15 September 2024
SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION: Ephesians 2:1-10
SERMON REVIEW:
Who you were. (Before Christ)
Dead
Disobedient
Doomed
What God did. (Through Christ)
Loved Us
Saved Us
Exalted Us
Keeps Us
Who you are now. (In Christ)
His Workmanship
Created for good works
Part of His plan
QUESTIONS:
Life Application:
God Is Not Finished with You Yet!
What does it mean to be God’s workmanship? I vividly remember attending, almost back-to-back, showings of the works of two major artists. The first, at the University of Notre Dame, was a display of the etchings of Rembrandt. The second was a display of most of the major works of Georgia O’Keefe at the Chicago Art Institute. Each well-known artist has a distinctive style that sets him apart from all other artists. After learning about a given artist, you often can readily identify many of his works.
If you see weird little color cubes that look like pieces of a puzzle put together wrong, you know you are looking at Pablo Picasso. If you see limp objects draped like wet laundry over foreboding landscapes, you know you are looking at Salvador Dali. If you see figures that are stretched up two or three times their normal height, you are looking at El Greco.
You can tell much about an artist by looking at his art. You can observe Van Gogh’s gradual progression into insanity by looking at his succession of several self-portraits painted over a period of years. Look at Michaelangelo, and you see an idealist. Look at Norman Rockwell, and you see an optimist. Look closely at the art, and you will discover the artist. You and I are works of art; and we will be on display, in a sense, throughout eternity, to manifest to the universe the glory of God.
Now, catch yourself, resist the temptation to say, “If I’m a work of art, it isn’t going to be much of a display!” The first reaction which most of us have is to denigrate ourselves. Let’s look at it in another way that may help us to believe that it is true. Rather than seeing yourself as a painting, imagine yourself as a marble statue. You’ve heard at least one of the versions of the old story about when a sculptor was asked how he created his stone masterpiece of Robert E. Lee (or whoever it was), he said, “I just got a big block of marble and chipped away everything that didn’t look like Robert E. Lee.”
A sculptor will tell you that he sees his figure in the finest detail before he ever begins to chip at the stone. In that sense, he does just chip away everything that doesn’t look like what he is creating.
We are, in a sense a big block of marble when we become a Christian. God, the Great Sculptor, knows, down to the last detail, what he wants that block to look like before he begins to work on us. We, however, do not usually have a clear sense of the Sculptor’s goal. We look at ourselves after God has begun to shape us but before he has finished his work. We see that the neat, clean block of stone has been chipped and roughed up, but we do not see the finished product yet. In this incomplete state, we conclude incorrectly that that is all there is, that what we are now is all we will ever be.
You say, “This isn’t beautiful. This isn’t a work of art.”
But God is not finished with you yet.
You reply, “This big corner over here doesn’t look like it belongs.”
But God is not finished with you yet.
“This part is chipped and rough!”
But God is not finished with you yet.
“This part over here hasn’t even been touched!”
But God is not finished with you yet.
“This part needs to be sanded, smoothed, and polished.”
But God is not finished with you yet.
To every imperfection we see, the answer is, “God is not finished with us yet.” It won’t be there when he is finished. We’ll be perfect, complete, flawless. A tribute to the glory of our Creator. The universe will take one look at us and cry out, “Glory to God!”
That’s what it means to be God’s workmanship. But we must be patient. God is not finished with us yet.[1]
Digging Deeper:
A. Dead (v. 1)
“You were dead in your transgressions and sins.…” What does it mean to be dead? Obviously, Paul was not referring to physical death because physically dead people do not read. Paul meant spiritual death, and yet this concept is not defined in Scripture. If we judge the nature of spiritual death by the nature of physical death, we might think that spiritual death is a cessation of being. Yet that could not be the case, because people were spiritually dead even while they were physically alive. We have to put the pieces of the puzzle together from a number of different Scripture passages to get a fuller understanding of what it means to be “dead.”
The fundamental characteristic of spiritual death seems to be “separation from God,” not “a cessation of being.” Romans 5 gives us the soundest clue: “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (vv. 6–11).
When Jesus gave us new life, we were reconciled. Spiritual death, then, must be a state of being unreconciled, or separated, cut off, spiritually estranged from God. The penalty of that unreconciled state is eternal separation and destruction. Romans 3:23 states that all sinned, and Romans 6:23 states that the penalty of sin is death.
The solution is that Christ, who did not need to die, since he was sinless, died for us (Rom. 5:8). In doing so, he conquered death and ascended into heaven with power over death (Heb. 2:14–15). Jesus breaks the power of death over his children. His children are placed in Christ (Rom. 6:3–4), experience death with/in him (Col. 2:20), and pass from death into life (John 5:24) in him. We still die physically, but spiritually we are born again and made spiritually alive in Christ at the moment of our salvation (John 3:16).
