's reminding these Ephesians from a Jewish background, from a Gentile background, united first to Christ, united now with one another, in order that in the unity of the purposes of God within his church, the world might look on and see what God does. So then, first, his love.
Why? On account of his love, his great love. Also, backing up a phrase, because he is rich in mercy. He's rich in mercy. You see, mercy really doesn't mean very much unless you are in the dock. I mean, if you're sitting out in the courtroom observing it, the fact of mercy may be an observable feature.
It may be something that we are interested in at arm's length in relationship to the outcome of a trial. But if we are justifiably condemned, and if we await our sentence, and instead of the execution being performed, we are set free on account of mercy, then it is amazing. But you see, mercy means nothing to us unless we understand our predicament. That is why the Bible is so very clear in the way it unfolds us. That's why Paul writes as he does, you were this, you were dead, you were enslaved, you were condemned.
But God, who is rich in mercy. But you see, if you are here this morning, and you are operating on the basis in relationship to your consideration of Christianity that runs along the lines of every other thing that you have ever got involved with, then of course, your whole life has been such that you are pretty well convinced that you have earned everything for yourself, and that there is good reason for you to be in the status that you're in and in the position that you're in. Then you come up against this story of the death of Jesus on a cross, who comes in order to deal with those who are dead and enslaved and condemned.
You say, well, I don't think that could possibly describe me. So you see, it is the work of the Spirit of God that shows us first what we are. That's why when we pray, before we turn to the Bible together, we sometimes pray, make the book live to me, O Lord, show me yourself within your word, show me myself, and show me my Savior. First he shows us ourself, and then we stand before his mercy. You see, you don't want to ask for justice.
That's not a good idea. You know the old chestnut about the fellow who's having his photograph taken for a brochure, and he says to the photographer, I want this photograph to do me justice. And the photographer says, well, having looked at you for a bit, what you require is mercy, not justice.
There is no Photoshop that will be able to fix your miserable visage. You are in need of great mercy. That's why Augustus Toplady has that wonderful hymn where he says, it begins, a debtor to mercy alone. A debtor to mercy alone. And Thomas Goodwin, one of the Puritans, says mercy comes first in this list here in verse 4, because it suits our condition.
We are in need of mercy. But he says it's not because it was that attribute, i.e., mercy, out of which the initiative of God proceeded, but rather that in calling us to himself, he purposed to display his love by way of mercy. So his love is displayed in his mercy. Mercy causes a king to pardon a traitor, but only love will raise the traitor up to sit beside the king upon his throne.
And what did we discover is true of us? He has not only made us alive, he has raised us with him, and he has seated us beside him on his throne. Think about it again in terms of Luke chapter 15, if it's helpful to you. It's not the over-heavy load of sin that brings that boy back up the road. It is the prospect of mercy.
It's the prospect of mercy. He could have been aware of the fact that he was loaded down with sin and stayed down there in the pigsty, couldn't he? He came to an understanding of the mess that he was in. But he prepared his speech while he's in the pigsty, I will arise and I will go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. Why? Because he loved him.
He loved him. Are you running from God? You and your own little private pigsty this morning? Your kind of air-conditioned pigsty?
Your very nicely tailored environment? God knows. God loves. God seeks.
God runs. You see, the Pharisee'll never understand grace. The Pharisee's the other lost boy.
He's the guy lost out in the field. I've been slaving for you all this time, and you never gave me anything. And this kid comes back, and he made a royal mess of his life, and now he gets a party. What kind of deal is this?
I'll tell you what kind of deal it is. It is the love of the Father. It's the immeasurable, wonderful grace and mercy of God's. Thirdly, the immeasurable riches of his grace. Why has God done this? What has he done? He has quickened us, he has raised us, he has seated us.
Why? Because of his love, because of his mercy, because of the immeasurable riches of his grace. Verse 7.
It's a wonderful picture, isn't it? Paul is sort of loading it up by mercy. On account of his mercy, we don't receive what we deserve. On account of his grace, we receive what we don't deserve. Grace is the undeserved favor of God.
That's why we sing, isn't it? I cannot tell why he, whom angels worship, should set his love upon the sons of men. And what Paul is doing here is simply reinforcing the fact that all that God has done, he has done because he is gracious, because he is working according to his own holy will. And that is displayed in his kindness towards us. That's the fourth thing, in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. You see how all of these things are in Christ? That's why Calvin says, remember, that all that has been done for us in Christ is of no value to us so long as we remain outside of Christ. So we're like people standing outside of a building, looking in and seeing all of the wonderful things unfolding within.
But we have never entered in for ourselves. We have never actually come by faith to trust in the promises, in the assurances that are given in the gospel. And maybe you this morning, I don't know. Has his kindness brought you to repentance? His kindness brought you to repentance.
Remember when your father or your mother, when you deserved a significant reinforcement of the principles of parental jurisdiction? They showed kindness to you. They showed kindness to you. Oh, those tears were the biggest tears on my pillow—far bigger than the tears that emerged from the sting in my tail. That I knew I deserved. This kindness I did not deserve.
