06 June 9, 2013, Created For Good Works, Ephesians 2:1-10

EPHESIANS 2:1-10
CREATED FOR
GOOD WORKS
JUNE 9,2013
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
USA

JUNE MEMORY VERSE
Matthew 28:19-20
“Go, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to
observe everything I have
commanded you. And
remember, I am with you
always to the end of the
age.” Matthew 28:19-20

The date for our next SS
class luncheon will
be Sunday, June 23.
It will be in the
Chapel Dining Room.
The cost will be $6.00 per
person.

LET FREEDOM
RING CONCERT
Sunday, June 30th
6:00 p.m.
After the concert, we will
have a Block Party on
President Street.

The Capital City Stage
Band will be with us and
we will have inflatables
for the children to play
in.
We will be serving
“Homemade Ice Cream!”

There is a sign up sheet in
our Sunday School roll
book for people to
volunteer.
The sign-up sheet will
also be in our record book
on June 16 and 23.

A follow up message will
be mailed out with details
about where to bring the
ice cream.

Matthew 5:16 NASB
16 Let your light shine
before men in such a way
that they may see your
good works, and glorify
your Father Who is in
Heaven.

CREATED FOR
GOOD WORKS
Ephesians 2:1-10

Wiersbe's Expository
Outlines on the New
Testament. Copyright ©
1992 by Chariot Victor
Publishing, an imprint of
Cook Communication
Ministries.

The MacArthur New
Testament Commentary,
Copyright © Moody Press
John MacArthur, Jr.
1983-2007.

Ephesians 2:1-10 NASB
1 And you were dead in
your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you formerly
walked according to
the course of this world,

according to the prince of
the power of the air, of the
spirit that is now working
in the sons of
disobedience.

3 Among them we too
all formerly lived in the
lusts of our flesh,
indulging the desires of
the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature
children of wrath, even as

the rest.
4 But God, being rich in
mercy, because of His
great love with which He
loved us, 5 even when we
were dead in our
transgressions, made us

alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been
saved),
6 and raised us up with
Him, and seated us with
Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the ages to
come He might show the
surpassing riches of His
grace in kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have
been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works,
so that no one may boast.

10 For we are His
workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God
prepared beforehand so
that we would walk in
them. Ephesians 2:1-10

Wiersbe divides this
Ephesians 2 passage into:
What we were (vv. 1-3).
What God did (vv. 4-9).
What we are now (v. 10).

Ephesians, chapter 2:

Ephesians 2:1 NASB

What a picture of the lost
sinner!
To begin with, lost people
are dead spiritually; that
is, the inner man is dead
to spiritual things.

In Luke and John we see
the resurrections of three
people that Jesus raised
from the dead:

(1) a twelve-year-old girl,
Luke 8:49-55;
(2) a young man,
Luke 7:12-15; and
(3) an older man, Lazarus,
in John 11. Jesus said,
“you will see God’s
glory”

*Each of them was dead;
the only difference was
their state of
decomposition.
*Lazarus had been buried
for four days (John 11:39)
and had begun to smell!

All lost sinners are dead,
regardless of age; the only
difference between the
unsaved church member
and the vagrant on skid
row is the state of decay.

Lost sinners are not only
dead, they are enslaved
by the world and live for
its pleasures and fashions.

Tell them that this world
is under the
condemnation of God and
is passing away, and they
will laugh at you.

*They are also enslaved
by Satan, who is at work
in the lives of unsaved
people.
*This does not mean that
he necessarily makes
them drunkards or

murderers; his usual tactic
is to give people false
security through self-
righteousness.

Jesus called the self-
righteous Pharisees
"children of the devil"
(John 8:44), yet they were
religious, upstanding
citizens.

We are born by nature
children of wrath; when
we reject Christ
knowingly after reaching
an age of accountability,
we become children of
disobedience by choice.

But when we trust Jesus
Christ, we become
children of God.

Ephesians 2:4 NASB
4 But God, being
rich in mercy, because
of His great love with
which He loved us,

"But God!"
These words are among
the greatest in the Bible.

God could have allowed
us to go on in sin and live
eternally with the devil in
hell, but instead He chose
to save us. (Romans 5:8)

Romans 5:8 NASB
8 But God demonstrates
His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.

He gave us life, raised us
from the grave of sin, and
took us out of the
graveyard!
More than that, He made
us members of Christ!

We have been quickened
together, raised together,
and we sit together in the
heavenlies.
God did this because He
is rich in mercy and great
in love.

Justice is God giving me
what I deserve (death).
Mercy means that God
does not give me what I
deserve (death); but grace
means that He gives me
what I don't deserve.

We are His workmanship,
His new creation
(2 Corinthians 5:17).

2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB

17 Therefore if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new
creature; the old things
passed away; behold, new
things have come.

Also read Philippians
2:12-13 and dare to
believe that God works in
you!

12b work out your
salvation with fear and
trembling;
13 for it is God Who is at
work in you, both to will
and to work for His good
pleasure. Philippians 2

What does the future
hold?
We do not know, but we
do know Who holds the
future.

The same loving Father
that chose us, called us,
and saved us has also
marked out wonderful
plans for our lives!

