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The Redemption of Grace
On the last Sunday in August I was preaching in GA from Ephesians 2:1-10 on understanding Grace. Grace is one of the three words the vast majority of our Bible doctrine is centered around (The other two being faith and love). Of those three I believe that grace is the most difficult to come to grips with. The reason for that is simple, we are familiar with love because we know what it is to love and we know what it is to be loved. We are familiar with faith because again, we give and receive it. But when it comes to grace while we have some experience at receiving grace we are almost never in a position to give grace. Grace is simply getting something we don't deserve, it works along with mercy in that mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Entering heaven is grace, escaping hell is mercy. A great way to remember grace is as follows:
God's Riches At Christ's Expense
In Ephesians 2 you have the following thoughts:
| I. | The Redemption of Grace vss. 1-5 |
| II. | The Repositioning of Grace vs. 6 |
| III. | The Riches of Grace vs. 7 |
| IV. | The Requirements of Grace vss. 8-9 |
| V. | The Results of Grace vs.10 |
I would like to ponder just the first one of these major points, the redemption of Grace. I believe in the life of many believers grace is something like an old shoe, it's comfortable, it fits well and we are glad to have it but we don't think much about it. There comes a day when we forget what we were when God saved us. We look in mirror and say "I wonder what God did before he got me?" Ephesians 2:1-5 is a great picture of God's redemption in which you will notice three things.
A) The Life of the Sinner vss. 1-3
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
This passage is a clear picture of the life of a lost person. It says that before salvation we are dead in trespasses and sins, we are a follower of the ways of the world, a slave to Satan, and are children of wrath. What a dismal and depressing picture. But it gets better.
B) The Love of the Saviour vs.4
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
I am simple minded I know, but I love to read the word but in the Bible. You will find it 3,760 times in the Scriptures and virtually every time it means what comes next is totally opposite from what came before. We have a dismal hopeless picture painted in vss. 1-3 and then verse 4 starts out But God. What a great picture that is! We were dead, deceived, disobedient and divisive, but God loved us any way. He coupled grace with mercy and loved us with His great love.
When the life of the sinner meets the love of the Saviour it produces our third thought:
C) Living Salvation vs. 5
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
We that were dead are made alive thorough faith in Christ. John 5:24 Puts it this way: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
We are given a new life and everything changed through God and his grace. This is the redemption of grace.
Because of Calvary,
David Iseminger
Romans 10:13-15