Scripture reading: Ephesians 2:1-10.

Sermon text: Ephesians 2:11-22.

“Guilty.” Tuscaloosa made the news again this past week, and again for a tragedy. This tragedy didn’t come from nature. This time, one man’s rage threw him into the nation’s headlines. Thanks to modern technology, the police knew the man’s name within 24 hours, and his confession will almost certainly seal his fate.

“Guilty.” At some point, all of us find ourselves hearing this word applied to us. Our parents caught us doing something we shouldn’t have done; our coworkers or supervisors or teachers caught us neglecting something we should have done. Even without video evidence, they know we’re guilty, and so do we.

It gets worse. God, in His omniscience, knows even those actions that no one else can ever know. God, in His omnipresence, stands beside us in every action we make, meaning we can never claim innocence in His presence. When St. Paul wrote that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), he may as well have added one extra word:

“Guilty.”

Yet, when St. Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians, he gave us the best news of eternity. Even though we stand guilty before Him, God’s bountiful mercy raises us from the filth of guilt to the glory of eternal life. Chapter 2 of Ephesians records some of the best news humanity will ever hear. Chapter 2 tells us of God’s great mercy and the joy He gives us through that mercy.

St. Paul began this passage with news that condemns everyone. In verses 1-3, St. Paul wrote, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Note that St. Paul apty describes the human spiritual condition without God’s mercy: We’re dead. Sin kills us spiritually, and through this death, we find ourselves enslaved to our trespasses and sins. Even worse, we live as “children of wrath,” meaning we actively rebel against God’s commands and His desires for us.

The dead cannot bring themselves back to life. If all humanity dies in sin, how do we find life? How can we ever expect eternal life when sin has killed us?

God’s mercy led to the answer. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Notice that God loved us “even when we were dead in our trespasses.” Our rebellion did not dim God’s love for humanity; our love did not thwart His plan to rescue us. God “made us alive together with Christ.” God raised Jesus from the dead, a resurrection that led to hope for us all.

God not only “made us alive” with Christ; He also “raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places” through Christ. When we confess Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection (Romans 10:9-10), we receive the glorious blessing of access to God the Father; even in this life, we begin receiving the benefits of our adoption as God’s children (Romans 8:15). In the life to come, we will see the “immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The blessings of this life — the beauty of God’s creation, the love with which He surrounds us, the joy of worship with our fellow believers — only give us an infinitely small taste of the ecstasy we will experience for all eternity.

Why would God do this? What did we do to deserve this lavish mercy?

Nothing. We can do nothing to deserve God’s mercy; nothing we could ever accomplish would overcome our spiritual deadness, could compensate for our rebellion against God. Rather, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Only by God’s grace, by the unmerited favor He shows us, do we receive eternal life. God gives eternal life to everyone who has faith to believe in Jesus, confessing Him as Lord.

I believe that faith deserves some discussion. In the movie Angels and Demons, the protagonist, Robert Langdon, says, “Faith is a gift that I have yet to receive.” Something seems wrong with this statement, and the error falls in the belief that we lack enough evidence for anyone to have faith that God “exists and that He rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). The resurrection of Jesus occurred in history; the resurrection of Jesus demonstrates all we need to know about God’s love for us, about His power over sin and death. The resurrection of Jesus demonstrates the reality of a living righteous God, of our rebellion, and of His determination to restore our relationship with Him.

What about the “after” from our salvation? It seems most people today want to focus on salvation, only to find themselves squirming when the new Christian asks, “Now what?”

St. Paul wrote, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We demonstrate our faith before others by the good works we do, those for which God created us. Every Christian has a responsibility to live to a higher standard, a standard which shows everyone around us that the Holy Spirit lives within us.

This especially holds true for those of us lacking Jewish ancestry. As Gentiles, we were “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Every Gentile nation worshiped something, but none of us worshiped the true God. The Jews failed in their calling to serve as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6), leaving us with no one to show us the way to God. However, again in His mercy, “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” St. Paul will have more to say about this in chapter 3. For now, it’s enough to know that the blood of Christ brings us “near” to God for salvation.

Gentiles now enjoy peace with God because Christ Himself “is our peace, who has made us both one” so that both Jew and Gentile can come in faith to God and experience His bountiful mercy. Christ accomplished this “by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” The Mosaic law, the law that once separated Jew from Gentile before God, no longer separates us, because Christ has created “one new man in place of the two, so making peace.” Every Christian shares a spiritual heritage with the Jews; as St. Paul had written earlier to the Galatians, “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29).

Through Christ, who “came and preached peace” to us, “We both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” This means that we “are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” Christ has joined Jewish and Gentile believers into one family, one household, the household of faith, built on the teachings of the Apostles and anchored on Christ Himself.

Just think of this: Although God could have declared us guilty for all eternity, through His lavish grace and bountiful mercy, He has given us eternal life through faith in Jesus as our Lord. What a glorious thought!

This infinite grace comes in spite of our sin. This infinite grace gives us great privileges, but it also brings great responsibility. We must perform the “good works” which God created us to do (v. 10) so that the world will see the evidence of God’s grace at work in our lives. We do these works not out of duty, but out of love and out of gratitude to God for His grace.

Do you want this grace? It’s yours for the asking. Have you experienced this grace? Demonstrate its presence in your life through the works God prepared for you to perform. God’s infinite grace will lead to infinite joy to all who believe.