Ephesians 2:10
For we are His
workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good
works, which God
prepared beforehand, that
we should walk in them.

Although they have no
part in gaining salvation,
good works have a great
deal to do with living out
salvation.

No good works can
produce salvation, but
many good works are
produced by salvation.

"By this is My Father
glorified," Jesus said, "that
you bear much fruit, and
so prove to be My
disciples" (John 15:8).

*Good works do not bring
discipleship, but they
prove it is genuine.
*When God's people do
good deeds they bear fruit
for His kingdom and
bring glory to His name.

The Bible has much to say
about works.
It speaks of the works of
the law, which are good
but cannot save a person
(Galatians 2:16).

Galatians 2:16 NASB
16 nevertheless knowing
that a man is not justified
by the works of the Law
but through faith in Christ
Jesus, even we have

believed in Christ Jesus,
so that we may be
justified by faith in Christ
and not by the works
of the Law; since by the
works of the Law no flesh
will be justified. Gal. 2:16

It speaks of dead works
(Hebrews 6:1) and of
works, or deeds, of
darkness and of the flesh,
all of which are inherently
evil (Romans 13:12;
Gal 5:19-21; Eph 5:11).

Hebrews 6:1 NASB
1 Therefore leaving the
elementary teaching
about the Christ, let us
press on to maturity, not
laying again a foundation

of repentance from dead
works and of faith toward
God,
Hebrews 6:1 NASB

*All of those works are
done in man's own
strength and have nothing
to do with salvation.
*They will not survive the
fire!

What three things will be
in Heaven that are on
earth right now?

(1) All of God’s Word
(2) Some people
(3) Some of your works

Before we can do any
good work for the Lord,
He has to do His good
work in us.

By God's grace, made
effective through faith, we
become His
workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good
works.

God has ordained that we
then live lives of good
works, works done in His
power and for His glory.
“The righteous acts of the
saints” (Revelation 19:8).

Revelation 19:8 NASB
8 It was given to her to
clothe herself in fine linen,
bright and clean; for the
fine linen is the righteous
acts of the saints.

John 15:1-8
“I am the true Vine, and
My Father is the
Vinedresser. Every branch
in Me that does not bear
fruit, He takes away; and
every branch that bears

fruit, He prunes it, that it
may bear more fruit. You
are already clean because
of the word which I have
spoken to you. Abide in
Me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit

of itself, unless it abides in
the Vine, so neither can
you, unless you abide in
Me. I am the Vine, you are
the branches; he who
abides in Me, and I in
him, he bears much fruit;

for apart from Me you can
do nothing. If anyone
does not abide in Me, he
is thrown away as a
branch, and dries up; and
they gather them, and cast
them into the fire, and

they are burned. If you
abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it
shall be done for you. By
this is My Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit,

and so prove to be My
disciples.”
John 15:1-8

The same power that
created us in Christ Jesus
empowers us to do the
good works for which He
has redeemed us.
These are the, verifiers of
true salvation.

Righteous attitudes and
righteous acts proceed
from the transformed life'
now living in the
heavenlies.

To the Corinthians Paul
said there was in them
"an abundance for every
good deed" (2 Cor 9:8).

To Timothy he instructed
that the believer is
"equipped for every
good work”
(2 Timothy 3:17).

2 Peter 1:3 NIV
3 His divine power has
given us everything we
need for a godly life
through our knowledge of
Him who called us by His
own glory and goodness.

Christ died to bring to
Himself a people "zealous
for good deeds"
(Titus 2:14).

Even this is the work of
God, as Paul says: "work
out your salvation.., it is
God Who is at work in
you, both to will and to
work for His good
pleasure" (Phil 2:12-13).

1 Corinthians 3:6-15
NASB
6 I planted, Apollos
watered, but God was
causing the growth.

7 So then neither the one
who plants nor the one
who waters is anything,
but God Who causes the
growth.

8 Now he who plants and
he who waters are one;
but each will receive his
own reward according to
his own labor.

9 For we are God’s fellow
workers; you are God’s
field, God’s building.
10 According to the grace
of God which was given
to me, like a wise master
builder I laid a

foundation, and another is
building on it. But each
man must be careful how
he builds on it.

11 For no man can lay
a foundation other than
the one which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now if any man builds
on the foundation with
gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, straw,

13 each man’s work will
become evident; for the
day will show it because it
is to be revealed with fire,
and the fire itself will
test the quality of each
man’s work.

14 If any man’s work
which he has built on it
remains, he will receive a
reward.

15 If any man’s work is
burned up, he will suffer
loss; but he himself will
be saved, yet so as
through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:6-15
NASB

Paul's primary message
here is to believers, many
of whom had experienced
salvation years earlier.

He is not showing them
how to be saved, but how
they were saved, in order
to convince them that the
power that saved them is
the same power that
keeps them.

Just as they already had
been given everything
necessary for salvation,
they also had been given
everything necessary for
faithfully living the saved
life.

The greatest proof of a
Christian's divine
empowerment is his own
salvation and the
resulting good works that
God produces in and
through him (cf. John 15).