B. Transgressions (v. 1)
“Transgress” (paraptoma) means, literally, “to stumble,” “to slip,” or “to fall”; and thus its primary reference is to a false step, a blunder. It could be used to describe someone losing the way and straying from the right road, or it could be used for a man failing to grasp and slipping from the truth. Transgression is failing to take the right road when we could have or missing the truth that we should have known. It is the failure to reach the goal we ought to have reached. It can refer to something unintentional or unpremeditated. Nevertheless, it brings spiritual death.
C. Sins (v. 1)
“Sins” (hamartia) is an archery term which literally means “a missing of the mark.” Sin is the failure to hit the target of God’s holiness. Sin is not merely murder or rape or criminal activity. Sin is also a failure to do all the good we should have done. This concept of sin includes all of us and validates the truth which Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This understanding of sin ought to convince the best of persons that he cannot get to heaven by being good, because Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.”
In his Daily Study Bible, William Barclay writes:
Is a man as good a husband as he might be? Does he try to make life easier for his wife? Does he inflict his moods on his family? Is a woman as good a wife as she might be? Does she really take an interest in her husband’s work and try to understand his problems and his worries? Are we as good parents as we might be? Do we discipline and train our children as we ought, or do we too often shirk the issue? As our children grow older, do we come nearer to them, or do they drift away until conversation is often difficult and we and they are practically strangers? Are we as good sons and daughters as we might be? Do we ever even try to say thank you for what has been done for us? Do we ever see the hurt look in our parents’ eyes and know that we put it there? Are we as good workmen as we could be? Is every working hour filled with our most conscientious work and is every task done as well as we could possibly do it?
When we realize what sin is, we come to see that it is not something which theologians have invented. It is something with which life is permeated. It is the failure in any sphere of life to be what we ought to be and could be (Galatians and Ephesians, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1959, p. 96). Seen in this light, all of us have to admit that we are all sinners.
D. Mercy (v. 4)
Mercy is a character quality of God which motivates him to refrain from inflicting punishment or pain on an offender or enemy who is in his power. God offers to extend mercy to anyone as long as that offer of mercy does not interfere with another of his character qualities. For example, God is also just, and he will not extend mercy if it sacrifices his justice. In a legal sense, mercy may involve acts of pardon, forgiveness, or the canceling of penalties. In each case mercy is experienced and exercised by a person who has power or authority over another person. The person under authority has no claim of deliverance.
Because of his mercy, God extends to everyone the offer of salvation in Christ (John 3:16), which allows them to escape the legal penalty of death under which they sit and will continue to sit if they choose to refuse God’s mercy.
E. Grace (vv. 5, 7–8)
Grace is the root characteristic of God which produced our salvation. We cannot understand chapter 2 unless we understand grace. Grace is defined as “undeserved favor freely bestowed on humanity by God.” God’s mercy led him to offer humanity the gift of salvation even though humanity sinned and fell away from God. Sin caused spiritual death and separated each sinner from God for eternity. God so loved the world (John 3:16) that he was unwilling to allow man to continue in this separated condition. Salvation from sin and death was created by God’s grace. Humans accept it through faith in Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross, not by doing something by themselves. In salvation God forgives sin, causes a person to be born again, and brings that person to himself forever.
F. Faith (v. 8)
God’s part in salvation is grace. Our part is faith. Even the faith to believe is a gift of grace (Eph. 2:8). Without faith, we cannot be saved. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Some interpreters suggest that faith is believing in spite of the fact that there is nothing to believe. Or worse, faith is believing in spite of evidence to the contrary. These are inadequate, wrong definitions of faith. Biblical faith is not merely a matter of intellectually agreeing with truth. The Bible says that “the demons believe … and shudder” (Jas. 2:19). Biblical faith means “believing God and acting accordingly.” It means accepting as true the biblical message that God in grace has provided salvation for you. It means acting on that belief by committing your life to Jesus, letting him be your Savior and taking your own hands off any attempt to win or earn salvation. It means continuing to act on that belief by letting Jesus be Savior of every minute you live, letting him guide in every decision you make, letting him determine what is right and what is wrong for you.[2]
Discussion Questions:
1. Describe the difference between your life in Christ and before Christ.
2. How would you define the grace of God to a person who has no relationship with God? What does the grace of God mean in your own life?
3. What is the relationship between salvation by grace and being created for good works?[3]
PRAYER:
[1] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 117–118.
[2] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 119–121.
[3] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 124.
