To be physically dead is to be separated from the body; to be spiritually dead is to be separated from God. Every lie, act of greed, selfish action, etc., Paul is saying that these things separated you from God. But in order to be raised from the dead, you must first be dead; and dead people, well, they don't have the ability to make themselves alive, especially when they don't even know they're dead. Dead people can't make themselves righteous, nor can they save themselves, only God can raise the dead.
At some point each of us will face a fork in the road and we will have to make a choice. God affords everyone choice just as He did Adam. Unfortunately, we minimize it, but the choice is extreme. It's a choice between life and death.
See my last post, The Power of Choice, on Ephesians 2:1-7
The Prophet Isaiah said that the natural way of man is to wander—
"All of us, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
This is the state of every human being apart from the Lord.
The Good News is in the second half of the same verse—
But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all
To fall on Him (Isaiah 53:6 NASB)
Paul echoed these very words, in a sense, by reiterating at the beginning of Ephesians chapter 2, that God, in His mercy and great love, even when we were dead in our sin, made us alive together with Christ and it is by grace we have been saved (vs.4-5)
Although he seems to only lay the foundation of salvation in verse 5, he comes back to build in verses 8-10—
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (NLT)
God's masterpiece, that was the very first verse I read after I said yes to Jesus. I loved it. I memorized it. But I didn't read around it, not for a while anyway. When I did, I remember thinking, "saved by grace, that's pretty cool and seems right." I definitely needed saving because I was sad, and empty, and I felt like I was lost. And I was, but then I wasn't, at least I didn't feel lost anymore. But what that meant, I wasn't sure.
And so my journey began, believing I was saved because God said I was, but not really understanding the magnitude of it all. It was, and still is many times, difficult to imagine that salvation is by grace alone and I didn't have to do anything to earn it or keep it. It's not in our human nature to think that way. We live in a world that rewards good and penalizes bad. I'd venture to say that each of us, if asked, would have an opinion about who deserves heaven or who deserves hell. The funny thing is, the standard of good and bad varies in every person and can change with each season. God's standard is the only standard that doesn't change. Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. He did all the work and paid the penalty we deserved.
In John 9, he tells us the story about Jesus healing a man who was blind from birth. When the man was brought before the Pharisees they refused to believe any of it. When he told them Who healed him they demanded to know how. They even called in his parents to confirm that he was born blind. When they asked the man again how this happed, he said, "One thing I know, I was blind but now I see" (vs 25b).
We are born blind to our need for a Savior. Born into sin, we don't see it with natural eyes. Jesus has to remove the scales to our need for Him. He is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Oh how we would boast if we had any part of saving ourselves. We didn't need to be told we'd boast but God put it in His Word just to be sure. He saved you by grace when you believed, it's a gift, not a reward. It's free to you, but it cost Jesus His life.
God's Masterpiece—Workmanship—Poiema, His Poetry—saved by grace and created new in Christ Jesus to do the good works that He planned in advance for us to do. He set paths ahead of time for us to take. Saved from sin, for service. Think of Mary Magdalene, after she met Jesus, do you think she did good works and followed His lead because she had to, or because she got to?
Like Mary, Jesus saved me from the illusion that I ruled my own life. Most of us live in this disillusionment until something out of our control happens, like the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, a bad report from the doctor, or maybe, I don't know, a pandemic that throws the world into a downward spiral.
One thing we have in common is that we'll all eventually die. The world as we know it will come to an end. There is more than here you know, more than this broken fallen place. We come into the world blinded. Our natural inclination isn’t surrender to God; the Bible confirms it or you can just look out your window. But God, He patiently waits and continues to seek to save the lost. Faith, like grace, is a gift, and like grace it must be received.
Now the Lord is not slow about enacting His promise—slow is how some people want to characterize it—no, He is not slow but patient and merciful to you, not wanting anyone to be destroyed, but wanting everyone to turn away from following his own path and to turn toward God’s. ( 2 Peter 3:9 VOICE)
Saved by grace, through faith, from sin, death, and destruction by a God who would take it all upon Himself so you didn't have to. I often wonder why many will say no to Him.
One thing I know for sure is that your Creator awaits His masterpiece.
We spend a lifetime painting ourselves to look good but when you become His, you become His masterpiece. Is it possible that something is preventing you from believing that?
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