These good works are
expected because God
prepared beforehand, that
we should walk in them,
and that is why James
says faith is illegitimate if
works are not present

It is from poiema
(workmanship) that we
get our word “poem”,
a piece of literary
workmanship.

Before time began, God
designed us to be
conformed to the image of
His Son, Jesus Christ
(Romans 8:29).

Paul could therefore say
to the Philippians, "For I
am confident of this very
thing, that He Who began
a good work in you will
perfect it until the day of
Christ Jesus" (1:6).

The story is often told of
the rowdy, disruptive
young boy in a Sunday
school class who
continually frustrated his
teacher.

One morning the teacher
asked him, "Why do you
act like that? Don't you
know who made you?"
To which the boy replied,
"God did, but He ain't
through with me yet."

All of us are still
imperfect, uncut
diamonds being finished
by the divine Master
Craftsman.
PBPGINFWMY

PBPGINFWMY
Please Be Patient,
God Is Not Finished
With Me Yet

He is not finished with us
yet, but His work will not
cease until He has made
us into the perfect likeness
of His Son (1 John 3:2).

1 John 3:2 NASB
2 Beloved, now we are
children of God, and it
has not appeared as yet
what we will be. We
know that when He
appears,

we will be like Him,
because we will see Him
just as He is.
1 John 3:2 NASB

A famous actor was once
the guest of honor at a
social gathering where he
received many requests to
recite favorite excerpts
from various literary
works.

An old preacher who
happened to be there
asked the actor to recite
the Twenty-third Psalm.

The actor agreed on the
condition that the
preacher would also recite
it.

The actor's recitation was
beautifully intoned with
great dramatic emphasis,
for which he received
lengthy applause.

The preacher's voice was
rough and broken from
many years of preaching,
and his diction was
anything but polished.

But when he finished
there was not a dry eye in
the room.

When someone asked the
actor what made the
difference, he replied, "I
know the psalm, but he
knows the Shepherd."

Salvation does not come
from knowing about the
truth of Jesus Christ but
from intimately knowing
Christ Himself.

SALVATION IS
THROUGH FAITH
and that not of
yourselves,

that no one should boast.

Our response in salvation
is faith, but even that is
not of ourselves but is the
gift of God (Romans 12:3).
Faith is nothing that we
do in our own power or
by our own resources.

The following comments
are from John Piper's:
A Godward Life
Book Two
pp.327-332

This truth has profound
impact on how we pray.
Jesus gives us the example
in Luke 22:31-32.
Before Peter denies him
three times, Jesus says to
him, "Simon, Simon,

behold, Satan has
demanded to sift you like
wheat, but I have prayed for
you, that you faith may not
fail; and you, when once
you have turned again,
strengthen your brothers."

Jesus prays for Peter's faith
to be sustained even
through sin, because he
knows that God is the one
who sustains faith.

So we should pray for
ourselves and others in
this way.
Thus the man with the
epileptic boy cried out,
"I do believe; help my
unbelief" (Mark 9:24).

This is a good prayer. It
acknowledges that
without God we cannot
believe as we ought to
believe.

Similarly the apostles
pray to Jesus, "Increase
our faith!" (Luke 17:5).
They pray this way
because Jesus is the One
Who can do that.

This teaching about faith
being a gift of God raises
many questions.
God has answers for all of
them, even if we don't.

Let us seek to put the
teaching into practical
Biblical use, namely the
humbling of our pride
and the stimulation of our
prayers.

In other words, let us pray
daily:
"O Lord, thank you for
my faith. Sustain it,
Strengthen it. Deepen it.
Don't let it fail. Make it
the power of my life,

so that in everything I do
you get the glory as the
great Giver.
AMEN.

We know it is unbiblical
because right there in the
text the whole point of
Romans 12:6-8 is to exhort
Christians in just the
opposite way, namely, to
do something.

"Since we have gifts that
differ according to the
grace given to us, each of
us is to exercize them
accordingly; if prophesy,
according to the
proportion of his faith;

if service, in his serving;
or he who teaches, in his
teaching; or he who
exhorts, in his
exhortation; he who gives,
with liberality; he who
leads, with diligence;

he who shows mercy,
with cheerfulness."
(emphasis added).
In other words, exercize
your gift.
Don't let it lie dormant.

Take hold of it by faith
and use it.
FAN IT INTO FLAMES
SO YOU WON’T
QUENCH THE SPIRIT

Resist passivity and look
to God and say:
"Lord I know that you
have given me a gift for
some kind of ministry.
I am tired and I am
anxious that I will not do

a good job. But, Lord, I
trust You, not me and my
gift. I trust Your enabling
grace, In fact, I trust You
even to help me trust You
because You said that
faith is Your gift.

And I go to my ministry
(say my small group
leadership) tonight in the
strength that You supply
so that in everything You
may get the glory."

That's the point of 1 Peter
4:11, RSV (emphasis
added), "Whoever renders
service, let him do so as
one who renders it by the
strength which God supplies;
in order that in everything

God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ."
The gift of faith doesn't
replace service, it trusts in
power to do service.

We also know that
passivity is unbiblical
because of Paul's own
testimony in
1 Corinthians 15:10,
"By the grace of God I am
what I am, and His grace

toward me did not prove
vain; but I labored even
more than all of them, yet
not I, but the grace of God
with me."
He labored more than all
of them!

