The New Testament book of Ephesians is actually a letter, a First Century letter from the apostle Paul to a group of early Christians. Paul wrote this letter from prison. He was in prison because of his preaching. We are going to focus this morning on a portion of that letter, on the ten verses printed in your worship booklet and read as our Scripture Reading.

As we begin our study, it is important to realize that Paul wrote this letter to Christians who had lifestyle issues needing to be addressed. In fact, the last three chapters of this letter, chs 4-6, are loaded with imperative verbs. Paul uses these imperatives to exhort his readers to exhibit a higher standard of ethical behavior. Paul begins this imperative section in Eph 4:1 where he says, "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called." In other words, Paul calls upon his readers to live lives that reveal the worth and the value of the gospel.

Listen to a few of the lifestyle changes which Paul targets in Eph 4:25-28. Through Paul’s words here you will see that the lifestyle issues were significant. Paul writes,

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.

In these four verses, Paul targets three lifestyle issues: lying, anger, and stealing. Many more such issues are addressed in this three-chapter section of imperative exhortations. What we see then is that the second half of this letter contains Paul’s exhortations to his readers to make needed changes in their personal ethics and lifestyle.

But the first half of this letter is very different from the second half. The second half, comprised of chs 4-6, employs forty imperative verbs. The first half, comprised of chs 1-3, has only one imperative verb. You see, Paul does not begin this letter by loading his readers down with behaviors in need of change. Paul begins by building a solid foundation of spiritual truths designed to give his readers confidence in God’s power to effect the needed changes.

A part of that foundation is Eph 2:1-10. In fact, these ten verses are a very important part of that foundation. Paul, in these verses, reminds his readers of the great changes God has made on their behalf already. Paul knows that if his readers fully comprehend what God has already done and is already doing then they will have much greater confidence in God’s ability to generate the lifestyle changes promoted in the second half of Ephesians.

So let’s focus now on Eph 2:1-10. In the first three verses of this passage, Paul reminds his readers that when he and they were outside of Christ they were dead in sin and controlled by evil desires and passions. As a result, Paul says, "we were . . . children of wrath," and that phrase, "children of wrath," conveys a state of being destined to receive the full wrath of God because of sin. The commentator, Andrew T. Lincoln, rightly says that the wrath of God "refers to God’s active judgment going forth against all forms of sin and evil and is evidence of [God’s] absolute holiness" (Ephesians, 98). The God of the Bible hates sin, and that truth must not be downplayed or ignored. And if you were God you would hate sin too.

Think about it. Think about witnessing all the injustice, all the pain that sin visits upon this planet. To see a person’s life ruined by a lie, to see a person suffer through the trauma of emotional or sexual abuse, to see someone murdered as they plead for their life, to hear a woman sobbing who has just been raped, to see someone gunned down in cold blood––to see those kinds of things which occur daily in our world would make anyone who loves hate sin.

But I have come to realize that Paul’s words about living "in the passions of our flesh" and about being "children of wrath" have a hard time hitting home today, because we rarely see ourselves as having ever been really controlled by evil. Our world has taught us to gloss over and to sanitize sin.

So let’s stop and think. Let’s focus on just one big category of sin. Let’s focus upon selfishness.

Many Christians down through the ages have come to realize that selfishness or pride is the primary sin back of all sins. For example, William Temple said, "there is only one sin, and it is characteristic of the whole world. It is the self-will which prefers ‘my’ way to God’s––which puts ‘me’ in the center where only God is in place" (quoted by Keith Miller, The Becomers, p 85).

Let’s stop and think about selfishness. Stop and think about how hard a battle it is to root out that sin’s power. Think about all the suffering caused because persons want their own way and refuse to put the needs of others even on a par with their own. Some of us have belittled someone else and driven her or him to tears just to make sure we stayed on top and strengthened our power base. Some of us have manipulated others like pawns on a chessboard in order to feed our egos and fatten our pride. As parents, some of us have lashed out at our children when all they have done is to embarrass us.