SERMON REVIEW:
Who you were. (Before Christ)
Dead
Disobedient
Doomed
What God did. (Through Christ)
Loved Us
Saved Us
Exalted Us
Keeps Us
Who you are now. (In Christ)
His Workmanship
Created for good works
Part of His plan
QUESTIONS:
- What did the message teach me about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit?
- What did the message teach me about the human condition?
- Is there anything I need to confess, repent, or be grateful for, because of this passage?
- How do I need help in believing and applying this scripture to my life?
- How can I encourage others with this passage?
Life Application:
God Is Not Finished with You Yet!
What does it mean to be God’s workmanship? I vividly remember attending, almost back-to-back, showings of the works of two major artists. The first, at the University of Notre Dame, was a display of the etchings of Rembrandt. The second was a display of most of the major works of Georgia O’Keefe at the Chicago Art Institute. Each well-known artist has a distinctive style that sets him apart from all other artists. After learning about a given artist, you often can readily identify many of his works.
If you see weird little color cubes that look like pieces of a puzzle put together wrong, you know you are looking at Pablo Picasso. If you see limp objects draped like wet laundry over foreboding landscapes, you know you are looking at Salvador Dali. If you see figures that are stretched up two or three times their normal height, you are looking at El Greco.
You can tell much about an artist by looking at his art. You can observe Van Gogh’s gradual progression into insanity by looking at his succession of several self-portraits painted over a period of years. Look at Michaelangelo, and you see an idealist. Look at Norman Rockwell, and you see an optimist. Look closely at the art, and you will discover the artist. You and I are works of art; and we will be on display, in a sense, throughout eternity, to manifest to the universe the glory of God.
Now, catch yourself, resist the temptation to say, “If I’m a work of art, it isn’t going to be much of a display!” The first reaction which most of us have is to denigrate ourselves. Let’s look at it in another way that may help us to believe that it is true. Rather than seeing yourself as a painting, imagine yourself as a marble statue. You’ve heard at least one of the versions of the old story about when a sculptor was asked how he created his stone masterpiece of Robert E. Lee (or whoever it was), he said, “I just got a big block of marble and chipped away everything that didn’t look like Robert E. Lee.”
A sculptor will tell you that he sees his figure in the finest detail before he ever begins to chip at the stone. In that sense, he does just chip away everything that doesn’t look like what he is creating.
We are, in a sense a big block of marble when we become a Christian. God, the Great Sculptor, knows, down to the last detail, what he wants that block to look like before he begins to work on us. We, however, do not usually have a clear sense of the Sculptor’s goal. We look at ourselves after God has begun to shape us but before he has finished his work. We see that the neat, clean block of stone has been chipped and roughed up, but we do not see the finished product yet. In this incomplete state, we conclude incorrectly that that is all there is, that what we are now is all we will ever be.
You say, “This isn’t beautiful. This isn’t a work of art.”
But God is not finished with you yet.
You reply, “This big corner over here doesn’t look like it belongs.”
But God is not finished with you yet.
“This part is chipped and rough!”
But God is not finished with you yet.
“This part over here hasn’t even been touched!”
But God is not finished with you yet.
“This part needs to be sanded, smoothed, and polished.”
But God is not finished with you yet.
To every imperfection we see, the answer is, “God is not finished with us yet.” It won’t be there when he is finished. We’ll be perfect, complete, flawless. A tribute to the glory of our Creator. The universe will take one look at us and cry out, “Glory to God!”
That’s what it means to be God’s workmanship. But we must be patient. God is not finished with us yet.[1]
Digging Deeper:
A. Dead (v. 1)
“You were dead in your transgressions and sins.…” What does it mean to be dead? Obviously, Paul was not referring to physical death because physically dead people do not read. Paul meant spiritual death, and yet this concept is not defined in Scripture. If we judge the nature of spiritual death by the nature of physical death, we might think that spiritual death is a cessation of being. Yet that could not be the case, because people were spiritually dead even while they were physically alive. We have to put the pieces of the puzzle together from a number of different Scripture passages to get a fuller understanding of what it means to be “dead.”
The fundamental characteristic of spiritual death seems to be “separation from God,” not “a cessation of being.” Romans 5 gives us the soundest clue: “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (vv. 6–11).
When Jesus gave us new life, we were reconciled. Spiritual death, then, must be a state of being unreconciled, or separated, cut off, spiritually estranged from God. The penalty of that unreconciled state is eternal separation and destruction. Romans 3:23 states that all sinned, and Romans 6:23 states that the penalty of sin is death.