That is not passivity!
But look at the conviction
beneath it:
"Nevertheless it was not I,
but the grace of God with
me."

The great words,
"Not I, but grace" are not
energy destroying words,
but energy producing
words.

Listen to Paul again from
Colossians 1:28-29,
"We proclaim Christ,
admonishing every man
and teaching every man
with all wisdom, so that
we may present every

man complete in Christ.
For this purpose also
I labor, striving according
to His power, which
works mightily within
me" (emphasis added).
Paul labors, Paul strives.

But it is the mighty power
of Christ that works in
him, enabling him.
DON’T COAST!
GEORGE BLANDA
LOUIS GUY

The point is this:
God does not will instead
of our willing; He wills in
and through our willing.
God does not work
instead of our working,
but through our working.

God does not energize
instead of our having
energy; He energizes our
energy.
Therefore it is unbiblical
and irrational to say that
because the grace of God

produces an active trust in
God, we don't need to
exert an active trust in
God.

At the end of your life,
after decades of loving
ministry, however God
uses you to stir up the
obedience of faith in
others, what are you
going to say about the

grace of God and your
lifelong labors?
Are you going to boast?
No. You are going to use
the words of Paul in
Romans 15:18,
"For I will not presume to

speak of anything accept
what Christ has
accomplished through
me, resulting in the
obedience of the Gentiles.
You will say something
like a paraphrase of

1 Corinthians 4:7,
"What did I have that I
did not receive?
If then I received it, why
should I boast as if it were
not a gift.?"

The Lord gives spiritual
gifts to every Christian,
including the faith to use
them.
Let us pray that He will
measure out to us mighty
measures of faith.

Find your gift.
Embrace it by faith.
Use it in the strength God
supplies so that God will
get the glory and you
(and those you love) will
get the joy.

Heb 12:2 "Let us fix our
eyes on Jesus, the author
and perfecter of our
faith"

From John Piper's A
Godward Life Book Two
pp.327-332
GOD GIVES US
ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO
BASE OUR FAITH ON
(JOB)

This coming alive can be
accomplished by the
power of God because of
His love and mercy.

“All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God"
(Romans 3:23).
Sin is falling short of
God's glory, and falling
short of God's glory is sin.

As Paul had explained
two chapters earlier in
Romans, in its most basic
sense sin is failing to
glorify God.

Although fallen mankind
"knew God, they did not
honor Him as God"
(Romans 1:21).

Of all the epitaphs that
could have been written
for Herod, the words of
Acts 12:23 are the most
appropriate:

"An angel of the Lord
struck him because he did
not give God the glory,
and he was eaten by
worms and died."
Acts 12:23 NASB

Man's common state of
sin has often been
compared to a diverse
group of people standing
on the bank of the
Mississippi River (over a
mile wide).

Each of them is trying to
jump to the other side.
The little children and old
people can jump only a
few feet.

The larger children and
agile adults can jump
several times that far.
A few athletes can jump
several times farther still.
But none of them gets
near the other side.

Their degrees of success
vary only in relation to
each other.
In relation to achieving
the goal they are equal
failures.
They all fall short!

Jesus said,
"If you do good to those
who do good to you, what
credit is that to you? For
even sinners do the same"
(Luke 6:33).

On another occasion He
said,
"You then, being evil,
nevertheless know how to
give good gifts to your
children" (Luke 11:13).

A person apart from God
can only do humanly
good things.
But as the Lord points out
in both of those
statements, the person is
still a sinner, still evil by

nature, and still operating
on a motive less than that
of glorifying God.

When Paul and the others
were shipwrecked on the
island of Malta, Luke
reports that "the natives
showed us extraordinary
kindness" (Acts 28:2); yet
those natives remained

superstitious pagans (v 6).
A sinner's doing good is
good, but it cannot change
his nature or his basic
sphere of existence, and it
cannot reconcile him to
God.

2 in which you formerly
walked according to
the course of this world,
according to the

prince of the power of the
air, of the spirit that is
now working in the sons
of disobedience.

What we often call "the
spirit of the times" reflects
the wider course of this
world, a course in which
lost men are in agreement
about what is right and
wrong, valuable and

worthless, important and
unimportant.
Sinful men have many
different ideas and
standards, but they are in
total agreement that the
network of things in this

world is more important
than the divine
perspective of God.
In this most basic world
outlook they are of one
mind.

They resolutely work to
fulfill the goals and values
of their system, though it
defies God and always
self-destructs.

Sinners are persistent in
their rejection, and the
worse their system is, the
more they try to justify it
and condemn those who
speak the Word of God
against it.

Ephesians 2:6 NASB
6 and raised us up with
Him, and seated us with
Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus,

The Greek verb behind
seated emphasizes the
absoluteness of this
promise by speaking of it
as if it had already fully
taken place.

Even though we are not
yet inheritors of all that
God has for us in Christ,
to be in the heavenly
places is to be in God's
domain instead of Satan's,
to be in the sphere of

spiritual life instead of the
sphere of spiritual death.
That is where our
blessings are and where
we have fellowship with
the Father, the Son, the
Holy Spirit, and with all

the saints who have gone
before us and will go after
us.
That is where all our
commands come from
and where all our praise
and petitions go.

