Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20091122.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Ephesians: Overcoming Our Insecurities In Christ
Part I: The Believer's Secure Position In Christ, Ephesians 1:1-3:21
I. Overcoming The Insecurity Of Inescapable Sinful Living
(Ephesians 2:1-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. A debilitating insecurity some believers face is the fear that regardless how hard they try to please God in living, their efforts inevitably become unacceptable to Him since their sin natures corrupt such efforts.
    2. Actually, in his position in Christ and His salvation, the believer is wonderfully equipped by God to perform upright works that God the Father fully accepts, an assuring truth revealed in Ephesians 2:1-10:
  2. Overcoming The Insecurity Of Inescapable Sinful Living, Ephesians 2:1-10.
    1. Before salvation, the Ephesian believers had been hopelessly positioned to do godless deeds, Eph. 2:1-3:
      1. Paul wrote that his Ephesian believing readers had been spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins before they had been spiritually made alive in Christ when they believed in Him, Eph. 2:1 with 1:13.
      2. This lost condition had left them hopelessly positioned to perform ungodly deeds, Eph. 2:2-3: before salvation, Paul's readers had (a) followed the ways of the lost world system (Ephesians 2:2a), they had (b) followed Satan (Eph. 2:2b; 1 John 5:19 NIV) and they had (c) willingly indulged in the lusts of the world system, being by nature the objects of God's impending wrath, Ephesians 2:3.
    2. However, in great grace, God had repositioned them to sit in Christ in His throne in heaven, Eph. 2:4-7:
      1. God had richly loved these formerly unsaved Ephesians, so He had exercised great mercy toward them, making them positionally alive with Christ through grace when they trusted in Him, Eph. 2:4-5; 1:13.
      2. Since they were positioned in Christ for salvation, and since Christ has been made to sit in the heavens to rule on God's throne (Ephesians 2:6 with Revelation 3:21b), Paul wrote that these believers had been exalted in their position in Christ to rule in Him on His throne, a truly amazing positional exaltation!
      3. One purpose for this gracious exaltation of the believer is that God might use all eternity to reveal the exceeding riches of His unmerited favor in His kindness to the believer through Christ Jesus, Eph. 2:7.
    3. This gracious transformation of the believer equips him to perform a life of godly works, Eph. 2:8-10:
      1. Paul wanted to explain how God's riches of grace to us will be seen in eternity as Ephesians 2:7 noted.
      2. Thus, he gave us an abbreviated glimpse into that great eternal exposition in Ephesians 2:8-10:
        1. Having established the hopelessly sinful condition of the believer before he was justified by faith in Christ in Ephesians 2:1-3, and having noted how graciously God has saved and exalted the believer in his position in Christ in Ephesians 2:4-6, Paul again noted that believers are saved by grace, 2:8a.
        2. Indeed, such a transformation cannot in any way depend upon any human merit, so Paul stated that the believer is justified by God through faith as a gift apart from any human merit, Eph. 2:8b-9.
        3. So, having become God's workmanship in salvation rather than working his own salvation (Eph. 2:10a), the believer is positioned by God to perform works as a Christian that God had preordained to please Him so that the believer might "walk" in them, performing them as a lifestyle, Eph. 2:10b.
        4. This is an astonishing truth in view of the context: people who at one time had been helplessly and hopelessly aligned to perform a life of unacceptable works before salvation (Ephesians 2:1-3) had been so graciously saved and positioned by salvation through grace (Ephesians 2:4-10a) that they were fully equipped by God to live lives of performing works that fully please God, Eph. 2:10b!
        5. No wonder the kindness of God's abundant GRACE in believers will be displayed in all eternity: a LIFE of godliness so opposite the believer's previous LIFE is utterly ASTONISHING!
Lesson: The salvation the believer enjoys in Jesus Christ is SO GREAT in its DEMONSTRATION of God's GRACE, it moves him from HOPELESSLY LIVING out ACTS of SIN to being positioned to LIVE ACTS that TOTALLY PLEASE and INFINITELY RIGHTEOUS GOD!

Application: We believers need not fear that we are hopelessly doomed never fully to please God in life: if we rely on the Holy Spirit to heed Scripture (Gal. 5:16-23), EVERY DEED we DO FULLY PLEASES our INFINITELY RIGHTEOUS GOD, for HE has EQUIPPED us in His GRACE to DO JUST THAT!