Ephesians 2:1-10 Pastor Cathy Johnson Queen Anne Baptist Church June 29, 2008 God’s Artistry This morning we are continuing on in the book of Ephesians, and we have come to a particularly outstanding passage. This little passage contains, in just ten short verses, the essence of the Christian faith. It very clearly sums up the theology of sin, grace, and works. These are the huge topics that are central to our faith; topics that have generated volumes of serious academic discussion and topics that have generated more than a few disagreements among believers. But relax. I’m going to try to approach this showing, not how complex these issues can be, but instead focus on the simplicity and beauty of Paul’s message. As I read the text, I want you to listen for these three themes of sin, grace, and works. In the first three verses, Paul points out our human condition, which is sin. In the next five verses, he presents what is probably the best explanation in the entire Bible of God’s gracious response to our sin problem. It is Paul’s outstanding and succinct explanation of salvation by grace. And then, in the last two verses, Paul goes straight from grace to works, and solves the endless riddle of grace versus works. So as I read, listen for this progression from sin to grace to works. I’m reading Ephesians 2:1-10. 1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in 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. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can 2 boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Most of us have no problem understanding that we are sinners. Even if, like me, you accepted Christ as a young child, all of us still have dealt with our own sin. From infancy, we have been self- centered by nature, and it gets us into trouble. Sin is the bad news. Sin is like being stuck in a gigantic muck that we can’t get ourselves out of. Paul compares it to being dead. But Paul reminds us that God loved us in spite of our sinful condition. “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.” Paul presents this beautiful picture of God, who loved us in spite of our sinful condition and because of his great love for us, and his great mercy and grace, gave us the gift of new birth in Jesus Christ. We were dead in sin, but God has given us new life in Christ Jesus. It is a free gift, and all we need to do is accept the gift. If you have never accepted that wonderful gift of salvation, I urge you to come and open that gift today. You will never regret it. Paul goes on to say, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” This is interesting because it reminds us that our present condition is actually more than we might think. Even if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you have given your life to him, you continue to live in this world and your life is not free from sin. In fact, sometimes we get very discouraged with ourselves, and we might even wonder if we really have been saved. I think maybe this is why Paul puts this sentence in the past tense. It’s already a done deal, and he wants us to know that. Once we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, God has already raised us up out of our sin and he has already seated us with Jesus Christ in the heavenly realms. You may not realize that you’re already in heaven, but you are! In this life, we still muck things up and we still suffer pain, but the reality is that we are already, spiritually, in heaven. The reason Paul wants us to understand this is that when we understand who we really are in Christ, it helps us also live our lives here in this fallen world. Take whatever it is you are dealing with. Maybe you are discouraged with your battle in some area of your life. Now, imagine yourself free from that battle—whether it is something you consistently bring upon yourself because of your own weakness or it 3 is something that has become your cross to bear—maybe health issues or something evil that has been done to you by someone else. God has already raised you up with Christ and seated you with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. If somehow we can grasp this, we begin to realize who we really truly are, and we can begin to live as God calls us to live. God offers us freedom from sin. The problem is that some of us take our eyes off of God and slide right back into the slime pit. But we don’t have to. We can choose to live in Christ. And because we can’t possibly hear this too many times, Paul says it again, more emphatically. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Your salvation is not something you have done for yourself—it is something God has done for you. God did this why? Because of his great love for us. And why does God love us? Because we are good and loveable? No! God loves us in spite of our sin and our rebellion. And he will keep right on loving us, whether or not we respond to his love. His love is perfect and infinite and eternal. Nothing you do, good or bad, can make God love you any more or any less than he already loves you. Nothing you do can earn your salvation. You can’t make God like you better by being good. God won’t stop loving you if you’re bad. God’s mercy is not dependent on you, but on him. God is love. God is merciful. And it is because of God’s love and mercy that he extends his grace to us and offers us salvation and complete forgiveness of our sins. We are saved by grace, not by works, so none of us has anything whatsoever to boast about. It’s all God’s doing. But Paul doesn’t stop here. Most of us do, but Paul doesn’t. The last verse in this section says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” There is, as you know, an age-old