And some day we will
receive the "inheritance
which is imperishable and
undefiled and will not
fade away, reserved in
Heaven for us"
(1 Peter 1:4).

Ephesians 2:7 NASB
7 so that in the ages to
come He might show the
surpassing riches of His
grace in kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus.

The phrase “so that” (“in
order that” in the NIV)
indicates that the purpose
of our being exalted to the
supernatural sphere of
God's preserve and power
is that we may forever be

blessed.
But it is not only for our
benefit and glory.
God's greater purpose in
salvation is for His own
sake, in order that in the
ages to come He might

show the surpassing
riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.

That, too, is obviously for
our benefit, but it is first
of all for God's, because it
displays for all eternity
the surpassing riches of
His grace
(Ephesians 3:10).

Through His endless
kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus the Father
glorifies Himself even as
He blesses us.

From the moment of
salvation throughout the
ages to come we never
stop receiving the grace
and kindness of God.

The ages to come is
different from the age to
come in 1:21 and refers to
eternity.

He glorifies Himself by
eternally blessing us with
"every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places in
Christ" (1:3) and by
bestowing on us His
endless and limitless

grace and kindness.
The whole of heaven will
glorify Him because of
what He has done for us
(Revelation 7:10-12).

In the first place we do
not have adequate power
or resources.
More than that, God
would not want us to rely
on them even if we had
them.

Otherwise salvation
would be in part by our
own works, and we
would have some ground
to boast in ourselves.

Paul intends to emphasize
that even faith is not from
us apart from God's
giving it.

If salvation is of grace, it
has to be an undeserved
gift of God.
Faith is presented as a gift
from God in 2 Peter 1:1;
Phil 1:29, and Acts 3:16.

2 Peter 1:1 NASB
1 Simon Peter, a bond-
servant and apostle of
Jesus Christ, to those who
have received a faith of
the same kind as ours,

by the righteousness
of our God and Savior,
Jesus Christ:
2 Peter 1:1 NASB

Every person lives by
faith.
When we open a can of
food or drink a glass of
water we trust that it is
not contaminated.

When we go across a
bridge we trust it to
support us.
When we put our money
in the bank we trust it will
be safe. Life is a constant
series of acts of faith.

No human being, no
matter how skeptical and
self-reliant, could live a
day without exercising
faith.

Church membership,
baptism, giving to charity,
and being a good
neighbor have no power
to bring salvation.

Nor does taking
Communion, keeping the
Ten Commandments, or
living by the Sermon on
the Mount.

The only thing a person
can do that will have any
part in salvation is to
exercise faith in what
Jesus Christ has done for
him.

When we accept the
finished work of Christ on
our behalf, we act by the
faith supplied by God's
grace.

That is the supreme act of
human faith, the act
which, though it is ours, is
primarily God's — His
gift to us out of His grace.

When a person chokes or
drowns and stops
breathing, there is nothing
he can do.
If he ever breathes again it
will be because someone
else starts him breathing.

A person who is
spiritually dead cannot
even make a decision of
faith unless God first
breathes into him the
breath of spiritual life.

Faith is simply breathing
the breath that God's
grace supplies.
Yet, the paradox is that
we must exercise it and
bear the responsibility if
we do not (cf. John 5:40).

John 5:40 NASB
40 and you are unwilling
to come to Me so that you
may have life.

Obviously, if it is true that
salvation is all by God's
grace, it is therefore not as
a result of works.
Human effort has nothing
to do with it
(Rom 3:20; Galatians 2:16).

believed in Christ Jesus,
so that we may be
justified by faith in Christ
and not by the works of
the Law; since by the
works of the Law no flesh
will be justified. (Gal 2:16)

And thus, no one should
boast, as if he had any
part.
All boasting is eliminated
in salvation (Romans 3:27;
4:5; 1 Corinthians 1:31).

Nevertheless, good works
have an important place,
as Paul is quick to affirm.

The first four letters of the New Testament---
Romans, First and Second Corinthians, and
Galatians---are the development of the phrase,
"Christ in you," teaching us what the
indwelling life of Christ is intended to do. But
beginning with the letter to the church at
Ephesus, we are to learn and understand what
it means for us to be in Christ and to share the
body life of the Lord Jesus Christ---"you in
Christ." Here is the great theme of this letter---
the believer in Christ, or the nature of the
Church.

There are many who take the phrase, "the
heavenly places," which appears several times
in this letter, as a reference to heaven after we
die, but if you do this, you will miss the whole
import of Paul's letter. While it does talk about
going to heaven some day, it is talking
primarily about the life you live right now.
The heavenly places are not off in some distant
reach of space or on some planet or star; they
are simply the realm of invisible reality in
which the Christian lives now, in contact with
God, and in the conflict with the devil in
which we are all daily engaged.

The heavenly places are the
seat of Christ's power and
glory. In chapter two, verse
six we are told,
God raised us up with Him,
and made us sit with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus.

