You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through 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 ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards 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 the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
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A couple years back, I was driving
through the middle-of-nowhere in Alabama.
There was nothing around me, and seeing as how I was driving a smooth,
new rental car, I might have happened to accelerate to a rate of speed a bit
above what was recommended for that particular road. It was a sunny day, and I had some Bon Jovi,
and so I just moved right along…
Until a patrol officer noticed that
I was moving a bit too fast and pulled me over.
It was a bit of a downer on a great trip, and the ticket he gave me was
a rather strong reminder of how Alabama views those of us who drive too
fast.
But imagine that, rather than
giving me a ticket, he had walked up to my window, leaned over, reached in and
handed me a winning ticket to this week’s Powerball lottery, which clocked in
around $587 million. Imagine that rather
than having to pay my fine, I found myself in possession of a reward far
greater than I deserved.
Pretty great, right? We’d all be pretty excited about such a turn
of events.
Or how about this—it’s been the
year of protests, right? So picture
yourself very angry against the current administration. Imagine that you discover the president is
going to be in Chattanooga and this infuriates you. In fact, you’re so angry that you decide to
go actively protest his presence. You
discover the path the motorcade will be driving and you go find a bucket of
rocks, then position yourself along the path and await his arrival. When the time comes, you start throwing rocks
at the limo, only to be shocked when the door opens, the president steps out, invites
you into the comforts of the limo, ferries you onto Air Force One, takes you to
the White House and gives you a permanent seat in the Oval Office, to sit next
to him and share in the privilege of the office. You’d feel pretty silly about that bucket of
rocks you were holding, right?
We’d agree that both are absurd
situations, right? Both are so far
beyond reality that we wouldn’t even dare to dream about them. The world doesn’t work that way, right? There’s no such thing as a free lunch,
right? We sure aren’t going to rest our
hopes on such wild schemes, right?
And yet, each of these pales in
comparison to the gift of Christ Jesus we have.
We cannot make accurate comparisons when we’re talking about the
forgiveness we have in Christ, because what we have been given so radically outweighs
anything this world can give. The reward
we have in Christ is far richer than all the gold in all the kingdoms of the
world—we have life with Christ, the glory that belongs to Christ is given to
us, freely. It didn’t come for free, for
Christ paid the cost with his own life, but it is given to us freely. And all out of love, for it was given while
we are in open rebellion, each sin a rock thrown against God. Each and every sin is an offense against God—and
yet God has been gracious enough to offer forgiveness, to offer life, as a
gift.
Keeping that in mind, let’s turn to
this passage from Ephesians.
We begin in death. That’s right, death. I want us to pause for a moment and consider
the cost of our sins, the consequence of our sin. It is death.
How many of you have ever committed a sin? Even just one sin, even though it might have
been many years ago. Any perfect people
here? No. Then that means that we all deserve
death. Eternal, permanent death is what
should await us. Now, many of us can sit
here and compare ourselves to our neighbors, to others, and say that we’re
better than them. We can say that we’re
pretty good people. In the world’s
terms, that may be true. But we don’t
live according to the world’s terms—we live according to God’s terms. And, according to God’s terms, each and every
one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. When we look at Jesus Christ and compare
ourselves to him, the perfect human, we fall short. We sin.
And that’s not ok. It’s not
something to laugh off—sin is a serious problem, so serious that it condemns us
to death.
Well, at least it would, were it
not for the grace of God. Paul starts
out talking about how each and every one of us followed the ruler of the power
of the air, that is the devil, and so were dead. And, without the intervention of Christ, we
would still be that way.
But God, Paul says, is rich in
mercy and loved us, even when we were in active rebellion. We were dead, Paul says, but God made us
alive in Christ. There we were, throwing
stones against the motorcade, actively sinning and unable not to, and God
swallowed us up in his love. Your Father
in heaven came down to us, became one of us, and died on the cross so that you
might have life. Notice, here—we’re not
just saved, Paul says, but seated with him in the heavenly places so that God
might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us. God wants to pour out blessings upon us. It’s not enough just to save us—God wants to
shower us in love, in wonder and grace.
It would have been enough to save
us, right? If the EMS comes to a house
and finds someone dying, it’s enough just to save their life, right? Imagine the EMS not only saving their life
but also giving them a mansion in the nicest part of town and a million dollars
and a new helicopter. It’s crazy,
right?
But our God is a God of abundance,
and when that is paired with love and mercy, what we see is a God who is
anxious to bless his children, to pour out love upon them. He sees our sin and our hopelessness, and in
Christ there is an answer—there is hope and life, and so he not only saves us
from the fate we deserve, but also gives us a seat beside Christ in the
heavenly kingdom for all of eternity!
This is abundance the likes of which we will never witness on this
earth. This is a love deeper and wider
than you can imagine. This is God being
more generous than we deserve, and it’s all free.
Paul goes on, in the last
paragraph, to talk about how freely this is given. Paul tells us that our salvation is through
faith, not works—we could not do it ourselves, but it is a gift.
Now, think about gifts. How many of you plan on giving Christmas
gifts this year? How many of you will withhold
your Christmas gift until the person to whom you are giving the gift writes and
adequate thank you letter and proves themselves worthy of the gift? Rachel and I are currently buying Caleb gifts
in the hopes that he lives a good life and will receive them when he turns 18
and proves himself worthy of a set of blocks, right?
No!
Of course not! No one gives gifts
this way—we give gifts freely, without condition. And if we can do that, why do we expect God
to make it so much harder? God gives us
the gift of forgiveness and love before we can earn because he knows we cannot
earn it. No one could earn the right to
sit next to Christ Jesus in heaven for all of eternity. But God gives it to us. He forgives our sins in Jesus Christ and
offers us life.
Paul tells us what we were created
for in the final sentence. He tells us
our purpose here on earth—for good works.
Before the world was formed, God had a purpose in creating you. So that you would do good works, so that you
would love your neighbor and strangers you have never met. So that you would give love freely. So that you would feed the hungry and clothe
the naked and work for justice for the poor.
You were created for this reason—for good works.
But God doesn’t tell us that good
works are the condition for our salvation.
There is no condition for that—it is a gift, a free gift, and God gives
it to you. To me. To all of us.
God gives it in Jesus Christ, and merely asks us to receive the gift, to
let it transform us. God hopes that the
gift will change how you live, that it might help you find your true purpose,
serving others, but God doesn’t tell you that if you don’t live right, he will
take the gift back. God gives the gift.
So let’s ask that question again—how
many of you have sinned? Another
question—how many of you have sinned long ago and are still carrying that
burden around with you? How many of you
have sins for which you refuse to forgive yourself? How many of you are still trying to earn God’s
love, to earn salvation? How many of you
are trying to keep God from forgiving you?
Let it go. Let yourself sink into the wondrous grace of
God, and receive the free gift. It’s a
gift. In Christ, we see our hope for
eternity, our peace with our past, our strength for today. In Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God.
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