Ephesians 2:4-10 English Standard Version

⁴ But^[And] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

This a too much for anyone to take in all at once. We should point out one aspect found here to focus our attention on, faith.

Grace through faith is found because of where we have placed our faith. That is discovered in verse 7, “in Christ Jesus”. We can come back to the meatier parts of Ephesians 2 once we have discovered how we can put our faith in Christ. This is the key feature of grace. Grace is given not because of what we have done but because of what Christ has done.

So much focus has been put on what we must do to be saved that it obscures the truth. Jesus already did everything required for our salvation. All we have to do is believe and trust in Him.

Acts 16:30-31 English Standard Version (ESV) Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ³¹ And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Key here in this simple act is a change of titles. Paul speaks to Jesus as Lord, not Christ nor Messiah, but as Lord.

John 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV) For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Unbelievers need to know the difference between the law and grace.

John 7:19 a,b English Standard Version (ESV) Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.

The law is successful only if the law is kept. History shows us what happened to Israel because they did not keep the law. No one has ever kept the law except Jesus Christ.

Galatians 5:2-4 English Standard Version

² Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. ³ I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴ You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified^{[counted as righteous]} by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

This explains to us that the purpose of the Levitical Law was to be seen as righteous in the sight of God. Since they did not keep the law, they failed to receive the righteousness they sought.

Galatians 5:3 English Standard Version (ESV) I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Who among us has studied all 613 Levitical laws? If violating any one of these laws nullifies our right standing before God, even those laws we do not know about. What chance do any of us stand in becoming righteous in God’s sight?

If we look to the second side of John 1:17 we see Jesus came with grace and truth. How does grace and truth differ in relationship to righteousness than keeping the law?

When we look at the definition of grace it is found to be “unmerited favor”. What this means is that God looks favorably on us apart from keeping the works of the law? So if we cannot earn this grace, how do we obtain it?

That is the subject of the 3^rd step found in Ephesians 2.