Ephesians 2:1-10
Made Alive in Christ
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are dead in our transgressions and sins...The wages of sin is our death...Sin destroys our soul...Sin is the death of our soul...We are bound to sin...We can be spiritually dead, but be physically alive...The Father and Son want us to be both physically alive and spiritually alive...In God's great love for us, He also has great mercy...We are made alive in Christ, even though we are dead in our transgressions and sins...It is by God's grace we have been saved...God has raised up Jesus, through His resurrection, and He is now seated in the heavenly realms with Him...His grace is expressed in His kindness to us, by giving us Christ Jesus...He gave up His Son to die for each of us...It is by God's grace we are saved, through faith... We are not saved by ourselves and from ourselves, it is a gift of God....We are not saved by our works, so no one can boast about what we have done in our lives...This gift is from His grace...
St. Paul teaches us that we are saved by God through His grace...His grace is expressed through His love for us by giving us Jesus...Jesus died for each one of our sins...God sent Jesus to teach us how to live...We are God's workmanship, and He has taught us He wants us to be like His Son...We are created in Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared for us to do...God, as many know, shows Himself to some men more than others...The more we are like His Son, the more likely we are to see Him and feel His presence...
We need faith...We must have faith...For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...We must have faith in the Father and Son...There are a few things we must realize to get to heaven...We must realize we need faith...Without faith we do not recognize God's grace...Faith may not be the actual starting point of things we need to realize to get to heaven...Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life...No on gets to the Father except through Him...We also must realize when Jesus was resurrected, He was alive then and He is alive today...
We also must realize we sin...If we do not realize this (that we sin) then we may think we do not need faith, or even need Jesus...But we do sin...We do need faith...We need Him alive to realize He has eternal life, and what God gave to His Son, He can give to us through His grace...