The Dead Alive by Grace: Mercy Interrupting
Text: Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV
Don’t limit the gospel.
Our passage is worth repeating:
“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.” (Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV)
When we consider all the gospel has done, we conclude this gospel has very few limits! I want to spend this morning not restraining this gospel, but releasing it.
How do we approach the Bible?
Before we enter into our Heavenly Father words to us, let’s spend a moment considering how we listen to these inspired and infallible words. As we consider how you listen, why you listen, and the probable out-playings/results of your listening, I want this to come by way of reminder. As God’s people, we are at least three things: a changed people, a changing people, and a yet to be fully changed people. If you enter in without these three categories, then I think you miss out and/or discount a morning sermon. You see, if you are just a changed person without an acknowledgement of your need for continued change, then sermons have little effect on you (you most likely discount a lot of what you hear). If you are only a changing person or person in change, then you miss out on the freedom/peace of the gospel message, and you continue to chase a moral wind.
We must hold our ‘identity triad’ (changed, changing, will be changed) in tension to come away with freedom/forgiveness from our past, vision/inspiration for the present, and then be provided overwhelming hope and confidence for the future. So, four categories I offer as I was just offered them from a recent conference speaker:
Do I know this?
Do I love this?
Do I live this?
Do/can I speak this?
So, I ask us, “Am I pursuing change (in my sermon listening), in my knowledge, and my love, my lifestyle, and in my sharing/speaking?” What is your strength? We must remember it’s only a strength when the others are operating alongside of it. We are only as mature as the least strongest category. So, listen and be shored up.
Introduction to our Passage: Replacement, not Repair
I want to pick up where Don left off last week. The moral implications of verses 1–3 are, “we need a new beginning, a new being, a completely new birth….medicine will not fix our issue, neither will behavior modification, or a slew of bandages to cover up our moral mess. We need a complete redo…”
I liken it to surgery. When a doctor has nothing left in a hip, a knee, or an elbow…(he’s got no tendons, ligaments, muscle fibers to work with in a repair), he must opt for a total replacement. It’s painful, yes (it’s a deep incision, it’s stitched deep into your joints, it’s foreign—whether its natural or artificial). But it’s yours. It’s yours. It’s not from you. But it’s yours! And from then on out, it works for you, and you can claim it. Many, through this kind of surgery, are restored, yet not through surgical repair, but by a saving replacement!
Morally speaking, our predicament (considering verses 1–3) is that we are long past repair. My moral ligaments, sinews, and tendons are shredded and cannot hold stitches. My moral joint sockets are cracked/deteriorated and cannot even hold a good or healthy moral bone together. Anything in me is not sufficient or even satisfactory to restore my joint. That is our deplorable state. That’s why we need verse 4! This is precisely why we cannot limit the Gospel. The work required of the Gospel is virtually limitless (making us alive, raising, seating, and showing us) therefore the grace of God at work can have no limits!!!
God’s Great Interruption: “But God” dramatized
As believers we are bankrupt by verses 1–3, but we are blessed beyond belief by verse 4. The bad news, the bleak news, the sobering news of verses 1–3 is the backdrop for the beautiful beyond belief news of verse 4. It seems to come out of nowhere. Verse 4 is not man-made or the thought or invention of man. Conversely, verse 4 was thought up, thought out, dreamt about, and enacted by the divine author of our Bible, God. No other self-made and man-made religion can touch this text because they have no category or concept for verse 4.
We can picture it this way: You are spiritually dead as verses 1– 3 dictates. You are not morally good, not morally good intentioned, and not even morally awake or aware. You are dead and floating, bloated in the Arrow-Rock Reservoir. And the world religions come out in the speed boats to rescue you. Buddha tries to enlighten you but no dead person can be enlightened. Ghandi tries to inspire you but no dead person can be inspired. Joseph Smith tries to guilt you, but a dead person can’t be shamed. Mohammed will even try to scare you but no fear exists for the dead.
Every religious leader known to man (apart from Jesus) rides out in their speed boat, and the best they can offer you is a swimming manual. That’s all they can offer you. “Read up,” they say and “get yourself out of this dismal and deplorable situation.”If I were to even stand on the edge of that boat and throw out a life preserver to you, it would do no good. Why? Because you are unresponsive, and unless I’m offering resuscitation, it will do no good. The world religions are only offering “good ole, pull yourself up by your bootstraps no-good worldly philosophy.”
On the other hand, the God of verse 4 sits in disbelief of the founders of these world religions and says, “out of my way and jumps in with no care for his own life, wearing no life-vest, or having any floating device and swims to you in your moral mess, puts his arms around you, swims you to shore, performs CPR and grants air back to your lungs.” You get up and weep over what’s been done for you.
Let’s not limit this gospel, especially, the God of this gospel. Let verse 4 take you, have you, win you, dissolve you, and bring you to your knees!
