1“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But 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.” Ephesians 2:1-10
Have you ever had the experience of reading a passage in Scripture that you know you’ve read a thousand times before but this time you notice something different? I had this experience this week reading Ephesians 2. Like many other Lutherans schools, we assign our students a memory passage each week. On the first day of the week we do a short devotion on that week’s passage in preparation for our quiz at the end of the week. This week my students’ passage is the well-known Eph. 2:8-10. I try to give a little context to the passage, talk about the author and audience, read the surrounding verses, pick out some themes, Law/Gospel, etc. I don’t usually take a lot of time to prepare for this devotion time, as many of the passages we use year after year. Which is why I’m embarrassed to say I never noticed this before!
Paul begins this chapter with three verses of uncomfortable truth about how deep sin and its effects are rooted in us by nature. He calls us dead, sons of disobedience, and children of wrath. He accuses us of being occupied with following our own sinful passions and even following the devil! Let those terms sink in. Paul’s words are harsh, but he isn’t wrong. Charles Spurgeon said, “You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it.” What a complete rebuttal of the pious view we often have of ourselves. “Follow your heart,” our culture says, “then you’ll be happy and free!” God’s Word says following the natural passions of our hearts and minds is evidence that we are dead, dead people walking in trespasses and sin.
Verse 4 gives us a sharp pivot. “But…God…” Paul exhorts us to reflect on God’s rich mercy, His great love, “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The grace that saves us apart from any of our own works. The grace that brings us from death to life, that confounds our attempts to boast in ourselves. The grace that works through faith and seats us with Christ in the heavenly places. So, we have gone from dead people walking in sin and death to being seated with Christ, secure, at rest, loved.
So that’s the end. We sit with Christ and wait for His return, right? Except that’s not where the passage ends. Paul doesn’t fail to emphasize the goodness and mercy of God in our salvation, but he goes on to call us to action, not for our salvation of course, but because of it, to love of the neighbor, to good works. And that’s what I failed to notice before. I had never realized that we are walking at the beginning of this section, and we are walking again at the end. But instead of walking in our own destructive ways under God’s judgment. We are now called to walk in the ways that God has set out for us, prepared beforehand, to His glory and to the service of those around us. No longer vainly trying to fulfill our own passions to our destruction but now telling others about God’s passion for them and their salvation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Pratt, Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School, Las Vegas
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