You see this picture? For the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind, and the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind. "'Do you then,' says Paul as he writes to the Romans, "'do you show contempt for his kindness?' How many times, may I ask you, are you going to spurn his advances? How many times are you going to hear his voice? How many more times do you plan on running the risk that you'll hear the gospel plea again? How many times will you withstand God in his amazing love, in the vastness of his mercy, in the riches of his grace, and walk away?'" Today, if you hear God's voice, don't harden your heart. That's the insistent Bible call, isn't it?
So let's summarize. Why, then, has God acted in this way in salvation, on account of his mercy, his love, his grace, his kindness, and in order that so that—it's a purpose clause, verse 7—"so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus?" So in other words, he is purposing to have this gigantic cosmic show and tell.
Okay? And he is going to take, if you like, what he's been doing in time and reveal in eternity the immensity of what he has done in putting together a people that are his very own from every tribe and nation and language and tongue and so on, so that this great display of God's magnificent glory will be such that the whole of creation will witness it. We sang it in part, really, in the town and lyric there, and the whole of creation will join in this song. One day at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And on display in that day will be those whom he has redeemed. He will bring them forward and say, look, that Christ will say, Father, these are those for whom I died, and here they are, and the whole of creation will praise God.
Oh, it's so wonderful! You know, I think as John Stott says that when the principal of his college in Oxford was retiring, they painted a portrait of him—a very nice portrait. And the man who was the recipient of the portrait said in a deferential human expression of humility, he said, In years to come, when people view this picture, they will not ask, Who is that man? They will ask, Who painted that portrait? And you see, that's it. On that day, they won't be asking, Who are these people? They would say, Who did this? And the answer is, God did this.
He did. It's amazing. In the coming ages, the whole universe is going to see what God has done. It's the immeasurable greatness of his power, he says in chapter 1, that has raised Jesus from the dead, and in raising us from spiritual death, he is displaying the immeasurable riches of his grace. Sinclair Ferguson, our good friend, said, Heaven is the final showroom, and earth is God's workshop as he paints on the canvas of our lives. So we've got all these funny faces and places and all from different backgrounds, and the work of God in us and through us is to conform us to the image of his Son, so that although we all come from different places and have had all kinds of different experiences, we are unified in this amazing reality. And that brings us to verses 8 and 9 and 10. We can say a word about them. Everybody thinks they know them so well that we don't need to pay attention.
That's always dangerous. But what he's saying is, the reason all of that praise belongs to God is because God alone is the author of our salvation. By grace we have been saved from the death and the slavery and the condemnation that we considered in verses 1 to 3.
How has this happened? Because of God's amazing grace. Grace is the cause. Faith is, if you like, the conduit.
We bring nothing to our salvation except the sin from which we need to be saved. Salvation is not a transaction between God and us, whereby he contributes grace and we contribute faith. You'll notice in his language here, this is not your own doing, this faith. It is the gift of God. Faith is our response, but it is not our contribution.
It's our response. That's why again we sing, I know not how the saving faith to me he did impart. Don't you wonder?
Why is it? How come I believe this stuff? How come when I sing this I mean it?
I know not how. Well, it's the grace of God. We're entirely dependent upon God for the capacity to embrace the gospel.
Entirely dependent upon God for the capacity to embrace the gospel. That makes sense, doesn't it, if we were dead? What can you do if you're dead?
Absolutely nothing. So if you're dead, you're going to have to be made alive so that you might then be enabled to reach out the empty hands of faith and receive a gift from God, which is the gift of salvation. You will notice that salvation isn't an achievement of our own doing. It's a gift. Nor is it a reward as a result of the works that we've done in verse 9.
If it were, then there would be a basis for boasting. But in this wonderful balance that you find throughout the Bible, although we are not saved by works, we are saved for works. And what he's saying in verse 10 is that our ongoing Christian living depends on God's grace. Our ongoing Christian living is as dependent upon God's grace all day every day. That's why when we sing, we sometimes sing, Help me then to live a life that's dependent on your grace. So you see that this workmanship that is created in Christ Jesus for good works God has prepared, that we should walk in them. The good deeds that he has prepared beforehand, as they are worked out in our lives, are the very evidence of his grace. Says Lenski, All the works are ready, they only await the living-doers and their doing. And Paul is going to go on from this point in the therefore of verse 11 to point out that it is in the church now that God is providing a working model of his power and of his grace.
You see, I think the real question with which we should finish is this. Am I amazed by the grace of God? Am I amazed by the grace of God? That is Alistair Begg with a question each of us ought to consider. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. Well today's message wraps up our study in the book of Ephesians. We've focused on volume 2, but you can listen to all of Alistair's teaching through the entire book of Ephesians. The complete series will help you understand your place in the purposes of God and the wonders of his grace. You can stream it or download it for free on our website at truthforlife.org.
While you're on the website, check out the book we are recommending currently. It's a book called Gather, Loving Your Church as You Celebrate Christ Together. Psalm 34-3 says, O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. And the book Gather reminds us that the opportunity to gather and worship together is a gift we've been given. Find out how you can become more present to hear God's Word each week. To find out more about the book Gather, visit our website truthforlife.org. Thanks for studying God's Word with us today. If you have doubts about the resurrection, well you're not alone. Next weekend we'll begin some early prep for Easter by examining the evidence of Christ's resurrection and the testimony of the eyewitnesses. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