The Contrast between verses 1–3 and verses 4–7
If we want to behold verses 4–7, we must believe verses 1–3. If you want to truly enjoy verses 4–7, you must cling to and embrace verses 1–3. There is really no other way. If you cannot come to terms with verses 1–3 and the totality of your deadness and devil-worship, then you dilute and potentially discount the massive might and mercy of verse 4. If you cannot truly adopt verses 1–3, then you belittle, truncate, chop the legs off of the great grace of our God. You must drink verses 1–3 down slowly, sadly, and soberly. Don’t limit the gospel, surely don’t limit the bad news.
When sharing my testimony, I am sometimes able to share it with this diagram. I call it the “three lines” and I walk through it this way! I say, “when it comes to how I get to be with God or have a relationship with him it really boils down to three options:
The step-ladder approach—Basically, I treat God like my model that I want to fashion my life after. But this is not the gospel.
The ‘meet in the middle’ approach—I treat God as my Helper, but this isn’t the gospel either.
The ‘God as My Savior’ approach—God meeting me where I am because I would never meet Him where He is. This is the gospel!”
As we look at verses 1–3 and verses 4–7 beside one another, I want to ask three questions: Who is doing the doing? What have they (the doer) done? On which side of verse 4 are you living?
Who is doing the doing?
We look at the subject of verses 1–3, and we see “YOU.” You are the subject and therefore doing the action and owning the responsibility for the atrocities in verses 1–3. Apart from grace and God we can be and do nothing other than verses 1–3. Likewise, we look at the subject of verse 4–7, and we see “GOD.” GOd is the subject and the great actor owning all the responsibility for the mercies in verses 4–7. Has your theology rightly identified the subject and responsible party for your sin and your salvation? They could not be more different.
What have they done?
We have walked, following, carrying, living…Don’t you see. We do what we are. We must draw the connection between our being and behavior. We do deadly, disobedient, and disastrous things because we are dead. We live out of our being. Our behavior follows after our being/our nature. That is precisely why we have no hope of behaving differently, unless we become different. We don’t need surgical repairs, but rather need a saving replacement!
Looking to verse 4—We see the great actor of our salvation. God’s doing is making (filing your lungs with air), raising (referring to our union with Christ and our identification with Christ as our representative in defeating death and being raised to life), seating (forecasting our eternal destiny with Christ and sharing his throne (Revelation 3:21 ESV), and showing (lavishing us with mercy upon mercy—a cascading waterfall of wonder will wash and warm you like a hot shower on a cool morning).
It is so much better to be treated according to mercy than justice, even when justice is rewarding good. Justice cannot make you weep in joy. Justice cannot take your breath away. Justice cannot make your heartbeat feel full and overwhelming as though it might burst in joy. But mercy can! Sometimes mercy can make you feel little, but not God’s mercy. God’s mercy has a way of lifting you, legitimizing (not demoralizing you). It makes you smile, not cower in fear and shame.
Don’t you see that when God raises you and seats you with Him, he doesn’t do it with a disgruntled look on His face! He does it with a smile. His smile is what makes you smile! And when he shows you mercy it’s not with some punishing effect that downgrades your status, but when he shows you mercy he upgrades your status. He actually rewards you on the basis of his mercy and his salvation, not your sin.
On which side are you living?
Have you had the “But God” moment in your life? Or have you resisted or restrained the great God of our Gracious Gospel? I plead with you…let Him be who He is, and do what He does for you! Don’t limit this limitless Gospel!
If you live on the verses 1–3 side of “But God,” I implore you to fess up and be honest with who you really are and what you are really capable of doing. Whatever is in your mind…I have thought it, done it, or done worse! You may have been pretending this whole time that you are on the side of verses 4–7 and now is your time to be straight up with God and with His people.
If God has rescued you and brought you to the beach and resuscitated you, then I ask you to live this new life. Really live according to who you are and not who you were. For if you have been resuscitated, you cannot live any other way.
Live humbly and honorably. We are mindful of who we were but dignified by who God has made us.
Live Thankfully. We don’t live off complaints. Gratitude and thanksgiving is the overwhelming and overarching Christian emotion.
Live Obediently. Remember, grace leads to good works! Sin is the most abnormal and unnatural practice for the new man. We must live as though that’s not us anymore.
Live Shamelessly. I have not forgotten one of the first Scriptures I studied on campus with an interested student named Scott. It was Ephesians 1:7…
“In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.” (Ephesians 1:7 ESV)
Hear this verse. How is God able to offer such limitless, lavish love? Answer: Because He is not poor in it! He doesn’t sulk around with an impoverished and impotent love. He is rich in grace. He is wealthy in mercy.
“God being rich in mercy...” (Ephesians 2:4 ESV)
He is not into wealth management but wealth lavishment. He has an unlimited supply. Therefore, we don’t limit the gospel graces because He doesn’t, and we should not because we need it!