Thank God, I’m Not What I Used To Be
I was once asked by a student in one of my Sunday School classes, if God is still performing miracles. The Bible tells us of many miracles that God has performed, but the question was whether God was still performing miracles like we read about in the pages of His word. My simple answer was yes, God is still working miracles in our world and in our lives, but if we are not attuned with the Holy Spirit, we may fail to “see” them. In fact, Paul tells us in our scripture this week (Ephesians 2:1-10) about a miracle God worked in us that we may have taken for granted. Paul says that believers were once dead, but out of His great love for us and because of His incomparable grace, God made us alive. And If that’s not a miracle, I don’t know what is!! I pray that as you go through this upcoming week, that God will open your eyes and your heart to all the miracles He has performed and is performing in your life. And guess what, He has even greater miracles yet to perform! Amen.
Listen to Elevation Worship & Maverick City singing “Million Little Miracles”
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3). Paul says that believers were once “dead in their transgressions and sins. Transgression is the idea that we crossed the line and challenged God’s boundaries, and sin is the idea that we have missed the mark of God’s perfect standard. Paul says that by living in our transgressions and sins, we were “dead”, certainly not dead in the physical sense, but dead spiritually. In this spiritually dead condition, Paul asserts that we followed Satan, the one who is at work in all those who are in rebellion (disobedient) against God. We were a part of those who are spiritually dead at one time, and thus we were rightfully deserving of God’s wrath. I deserved God’s wrath… but I’m so glad I didn’t get what I deserved.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7). Although we were spiritually dead and deserved God’s wrath, because of His great love for us, God saved us by His grace and made us alive through our faith in Christ. Jesus was raised up from the grave to the heavenly realms and seated at the right hand of the Father. And because we live in Christ, in that sense, we too are with Him in the heavenly realms. Paul, having spoken of our past (“spiritually dead”), and our present (“alive in Christ”), now speaks of the future God has planned for us. God’s future plans are to show us the incomparable riches of His grace. We have experienced God’s grace already, but He has infinitely more for us to experience into eternity. God’s grace in salvation was nothing short of miraculous, but He has even more in store for us!
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10). Paul now makes sure that believers know how it is that we are saved. We are saved only by God’s grace, not by anything we do or have done. God’s grace is a gift, i.e. we didn’t earn it nor deserve it. In fact, because we were spiritually dead, we couldn’t do anything to bring about our own salvation! If we had any part in our own salvation, we might boast about it because that is our human nature. But salvation is only through God’s grace. Paul ends verse 10 by telling us that out of God’s great love and because of His incomparable grace, He saved us from death into life. Why?… because we are His masterpiece, created by Him to do the good works He planned before the beginning of creation for us to do. Not for our glory, but all for His glory. I am God’s masterpiece, saved to do that which will bring Him glory!
We are saved by grace through faith. God’s grace is His gift to us. It is unmerited, i.e. it is not earned by us in any way. Nothing we did or could do could have saved us. It is only because of God’s grace that through faith in Jesus we are saved. In fact, Paul said that we were dead. Now, I have been to enough funerals to know that a dead person can’t do anything… for themselves or anyone else! Someone has to dress the deceased, someone has to speak on their behalf, someone has to drive them to the cemetery and someone has to lower them into the grave. And with all that, whatever it is that we might be able to do for the dead, we certainly can’t bring them back to life! But Paul says that while we were yet dead, God gave us new life in Christ. And the grace that God has shown to us in saving us, is but a small measure of the grace He will show us in eternity. Sometimes we forget what we were before God’s grace saved us. But every now and then, you just need to pause for a moment and realize the miracle of salvation you have received because of God’s grace. For you were dead…but thank God, you’re not what you used to be!
Blessings,
Rev. Glenn
