Ephesians 2:1-10

“1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”

To be brought to life in Christ Jesus by the resurrection of your dead soul for your trespasses and sins against God Almighty is, without hesitation, the principal object at the outset. The world has a system for you, no grand purpose nor calling, but striving after the desires of the body and mind blindly following nothing much but living according to the course of this world. The world is full of people having little more worth than a self-licking ice cream cone consuming themselves upon the lust of the flesh, living for nothing, and dying alone. Every man dies alone.

It’s a complicated world, having trespassed against the Living God while remaining in self-serving sin. A life such as that is pointless; never to understand the power you perceive is the spirit that works disobedience, making yourself an heir of perdition.

“2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”

There is a prince of this world, all the evil among men becoming glaringly evident, wickedness on every media and medium luring and enticing only to leave you dead, hell-bound, but this is God’s world; he made it and you. He owns it, so while living according to the law of trespass against Him, you offend His holiness, never seeing or even desiring to understand the war in the dimension of spirit at the root of the grave evil taking hold all around you.

“3 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; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

But you’re not alone; you are a sinner as all men are before the Holy One, and He is the true power, having already conquered your sin, death, and hell. You had not sought the good before sin took root in your conscience; how could you, having been born into sin. There is none that seeketh after God…there is none that doeth good. Fulfilling your desires with wanton disregard for God’s plan, you are by your very nature a child of wrath, for the wrath of God abides on all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Sin is blinding. It’s not simply blinding to those that are aware; it’s so pervasive, so thorough that those blinded by sin are blinded to not only the immediate presence of sin but may never know that sin exists. Sin is not simply the sum total of all the unfit thoughts and deeds accumulated as you serve the spirit of disobedience; it’s what you are; you are a sinner. If you could stop sinning, you never would have started. And God is awakening your blinded soul to your condition.

“4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,”

The two most lovely words ever spoken are, but God. But God is drawing and calling, making space in your mind that His word might penetrate to your core need; you need mercy, for He is full of love and rich in mercy. “We love him, because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19.

His great love is shown round about you, a little at the first; His revelation shows you the evil of this world and the evil in yourself, revealing the need for His great forgiveness. Even dead in sin, it’s God that brings alive the eternal soul to the realization of Christ’s blood sacrifice, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin to bring about everlasting life together with Christ. God does this of His own accord, which seems quite absurd to have to say, but far too many, God help them all, are counting upon some sense of being a good man. Too late, you’ve already sinned against God; there’s no meter in heaven; it’s Christ or the death of eternal torment.

You are a sinner, condemned already in your trespasses and sins. Only the Almighty, the Creator, gives life and new life by mercy and grace unto the everlasting hope of heavenly places with riches beyond understanding, imputing worth for the soul by Christ Jesus to those that call upon His holy name.

It’s the heart of a man, your heart, not your deeds, that God desires. Not as corruptible things, silver or gold, or keeping commandments that men heap upon themselves as though impressing their neighbors gets the attention of God’s good graces. God is not impressed with you; He’s God. “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” – Proverbs 17:3

“5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”

You can be raised to walk in the newness of life, through Christ, by the resurrection of the spirit in your soul; the Father in heaven offers forgiveness of sin and salvation from the wrath to come. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” – 1 Peter 1:23.

Jesus Christ took your sins to hell with Him and buried them there for you; Christ speaking of His own life, declared, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” In authority to lay down His life paying your sin debt to the Father, and He took it up again. He raised Himself from the dead on the third day, leaving your sins behind.

But, it’s more than a spiritual resurrection, which is incredible enough. Having ascended to heaven, at the right hand of Power, it is He who makes the way of life eternal. Those sealed unto redemption in Christ, seated with Him in heavenly places now through the Spirit of God, when the last trumpet sounds, we shall see him as he is and abide in His presence; death shall be no more. Your soul, if you are His, will be altogether in the company and glory of Holy Almighty God.

