June 9, 2013

Ephesians 2 details the transformation that takes place in the life of a believer.

1.     We WERE dead in our transgressions and sins (vs. 1).

2.     We WERE objects of God’s wrath (vs. 3b).

We can’t understand God’s love without understanding His wrath.  We can never embrace how big the love of God is without understanding how angry sin makes Him.  God’s wrath becomes a measuring stick for God’s love.  In order for God to overlook our sin, He had to pour out His wrath on Jesus instead of us.  Who of you would sacrifice your own child to keep someone else from getting what they rightfully deserved?

3.    We WERE separate from Christ (vs. 12).

4.    We WERE excluded from citizenship in Israel and we WERE foreigners to the covenants of the promise (vs 12).

I Peter 2:9-10 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

5.    We WERE without hope and without God in the world (vs. 12).

There is no worse emotion than hopelessness.  To be in the world without God?  I can hardly fathom that existence.  Life is hard even with God.

6.    We WERE empty, but now we have been filled by God’s Spirit (vs. 22)

What takes us from “you were” to “you are” is the grace of God. (vs. 8)  No self-effort, but only God’s gifts of grace.

What do you need to become?  You can become it, only through Christ and His grace.

Pastor Melissa