I pray you are learning and growing as much as I am. I am beyond thankful for such a loving God. Today we are going to read Ephesians 2:1-9 (one of my favorite passages) and see just how gracious He is.
“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. 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. 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.”
Uhhhhhh you guys! I cannot get enough of this! Look at how incredible He is, look at how much love He has for us! I can’t even rap my mind around it. The last two days we read about how humanity ruined God’s goodness with disobedience and how God had a plan to bring restoration and salvation from sin through Jesus Christ. Satan twists His words and manipulates us daily. How many times do we tell ourselves that our sin isn’t that bad? How often do we think, “well it’s not hurting anyone so why is it a big deal?” So many people live in sin without repentance, and they are blind to the dangerous reality and repercussion of their sin. Not one of us is blameless in this. Not even myself. Those of us that fall into those thoughts, who doubt the seriousness of our sin, who believe that we aren’t seeing repercussions, so we continue in our sin- we NEED the gospel. We need Jesus every single day. Those sins that we fall into, the ones where nobody knows, the ones that don’t seem big, the ones where we know we shouldn’t but fall into temptation anyways (and probably feel bad afterwards but keep going back), this is an attack from the enemy himself… and we’re LETTING him win these battles. But we serve a God, who knew our struggles even before we did, and He has already won the war.
The Apostle Paul describes our depravity. Paul does not make light of our sinfulness, and he is very clear about who we are without Christ- we are dead. Without Jesus, we are considered spiritually dead. There is no life in us. Have you met someone who doesn’t live for Jesus? I have seen some hopeless people, and I pray for them. Besides sharing the gospel, we can show them what life looks like. Without Christ, we live under Satan’s authority, Satan controlled us, and we certainly walked in the ways of the enemy. We believe that if we fall into our sin, that we will find joy and maybe peace, but eventually it would only bring death in the future.
Paul finishes this passage by describing the reality of our sinful nature. He declared that if we are without Christ, “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3) which means that because of our sin, we faced God’s wrath, which is righteous anger toward sin. God loves us, but He detests sin. God’s wrath demonstrates His love, holiness, and justice. Think of it like a parent, parents don’t hate their children, but they need to learn the right way to go, so the parents punish the child. God is fully holy; He cannot be around sin- which is why He sent Jesus. So that, one day, we could be with Him. Thankfully Paul didn’t end Ephesians 2 here, otherwise we’d be without hope. Paul continues by giving us encouragement when he says, “But God”. We don’t deserve to be rescued from our sin, but God saved us out of His rich mercy and great love. We were dead in our sins, God made us alive in Christ. Through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and the grace we receive from Him, we are forgiven. Our position with Christ also means that our authority changes through His salvation. Because we are saved by Christ and brought into His kingdom, we are no longer under Satan’s control. Can I get a hallelujah?! Paul makes it known that this incredible salvation freedom is a gift of God’s grace. We could never receive this by our own doing, it is all grace through faith in Jesus Christ. I pray the reality of who we are without Christ drives us to our knees before the King of Kings.
Let’s discuss what we just read. I have some questions that I want you to think about, write them down, and if you’d like to comment below, we can discuss them together!
- How do you see our world downplay the seriousness of sin?
- In what ways do you need to take your sin seriously?
- How does God’s intervention in your sinfulness humble you?
When our sin meets the Saviour, our lives are forever changed. Take a moment and just give Him praise. After reading this study, all I could think of was the song Goodness of God. If you don’t know the song here is the link: https://www.bing.com/ck/ Today’s verse for Lent prayer is Isaiah 53:4-5 and the prayer prompt is, “Consider the immense suffering Jesus experienced before His death on the cross. Thank Jesus for bearing your sickness, carrying your pain, suffering because of your iniquities, and healing you by His wounds.”
I hope you enjoy this study and decide to come back. I hope you enjoy the beautiful sunset that was made by our loving Father and y’all have a wonderful night.
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