He created you for this: to know Him and to be with Him, and you, wasting another day, taking another lick at the ice cream cone, would you call upon His holy name?

“7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

God’s riches are exceeding. They are exceeding what? They’re God’s riches; what manner of silly question is it to ask what they exceed, for there is nothing but a long ugly slog before you of growing old, and if you make it that long getting sick, only to return to the dust from which God formed you. Preparing for contingencies is wise, but what is your final contingency? How can you save yourself? Remember those two great words, but God? God’s riches are exceeding anything and assuredly anything of this world; His grace in kindness by Christ Jesus is what you need.

“8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

But God, in His mercy by the grace of His good pleasure, offers salvation unto those who would hear, for Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. If it’s not of works, and salvation isn’t by works, then eternal life must be by grace. If you take upon yourself the duty to work for eternal life, rejecting the gift of His mercy in love, you make the grace of God of no effect. What an end of those ones, God help them.

But if it’s by grace, and it is, then the grace of God’s eternal pardon is what you need. Well, it says it in the Holy Bible, right there in verses 8 and 9; by the grace of God, through your faith in Christ Jesus, and not of works as though you could boast before God of anything whatsoever. Salvation is a gift to those who hear the call of Christ, and His call to you is now!

“10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Every day people try to repair the sin-scarred planet, to fix each other, all the while circling the drain. Those that are Christs, we’re not saved for nothing; having received a new life by God’s great mercy in Christ Jesus, we show that same mercy to others. You know that you have kindness and charity of heart within you; God made you this way. In Christ is where that work has meaning and eternal value; one day, in heaven, we’ll see the fruits of those labors.

So there are works and good works, but none gaining the favor of He that is holy except and unless you be quickened with the Spirit of God for it is His own Son that the Father sees when He looks upon those raised up together with Christ. Without Christ, you are an unclean thing, vile, unworthy. Why did God allow His own Son to be tortured to death if you could satisfy His wrath on your own by some good deeds? Every religion of good deeds mocks Christ, for without Christ’s sacrifice unto salvation for us first, your works come short of the glory of God, raising no worth in heaven.

Jesus didn’t stay dead; it was not possible for Christ to see corruption. So many get this backward; that’s how deadly the sin of pride is; we’re predisposed, through sin, to misunderstand the simple truth of the sovereignty of the Almighty. We want to do it on our own, but Christ is incorruptible, and you are only corrupt. Every man convinces himself that he is a good man. The most grotesquely wicked souls on earth consider themselves good men by doing what they perceive to be good things.

Thinking that there must be something you can do to win salvation, what are you next to God that you should attempt to steal His throne, making yourself a saint by your own good graces? God makes saints! Without Christ first, you are as a son of perdition, a worker of iniquity, a child of disobedience, run by the prince of the power of the air, bound by your sin to burn in hell. No man can keep the whole law, and no man can disannul by works the miracle of the glorious grace of the Lord God Almighty unto salvation by the suffering of Christ Jesus on the cross; who do you think you are that you can buy heaven with your merit?

But God, the master craftsman of all that are His by faith, having created you, has ordained for you a service to Him that you should walk therein. No longer to serve the wasteful and repetitive grind of the long march to the grave and hell, but created in Christ unto good works, having first received mercy from the throne of His judgment by grace, to be made a child of the King. God gives results of eternal importance and purpose; your soul finally being fulfilled; it’s Christ that fills that void, that hole in your heart where you know, knew all along, good must be able to live there.

It’s a new life and life everlasting, for by grace are ye saved through faith. Call upon Jesus, seeking forgiveness from sin, beseeching upon prayer the throneroom of heaven, for mercy by His grace to enter into the exceeding riches of His glory through God’s lovingkindness; asking that you would be quickened in Christ. Receive His mercy from wrath, life today, and the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul for eternity, that you might know His exceeding abundant grace in the ages to come. Forgiveness unto salvation is nothing to forgo or attempt by any manner of your own concoction. It’s grace; it’s all grace; behold, now is the accepted time: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.