God’s Power Changes People - Ephesians 2:1-10

In the lesson taught last Sunday, Paul told us that the answer ‘yes’ to two questions constitutes the acid test that tells you that you are a Christian. The questions were do you have ‘faith’ in the Lord Jesus and do you have ‘love in your heart’ for mankind. I truly believe that I have the abiding faith necessary, never doubting the saving power of my Lord Jesus. It has been harder for me to be positive that I love all people everywhere. I am sure that I have no hate in my heart toward any person. But then I asked myself this question. If I did not love people would I take the time required each week to prepare these lessons for no other reason but to hope and pray that someone would respond by accepting the Lord Jesus as their Savior or that some hungry Christian might find Spiritual food for thought? These are my reasons. Pray for me that I might be inspired to rightly divide His word so that others may prosper by my studies.

Do you know how to pray for the people you love? From my study of the first chapter of Ephesians I have learned a new way to pray for my fellow believers. I believe that it is important to be able to make every word in my prayers relevant to a known need. In old age, time is our most important asset and we should consume every moment we have in some kind of positive action. Bible study and prayer are excellent ways to use a major part of your growth time.

There are three very important elements of any prayer that God helps me offer up to Him in behalf of those I love. a] My first desire is for God to enlighten [help us to know without a shadow of doubt] us regarding God’s call in our lives. b] I should pray that we fully understand the glorious inheritance that awaits us in Heaven. And c] I should pray that we realize the extent of God’s power and that we appreciate God’s mighty power that can change people and secure their future. People need security and security is only safe and sure by and through God’s power.

Having prayed for these three blessings, then my prayer should give proof that God’s power raised Jesus from his death on the Cross and exalted Him to His right hand in Heaven—far above all other powers now an forever. Then I pray that all believers will know that Christ is the head of the church and therefore over all believers. To complete this prayer for the saints, I now pray that we know that we were spiritually dead in our sins but that God through his Son, Jesus Christ, has raised us from sin’s death and assigned us a seat in heaven with Him. Just think…and know assuredly that we deserved his wrath but received life through God’s power. Please know that I have just now prayed for you that you will immediately obtain these blessings. You may wonder why I say emphatically that you deserved wrath. I only repeated what Paul told you. You should study carefully the first ten verses in chapter two. This scripture is so simple that it looks like there could be complete agreement regarding its meaning. This is not so. There seems to be more disagreement here than about any other passage that contains so few words. Maybe we can find some agreement today.

Paul is writing directly to the saints at Ephesus, the other churches that this letter would be delivered to, and to the Christians [saints] of all time. The letter was not written to unbelievers because he says emphatically that “We all lived the same kind of life as these children of disobedience do.” And this implies that “Christians do not live in trespasses and sins.” When Paul uses the word ‘you’ he is speaking of Gentiles and when he uses the word ‘us’ he is talking about Jews…his fellow countrymen.

Before you were saved—you gentiles were dead in your sins and trespasses. You lived a life of sin just like the unbelievers of today. We were all at the mercy of the desires of our lower nature and deserved nothing but the wrath of God.

Now let us look at the one word that you and I may differ on. At least there are a lot of differences of opinions among many who claim to be Christian. What does the word ‘sin’ mean? We probably agree that a murderer, robber, child molester, drunkard, gangster, terrorist, liar, shop-lifter are all sinners. However, do we agree that all are equal in God’s sight? Some of our audience may lie occasionally, or even grab a snack bar and run without paying because we in a big hurry. Some drink occasionally, but have never been drunk more than a couple of times ever. If we are guilty of some of these, then it is hard to classify all of them as sin.

If you will go to an old Jewish dictionary and look up the terms that describe a shooter of the bow and arrow, you will find that if the shooter misses his target it is called a hamartia. The shooter lifts the bow, and takes aim at a specific object, pulls and releases the string and sends the arrow on its way. If the arrow head goes over, under, on either side, and hits anything other than the target—if the shooter misses the target he will say—that is a hamartia. In Ephesians 2: 1-3, when Paul writes about “sin” he uses the word “hamartia.” He says that anyone that has missed the target of perfection has sinned. We can agree to some degree that sin is sin but since most of us are respectable citizens, really deep down in our hearts, it is hare to admit that I am a sinner. Since I work so hard, always trying to do the right thing, and never intentionally doing anyone wrong, I just can’t see why I am a sinner. Do you resent being called a hell-deserving sinner? The book says that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” No hunter has ever lived a lifetime with a perfect shooting record, and if he missed one time he made a hamartia and is no longer a perfect shooter.

Are you the best child you can be? The best parent? Do you love even your enemies? Have you ever broken the heart of your parents or your children and saw the hurt in their eyes, and realized that you put it there? When we come to realize what sin is—we can see that it is not something that Paul or other writers have invented. In any sphere of life it is failure to be what you should be or failure to do what you should do. It is simply missing the mark.

By the way—the other word that Paul used here was translated trespasses [in our sins and trespasses] from the original word [paraptoma]…and it literally means to SLIP OR FALL. It means one has slipped away from truth. We may have been headed the right way but slipped and fell back losing our direction. This is not something that we choose to do, but we are born in the sinful condition.

God realized that man was born and living in a sinful condition and decided to send his son Jesus to die on the cross in such a way that his perfection would cover our imperfection. John says that God loved us so much that he gave his son Jesus to die in our place. This gift of Jesus was a perfect act of grace toward sinful man. While man could do nothing to save himself, God extended his grace toward him. And now by grace through faith we are saved.

This plan is so simple that it causes many to miss the mark.