I confess to a specific sin of selfishness that grieves me every time I look back and see it. I only see it looking back, because I am blind to it when it’s happening. I confess that I have all too often pretended to seek truth when, in fact, I was really seeking to get everyone to see things my way. My goal was not truth at all. My supposed search was a sham. My real goal was to convince everyone else to see as I saw, to believe as I believed, and to confirm that I was right and my thinking superior. And I am sure that I have made others feel unworthy, unenlightened, and even intellectually inferior, because I wanted to be seen to be right and superior because of my rightness. Others were hurt, but I felt vindicated. Others were hurt, but my self-esteem was enhanced. I was living in "the passions of [my] flesh," to use Paul’s words. Self––let’s be honest, we have all engaged in the idolizing of self in one way or another, and we have hurt others and ourselves by so doing.

In Eph 2:4-7 Paul continues this passage. He turns to the new life his readers have in Christ, and this new life is in stark contrast to the way they were before they knew the Lord. Before, they were dead; but the same God who raised Jesus and put Him at God’s own right hand, has made them alive together with Christ and has seated them with him right up there with Christ in the heavenly places. That is new life––life in the heavens. From God’s perspective there is a sense in which Christians are already in heaven, since they are in Christ they are where Christ is, and since Christ is in the heavenly places at the right hand of God, Christians are too.

The Bible teaches that Christians have a big chunk of eternal life in their lives right here and right now. Philippians 2:6 is one of many New Testament verses which teach that. Philippians 2:6 makes that crystal clear when it displays the profound sense in which Christians are in heaven already. Christians are already in the eternal realm of God Almighty. Christians are already in Christ Jesus our Savior.

Archbishop Trevor Huddleston was a very influential black churchman in South Africa at the time that Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President of that nation. As a result, archbishop Huddleston was an honored guest at the inauguration ceremony. Huddleston was housed in a heavily guarded hotel because of the many threats made against his life. Now let me read the rest of the story as told by Hugh Dickinson, the Dean of Salisbury, in Salisbury, England. Dickinson writes,

[Huddleston] rose early one morning and went out to say mass on the arm of his minder for he is now physically frail.

From his room he had to walk along a passageway at the end of which was an armed guard. As they approached him the man stepped forward and saluted. He asked if he could touch the archbishop’s arm. From his accent it was clear that he was an Afrikaner. In his guttural English, he said quietly: "I am so sorry. I am so sorry for what we have done to your people. I am so sorry."

The archbishop held his hand, and replied: "But now we are all one people; black and white and coloured and English and Afrikaner. We are all equal citizens of the new South Africa. Our future is together."

"Ach no," said the soldier. "You do not understand. I have done terrible things. Terrible, truly terrible. But I heard your voice on the radio and my heart changed." Then, hesitantly, as if he expected the request to be refused: "Father, will you bless me?" So he knelt and the new South Africa forgave the old" (See enclosed, undated clipping from England’s Financial Times).

Ladies and gentlemen, we can touch the arm of the Lord God Almighty. We can ask God to forgive us for our sin. We can ask the living God to give us new life in Christ Jesus. We can kneel before God fully aware of how undeserving we are. We can ask for God’s mercy. And God will, as the apostle Paul says, "[raise] us up with [Christ] and [seat] us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come [God] might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

New life is a free gift. New life comes from the grace of God. New life is to be celebrated.

Verses 8-10 of Eph 2 are three of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. Please let me read them to you again. Paul says,

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

In verses 8-9 Paul again affirms that we are saved by grace. We did not save ourselves. No one can boast. Salvation is the free gift of God. It is not the result of our works. It is not our doing. It is God’s.

Then Paul, in v 10, packs an unbelievable amount of teaching in very few words. He makes clear that what we become after the reception of God’s free gift of salvation is also the work of God. He says, "We are what [God] has made us". And even the works we do as Christians cannot be turned into trophies about which we brag and boast, because they are the works which God prepared for us before our Christian life even began. So our good works are not really ours at all. They are the ones planned and prepared by God.

Do you see what Eph 2:1-10 is telling us? It is making absolutely clear that there is no way anyone can claim to have saved himself or herself. The whole thing is God’s work, from first to last. God not only forgives us, God also gives us the new life of good works, good works which God has ready for us to do before we do them. It is God’s life. They are God’s good works. Praise be to God for gift heaped upon gift and for grace heaped upon grace.

God offers us all a new life. God offers a new life generated by His forgiveness and by His resurrection power. Come and accept this new life. Come and receive the power of God fully supplied in Christ Jesus. Come and be able to say that I am what God is causing me to become. I am "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be my way of life." Come and receive the life for which you were created. Come now as we stand and sing.