But in chapter three we learn that here also are the
headquarters of the principalities and powers of evil:
...that through the church the manifold wisdom of
God might now be made known to the principalities
and powers in the heavenly places.
The conflict that occurs is set forth in chapter six:
For we are not contending against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against the powers,
against the world rulers of this present darkness,
against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places.

So you can see that this is not a reference to heaven at
all, but to earth. It is to the invisible realm of earth---not
to that which you can see, hear, taste, or feel---but to that
spiritual kingdom which surrounds us on all sides and
which constantly influences and affects us, whether for
good or evil, depending upon our willful choice and our
relationship to these invisible powers. Those are the
heavenly places. In this realm, in which everyone of us
lives, the apostle declares that God has already blessed
us with every spiritual blessing. That is, he has given us
all that it takes to live in our present circumstances and
relationships. Peter says the same thing in his second
letter: His divine power has granted to us all things that
pertain to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3)

That means that when you receive Jesus Christ as
your Lord, you have already received all that
God ever intends to give you. Is that not
remarkable? The weakest believer holds in his
hands all that is ever possessed by the mightiest
saint of God. We already have everything,
because we have Christ, and in Him is every
spiritual blessing and all that pertains to life and
godliness. Thus we have what it takes to live life
as God intended. Any failure, therefore, is not
because we are lacking anything, but because we
have not appropriated what is already ours.

We all have the tendency to think of
ourselves as somewhat remote from the
Church. Every now and then someone
comes to me and says, "The Church ought
to do so-and-so." I reply, "Well, you are the
Church; go to it." The fact that they are the
Church seems to strike them with a degree
of amazement. Someone said to me not long
ago, "The Church ought to be more
friendly." I said, "All right, you and I are the
Church, let's be more friendly."

The Church is people. Every believer is a
member of the Body of Christ---the Church---
so I would prefer to go through this letter
using not the word "church," but "Christian,"
because every believer is a small replica of the
whole Church. If we understand that God
lives within the Church we see that he also
lives within each believer. Each one of us, as a
believer in Jesus Christ, is a microcosm of the
whole body. We can, therefore, go through
this whole epistle relating what Paul says not
to the Church, but to each one of us, as
individual believers.

In the first figure, the apostle refers to the Church as a body:
...and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the
head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fulness
of him who fills all in all. (1:22)
The first chapter is entirely devoted to the wonder and
amazement that we normal, ordinary, sin-possessed human
beings should be called by God in a most amazing way---reaching
back even to before the foundation of the earth---to become
members of that body. It is a tremendous declaration. The Apostle
Paul never got over his amazement that he---bowlegged,
baldheaded, despised by many, regarded with contempt in many
circles---was nevertheless a member of the Body of Jesus Christ,
and was called of God before the foundation of the earth and
given such tremendous blessings that he was equipped for
everything that life could demand of him. That is what it means to
belong to the Body of Christ.

Now what is the purpose of the Body? It is to be "the fulness of
him who fills all in all." In other words, it is the expression of the
head. That is what your body is for. It is intended to express and
perform the desires of the head. The only time that a healthy
human body does not do that is when some secondary nervous
center is artificially stimulated.
You know, for instance, that if you hit your knee in the right place
with a hammer, your leg will kick up in the air without your even
willing it. Even if you choose not to kick, it will still react. I
sometimes wonder if some of the activity of the Church can be
ascribed to a sort of reflex movement---the body acting on its own
without direction from the head. At any rate, the function of the
body is to express "the fulness of him who fills all in all." What a
mighty phrase that is! Do you ever think of yourself that way? Do
you ever dare think of yourself the way God thinks of you---as a
body to be wholly filled and flooded with God himself?

Next, Paul refers to the Church as a temple:
...in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows
into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built
into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (2:21, 22)
Here is a holy temple. One of the greatest things taking place
in the world today is the growth of this building that God
has been erecting through the ages. When all the worthless
products of human endeavor have crumbled into dust; when
all the institutions and organizations that we have built have
long been forgotten, the temple which God is erecting will be
the central focus of attention through all eternity. That is
what the passage implies. Furthermore, he is building it
now, using human building-blocks; shaping them, edging
them, sandpapering them, preparing them just as he desires,
putting human beings into this temple where he wants them.

Why? What is his purpose for you, and his purpose for the
whole temple? It is as Paul says---to be the home of God, the
dwelling place of God. That envisions and includes
everything which we understand by the word "home." When
my family and I come back from a long trip, as soon as we
get home, we take off our coats, stretch out, and make
ourselves at home. We all say how great it is to be home.
But what is it about our home that makes us feel that way?
Isn't it than at home we can relax and be ourselves? That
does not mean that when we are away from home we are
something other than ourselves, but we are always
somewhat restrained. While at home, we can be all that we
want to be---just relaxed and ourselves. That is what God is
building the Church for---to be the place where he can be
what he wants to be in you, fully relaxed and all that he is, in
you. That is why he is calling you and building you.