The solution is that Christ, who did not need to die, since he was sinless, died for us (Rom. 5:8). In doing so, he conquered death and ascended into heaven with power over death (Heb. 2:14–15). Jesus breaks the power of death over his children. His children are placed in Christ (Rom. 6:3–4), experience death with/in him (Col. 2:20), and pass from death into life (John 5:24) in him. We still die physically, but spiritually we are born again and made spiritually alive in Christ at the moment of our salvation (John 3:16).
B. Transgressions (v. 1)
“Transgress” (paraptoma) means, literally, “to stumble,” “to slip,” or “to fall”; and thus its primary reference is to a false step, a blunder. It could be used to describe someone losing the way and straying from the right road, or it could be used for a man failing to grasp and slipping from the truth. Transgression is failing to take the right road when we could have or missing the truth that we should have known. It is the failure to reach the goal we ought to have reached. It can refer to something unintentional or unpremeditated. Nevertheless, it brings spiritual death.
C. Sins (v. 1)
“Sins” (hamartia) is an archery term which literally means “a missing of the mark.” Sin is the failure to hit the target of God’s holiness. Sin is not merely murder or rape or criminal activity. Sin is also a failure to do all the good we should have done. This concept of sin includes all of us and validates the truth which Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This understanding of sin ought to convince the best of persons that he cannot get to heaven by being good, because Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.”
In his Daily Study Bible, William Barclay writes:
Is a man as good a husband as he might be? Does he try to make life easier for his wife? Does he inflict his moods on his family? Is a woman as good a wife as she might be? Does she really take an interest in her husband’s work and try to understand his problems and his worries? Are we as good parents as we might be? Do we discipline and train our children as we ought, or do we too often shirk the issue? As our children grow older, do we come nearer to them, or do they drift away until conversation is often difficult and we and they are practically strangers? Are we as good sons and daughters as we might be? Do we ever even try to say thank you for what has been done for us? Do we ever see the hurt look in our parents’ eyes and know that we put it there? Are we as good workmen as we could be? Is every working hour filled with our most conscientious work and is every task done as well as we could possibly do it?
When we realize what sin is, we come to see that it is not something which theologians have invented. It is something with which life is permeated. It is the failure in any sphere of life to be what we ought to be and could be (Galatians and Ephesians, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1959, p. 96). Seen in this light, all of us have to admit that we are all sinners.
D. Mercy (v. 4)
Mercy is a character quality of God which motivates him to refrain from inflicting punishment or pain on an offender or enemy who is in his power. God offers to extend mercy to anyone as long as that offer of mercy does not interfere with another of his character qualities. For example, God is also just, and he will not extend mercy if it sacrifices his justice. In a legal sense, mercy may involve acts of pardon, forgiveness, or the canceling of penalties. In each case mercy is experienced and exercised by a person who has power or authority over another person. The person under authority has no claim of deliverance.
Because of his mercy, God extends to everyone the offer of salvation in Christ (John 3:16), which allows them to escape the legal penalty of death under which they sit and will continue to sit if they choose to refuse God’s mercy.
E. Grace (vv. 5, 7–8)
Grace is the root characteristic of God which produced our salvation. We cannot understand chapter 2 unless we understand grace. Grace is defined as “undeserved favor freely bestowed on humanity by God.” God’s mercy led him to offer humanity the gift of salvation even though humanity sinned and fell away from God. Sin caused spiritual death and separated each sinner from God for eternity. God so loved the world (John 3:16) that he was unwilling to allow man to continue in this separated condition. Salvation from sin and death was created by God’s grace. Humans accept it through faith in Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross, not by doing something by themselves. In salvation God forgives sin, causes a person to be born again, and brings that person to himself forever.
F. Faith (v. 8)
God’s part in salvation is grace. Our part is faith. Even the faith to believe is a gift of grace (Eph. 2:8). Without faith, we cannot be saved. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Some interpreters suggest that faith is believing in spite of the fact that there is nothing to believe. Or worse, faith is believing in spite of evidence to the contrary. These are inadequate, wrong definitions of faith. Biblical faith is not merely a matter of intellectually agreeing with truth. The Bible says that “the demons believe … and shudder” (Jas. 2:19). Biblical faith means “believing God and acting accordingly.” It means accepting as true the biblical message that God in grace has provided salvation for you. It means acting on that belief by committing your life to Jesus, letting him be your Savior and taking your own hands off any attempt to win or earn salvation. It means continuing to act on that belief by letting Jesus be Savior of every minute you live, letting him guide in every decision you make, letting him determine what is right and what is wrong for you.[2]
Discussion Questions:
1. Describe the difference between your life in Christ and before Christ.
2. How would you define the grace of God to a person who has no relationship with God? What does the grace of God mean in your own life?
3. What is the relationship between salvation by grace and being created for good works?[3]
PRAYER:
[1] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 117–118.
[2] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 119–121.
[3] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 124.