A Masterpiece of Grace
Ephesians 2:1-10
(To download and print blank sermon notes to complete while you listen, click HERE.)
Day by day the work continues. The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows.
In an attempt to free the image of Christ that is encased within your stone of sin, God begins chipping away everything that isn’t Jesus.
1) Who You are without Christ (2:1-3)
“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.”
• Corpse (2:1)
• Controlled (2:2-3a)
- Domain of the World
- Direction of Satan
- Desires of the Flesh
• Condemned (2:3b)
Just as the essence of sculpture is the loss of the stone, the essence of being conformed to the image of Christ is the loss of self and all its hyphenates:
self-interest,
self-dependence,
self-indulgence,
self-protection,
self-preservation, and
self-promotion.
2) What God did for You through Christ (2:4-9)
“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.”
• Gave you Love (2:4-5)
• Gave you a Lift (2:6-7)
• Gave you Life (2:8-9)
Help me to love the person I am becoming more than I long for the person I am losing.
3) Who You are in Christ (2:10)
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
• Divine Product
- A masterpiece is priceless
- A masterpiece is timeless
- A masterpiece is original
- A masterpiece is always on display
• Divine Purpose
• Divine Plan
His plan for our lives extends beyond salvation to sanctification, beyond standing in grace to walking on good deeds.
Every believer is like God’s great work of art…living, breathing pictures of his grace and mercy.