This new man in each of us has been given a gift that we
never had before we became a Christian. Our job, our reason
for existence---the reason Jesus Christ put us here on earth
and leaves us here---is that we might discover and exercise
that gift. I do not know of anything more important than
this. The reason why the Church has flagged and faltered,
failed and lost, is that Christians have lost this great truth
which each one receives directly from the Lord. That
includes us all, from the youngest to oldest, who know Jesus
Christ. The risen Lord has given a gift to you, just as the man
in the parable gave the talents to each of his servants,
entrusting them with his property until his return. And
when he comes back, his judgment will be based on what
you did with the gift he gave to you. That is the exercise of
the new man.

The last picture of the Church in this epistle is as a soldier:
Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (6:13)
What is the purpose of a soldier? It is to fight battles, and that is what God is
doing in us now. He has given us the great privilege of being the battlefield
upon which his great victories are won.
That is the essence of the story of Job. This dear man was struck without
warning by a series of tragedies. All in one day he lost his possessions one by
one. Finally he lost his entire family, except his wife. He didn't understand
what was happening, but God had chosen Job to be the battlefield of a conflict
with Satan.
God allowed Satan to go to the utmost limit in afflicting Job's physical body. In
addition, his mind was troubled; he could not understand what was
happening. But when the battle was over God greatly blessed Job, and has used
him mightily to teach the people of God in all ages that trials and difficulties
are not always for the sufferer alone, but are a means by which God wins
mighty victories against the unseen powers. We are called to be soldiers who
have learned how to fight.

In his first letter John writes to his young
Christian friends,
I write to you, young men, because you are
strong, and the word of God abides in you, and
you have overcome the evil one. (I John 2:14)
That is, you have learned how to fight---how to
move out, how to throw off the confusing
restraints of the world, how not to be conformed
to the age in which you live---and to move
against the tide, against the current, thus greatly
glorifying God.

I love the story of Daniel who, as a teenager, was a prisoner
in a foreign land. He was exposed to a pagan environment
and had to fight the battle day by day, counting time after
time upon God's faithfulness to keep him when everything
was against him. The pressures brought to bear upon him
were almost incredible. But again and again Daniel and his
friends met the tests and won the battles and carried on.
Toward the close of the book Daniel was sent a visitor, the
angel Michael, who told him some tremendous things.
Daniel was allowed to see down the stream of time well
beyond our own day. Yet when the angel first appeared to
him, Daniel was greatly troubled. He fell upon his face, his
knees shook, and he was fearful and afraid of his holy
visitor. But the angel said to him, "O Daniel, man greatly
beloved...fear not." (Dan. 10:11, 12) Why was he beloved?
Because he was a faithful soldier.

This is the privilege to which God is calling
us in this day of world unrest and distress.
God is calling us to be soldiers, to walk in
the steps of those who have won the battle
before us, having been faithful unto death if
necessary. This is the privilege of those who
are called and equipped with every
spiritual blessing, so that there might be a
body, a temple, a mystery, a new man, a
bride, and a soldier for Jesus Christ. That is
quite a calling.

The exhortation, then, of this letter is
contained in just one verse, in which Paul
says,
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, [writing
this letter from prison] beg you to lead a life
worthy of the calling to which you have
been called. (4:1)
Do not lose sight of what God is doing. The
world cannot see it. It has no idea what is
taking place. But you know, and you can
see it, so do not lose heart.

1. Have you ever taken just one piece of a puzzle and tried to
figure how it fits into the whole picture? It is next to impossible, if
you have just started to work the puzzle and you do not have the
picture on the box before you. But if the whole puzzle has been
put together and this is the next to last piece, there is no problem
in seeing where it fits. God is putting together the pieces of the
puzzle in your life it may be that you can't understand the present
piece that He has put in.
a. You may have even been complaining about your present
circumstances because you can't see how the pieces fit.
b. You wonder why God hasn't listened to your prayers to remove
the piece.
c. It is hard to see how all things are working together for good to
those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
d. In your mind you may have even challenged God by asking,
"What good can possibly come from this?"

2. There are many advantages to coming to the stage in life that I have arrived
at where most of the pieces of the puzzle have been put together and the
picture is becoming quite clear.
a. I frankly confess that there were many of the pieces of the puzzle that I
complained loudly about as God was preparing me for the work that He had
before ordained that He wanted me to accomplish for Him.
b. There were many a time when I thought God had forsaken me.
c. Things that at the time I looked on as a curse, but have now discovered that
they were great blessings. They were necessary preparation.
3. Those lessons where God is teaching us trust, and faith are not easy lessons.
It is not easy at 4:00 in the afternoon not to know where the evening meal is
coming from. It is not easy when your kids come and show you their socks
showing through the holes in the soles of their tennis shoes, and you do not
have the money to buy a new pair of shoes which you know they will have to
have before they go to school tomorrow.
a. Through all of these experiences God was teaching us of His faithfulness to
provide for our every need just as He promised.
b. He was teaching us that He had resources that we knew nothing about.

4. It is not easy to discover you are nothing when you thought you
were something. To realize that you were not doing God a favor
when you offered to Him your services.
5. Not easy to give it your best fleshly efforts and see them fail.
6. Not easy to give the best 17 years of your life to something that
seems to produce so little fruit.
a. As I see it now, it was all a part of the necessary preparation for
the work that God had in mind for me to accomplish for His
glory. Had the success come earlier I would have been tempted to
take the glory.
b. Through all of the difficult experiences he was teaching me
important lessons of who He is, and how He wanted His work
done.
c. Lessons that I would one day be able to teach others so they
could perhaps escape some of the pitfalls I had to struggle
through.
d. I think of the words of Paul to those of Galatia, "Be not weary in
well doing, for in due season, you will reap, if you faint not."

