Title Ephesians 02:1-10 God's Gift
Contents
God's gift (Ephesians 2:1-10)
Let's share the joy of salvation The best thing is God's gift to share with our neighbors
The Bible can be said to be God's plan for life. The Bible is summarized as Creation-Fall-Re-creation. God created all things, created human beings in His own image, and made the earth to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, so that it may rule the earth in God's place. However, all these things, blessings and privileges, were lost because man disobeyed God's Word. This is the fall. But God can never fail. By sending His Son, Jesus Christ, He again atoned for the sins of mankind and accomplished the work of re-creation. All of this has been accomplished by the grace of God.
Another term for this grace in the Bible is ‘gift’. The Bible introduces the representative gifts of God as salvation and the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:8, Acts 2:38). God gives all things directly related to life by grace. Faith is the attitude of humble attitude that accepts God's grace of spiritual life. Today's text talks about the need for salvation and explains how to be saved. Lastly, it reminds us that it is the most precious mission of the saints to share the gift of salvation with those who have received it.
1. The Necessity of Salvation (Verses 1-3)
In verses 1 to 3 of the text, he explains why we can be saved only by grace, and the basis for it. In other words, it is telling us why we cannot be saved by works and can only be saved by receiving the gift of God (by grace).
Verse 1 says that we need salvation because we are dead in trespasses and sins. He said that he was not a living being who had no choice but to die, but was already spiritually dead. This is because the dead cannot do anything on their own, and the God of grace and power must save them. The next verse 2 says that we can be saved only by grace because we lived as servants of the devil while we were spiritually dead. No one can free himself from the power of the devil. No one can free himself from the power of the devil on his own unless God sets us free with the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why he said that when you believe in Jesus, you are raised to life by the Holy Spirit. Regarding the necessity of salvation, verse 3 says that our destiny cannot be changed without the grace of atonement to reconcile us from wrath because our destiny is by nature children of wrath (children to be punished). Therefore, synthesizing verses 1 to 3 emphasizes that human beings can never be saved on their own. That is why verses 4-8 explain how salvation came through God's grace.
2. The way of salvation (verses 4-8)
First, in verse 4, it says that salvation was given because of God's one-sided mercy and love. The source of salvation is God's love (John 3:16, 1 John 4:9-10, Romans 5:8), and because the events of delivering God's love to us dramatically for salvation are the events of Christ's cross and resurrection 5 Section explains it. When we accept that event by faith as something to save ourselves, we will be saved. That is why, in verse 6, the moment I accept Christ as my Savior, the resurrection and ascension of Christ are considered to have been fulfilled in me. Therefore, we can be sure of our salvation because it does not belong to me, but to the atoning grace of Christ. It is emphasized in verse 7 that salvation in such an easy way is to extend the grace of salvation to all (1 Timothy 2:4-5).
Verse 8 summarizes this in one verse. We are saved because God's love gave us grace, and if we know and accept it as God's free gift, our salvation is sure. And in verses 9-10, He tells us about our mission of being saved by the gift.
3. The mission of the saved (verses 9-10)
In other words, the answer to how we should live, as we have been saved by the gift of God, is in verses 9-10. First, verse 9 says that the gift of salvation cannot be boasted because it is not made by human merit. It means that we should only boast about the grace of God. So, verse 10 says that since we have been saved by the grace of God, we must please God by doing good works that are the purpose of creation and re-creation. Among the good works, the best thing is evangelism and missionary work, which is the gift of salvation, which is the gift of God. Oftentimes, some think that emphasizing salvation by grace will weaken your dedication to the Lord. In fact, we are sure that anyone can receive this gift if we immediately realize that we have been saved by grace (as a gift), so we need to do more evangelism and missions.
The best of good deeds is to save lives. In order to receive salvation, we do not do good works, but because we have received salvation as a gift, we need to please God through good works in gratitude to fulfill our mission as saints. Let's all fulfill this mission and live sharing God's gift.
Sermon notes
The Bible introduces salvation and the Holy Spirit as representative gifts from God. Faith is the attitude of humble attitude that accepts God's grace of spiritual life. Today's text talks about the need for salvation and explains how to be saved. Lastly, it reminds us that it is the most precious mission of the saints to share the gift of salvation with those who have received it.