question of works versus grace. Are we really saved just by grace, or do we need to do good works in order to earn God’s merit? Paul answers this very clearly. Our salvation is based solely and completely on the grace of God. As God’s children, saved by his grace, we become, as he says in this last verse, God’s workmanship. God is the artist, and we are his artwork! And what do these works of art do? They do the good works that God leads them to do. 4 So yes, we are called by God to do good works, not in order to earn our salvation, but in response to his great love for us. Our lives are an expression of God’s creative artistry in us. Gordon McDonald tells a wonderful story that illustrates this truth. The story happened in the south of England along the Atlantic Ocean in an English pub. One evening, the pub was filled with drinkers. Outside there was a raging storm, and the worse the storm got, the more people came in for shelter, where they were drinking and eating. It was pretty wild that night—stormy outside and a bit rowdy inside. In the midst of the bustle of people moving around and laughing and having a good time, there was a waitress who came along holding high a tray, laden with cups of ale and coffee and tea. Someone didn't see her coming and in the crowd they jostled her rather dramatically and the tea and the coffee and the ale went flying and, unfortunately, it splashed all over a newly painted wall. In a just a second, the newly painted wall was ruined, with all of this liquid running down. The owner of the pub was furious, because he had just painted the wall and now it looked awful. The crowd became silent, waiting to see how he would act. Of course, the humiliated waitress stood there wondering what would happen next. In the silence, suddenly from the corner of the tavern or the pub, a man spoke out. He said, "If you will permit me, perhaps I can do something about that." The man stepped forward and he opened up a little case that he was carrying with him. Quickly, people saw that in the case were a lot of small artist's brushes and paints, and so they stood aside and the man went to work on this wall that was so stained and messy and wet. He began to sketch with charcoal and then with paint. And as the moments went by the crowd watched silently, transfixed. After forty-five or fifty minutes, the artist was finished. Everyone in the room was amazed to see that a wall that had been ruined—ugly and blotched, was now a beautiful thing to behold and the ugly blotches had been turned into something that was absolutely magnificent. Finished, the man stepped back and he looked and everyone looked with him. The room was quiet as together, they took in the beauty of the transformed wall. Then the artist took a piece of 5 charcoal, and in the lower left-hand corner, he signed his name, quickly wrapped up the tools of his artistry, and went out the door into the storm. And when the people looked at the name, they realized they had been watching one of England's greatest artists at work. They had seen him take something that was ugly and turn it into something that was beautiful to behold. That is the essence of what Paul is telling us about sin and grace. Our lives are like the messed up splattered wall in the story, but like the master artist, God can take our lives and make something more beautiful than we could have imagined out of them. But that’s not the whole story. Our lives are more than a painting, because we are living beings. God has a purpose for us. That’s where the works come in. The works are not something we do in order to earn our salvation, but they are what we do because of who we are in Christ Jesus. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God doesn’t clean you up just to make you look good. He also has a purpose for your life. All of us are called, not just to be, but to do. Imagine if every Christian in this world were to earnestly seek God’s will and begin doing whatever God is calling her or him to do, every day. Do you think it would make a difference in the world? I think it would. Last Sunday I suggested that you to try to do or say something kind to someone in this community, however small. If you did that, would you share it with me or with someone else in the congregation? I’m not asking you to share it in order to boast of your goodness, but in order that we might encourage one another. We need to be reminded that God is alive and well in our church and in our community. May I suggest that we keep working on this? It doesn’t have to be a big deal. Often, we think we need to do something big, and because we can’t do something big, we end up doing nothing at all. If you don’t live in this neighborhood, just walk over to Safeway or Starbucks or Tully’s and make a small purchase and say a kind word to the person who helps you. If that is too difficult, just stand in front of the church until someone walks by, and smile and say “Hello.” It’s a very small way of connecting with this community, but I believe that if we step out in faith, God will honor our efforts. 6 Because of God’s grace, we are “God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Prayer: God of grace and love and mercy, you are here in our midst today. You come to each one of us, offering this wonderful gift of salvation—new life in Christ Jesus—not because of anything we could ever do to deserve it, but because of your grace. Lord, if there are any here today who do not know you, may they accept the free gift of salvation today. God, remind each of us daily of your amazing love and grace. Help us to understand who we are in Christ Jesus. And remind us that you have some good works for us to do. Amen