Cite This Page:
(explanation of citations)
Smith, Chuck. "Ephesians
2:10." The Word for
Today. Blue Letter Bible. 1
May 2005. 2013. 5 Jun
2013.

and that not of yourselves,
so that no one may boast.

10 For we are His
workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God
prepared beforehand so
that we would walk in
them. Ephesians 2:8-10

6b Bring My sons from afar
and My daughters from
the ends of the earth,
7a Everyone who is called
by My name, and whom I
have created for My glory,
Isaiah 43:6b-7a NASB

The Work of Christ BARCLAY
(Eph 2:4-10)
2:4-10 Although we were all like that, I say, God, because he is rich in mercy
and because of his great love with which he has loved us, made us alive in
Jesus Christ, even when we were dead in trespasses (it is by grace you have
been saved), and raised us up with Christ, and gave us a seat in the heavenly
places with Christ, because of what Christ Jesus did for us. This he did so that
in the age to come the surpassing riches of his grace in his kindness to us in
Christ Jesus might be demonstrated. For it is by grace appropriated by faith
that you have been saved. You had nothing to do with this. It was God's gift to
you. It was not the result of works, for it was God's design that no one should
be able to boast. For we are his work, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
works which God prepared beforehand that we might walk in them.
Paul had begun by saying that, as we are, we are dead in sins and trespasses;
now he says that God in his love and mercy has made us alive in Jesus Christ.
What exactly did he mean by that? We saw that there were three things
involved in being dead in sins and trespasses. Jesus has something to do about
each of them.
(i) We saw that sin kills innocence. Not even Jesus can give a man back his lost
innocence, for not even Jesus can put back the clock; but what he can do is take
away the sense of guilt which the lost innocence necessarily brings with it.

The first thing sin does is create a feeling of estrangement between us
and God. Whenever a man realizes that he has sinned, he is oppressed
with the feeling that he dare not approach God. When Isaiah received
his vision of God, his first reaction was to say: "Woe is me! for I am lost;
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips" (Isa 6:5). When Peter realized who Jesus was, his first
reaction was: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Lk 5:8).
Jesus begins by taking that sense of estrangement away. He came to tell
us that no matter what we are like the door is open to the presence of
God. Suppose there was a son who did some shameful thing and then
ran away, because he was sure that there was no use in going home,
because the door was bound to be shut. Then suppose someone came
with the news that the door was still open and a welcome was waiting
at home. What a difference that news would make! It was just that kind
of news that Jesus brought. He came to take away the sense of
estrangement and of guilt, by telling us that God wants us just as we
are.
(ii) We saw that sin killed the ideals by which men live. Jesus reawakens
the ideal in the heart of man.

The story is told of a negro engineer in a river ferry-boat in America. His
boat was old and he did not worry over much about it; the engines were
begrimed and ill-cared for. This engineer was soundly converted. The
first thing he did was to go back to his ferry-boat and polish his engines
until every part of the machinery shone like a mirror. One of the regular
passengers commented on the change. "What have you been up to?" he
asked the engineer. "What set you cleaning and polishing these old
engines of yours?" "Sir," answered the engineer, "I've got a glory." That
is what Christ does for a man. He gives him a glory.
It is told that in the congregation in Edinburgh to which George
Matheson came there was an old woman who lived in a cellar in filthy
conditions. After some months of Matheson's ministry, communion
time came round. When the elder called at this old woman's cellar with
the cards, he found that she had gone. He tracked her down. He found
her in an attic room. She was very poor and there were no luxuries, but
the attic was as light and airy and clean as the cellar had been dark and
dismal and dirty. "I see you've changed your house," he said to her.
"Ay," she said, "I have. You canna hear George Matheson preach and
live in a cellar." The Christian message had rekindled the ideal.

As the old hymn has it:
"Deep in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore."
The grace of Jesus Christ rekindles the ideals which repeated failing to sin has
extinguished. And by that very rekindling, life is set climbing again.
(iii) Greater than anything else, Jesus Christ revives and restores the lost will.
We saw that the deadly thing about sin was that it slowly but surely destroyed
a man's will and that the indulgence which had begun as a pleasure became a
necessity. Jesus recreates the will.
That in fact is always what love does. The effect of a great love is always a
cleansing thing. When a person really and truly falls in love, his love compels
him to goodness. He loves the loved one so much that the love of his sins is
broken.
That is what Christ does for us. When we love him, that love recreates and
restores our will towards goodness. As the hymn has it:
"He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free."
—Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

WHAT’S THE
#1 THING?
BRING GLORY TO
GOD!

06 June 9, 2013, Created For Good Works, Ephesians 2:1-10

06 June 9, 2013, Created For Good Works, Ephesians 2:1-10

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06 June 9, 2013, Created For Good Works, Ephesians 2:1-10