4 Lent, B, 03/22/09

St. James McLeansboro

“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.” (Eph. 2:8-10).

These are the last three verses of today’s Epistle from the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians, and have variously been called “a summary of the nature of the salvation achieved by God;”[1] or a summary of Paul’s Gospel, or a summary of the Gospel. So these words are worth noticing and attending to.

Now the word Gospel comes to us from the Old English word “Godspel” meaning Good News, Good Message. Godspel is a translation of the Latin: Bona adnutiatio, or good annunciation, good proclamation. And this is the translation of the Greek word euangelion. Which of course means—Good News.

Now it seems to me that in order to have good news, we must understand the bad news. And that isn’t provided by the lectionary text given to us today. Kind of a criticism of the Book of Common Prayer lectionary in general: it’s heavy on good news, puts a lot of emphasis on building us up and making us feel good, but it doesn’t as often tell us why we need to be built up. If we need to feel good, there might be some reason that we don’t feel good. Otherwise, why do we need to hear good news?

The lectionary occasionally skips over verses; missing things that might make us feel uncomfortable. Ideas like sin, fallenness, lostness. Ideas like the wrath and judgment of God. Things we don’t like—but shouldn’t avoid.

And for today’s Epistle, the lectionary starts actually in the middle of a sentence (in the original Greek text). Ephesians 2:1-7 is one long sentence, very typical of Paul. So in order to understand the context of the Good News at the end of our text, I’m going to read the beginning of the sentence in verses 1-3. This is why we need Good News.

And you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.

That’s the bad news. That’s the reason Jesus came to proclaim Good News. The reason that Paul proclaims good news.

While this was written to the church at Ephesus, primarily to Gentile Christians, it is applicable to all of us. It is as true for us as it was for them. We are not superior, we are not more enlightened, we don’t have a better grasp on life. No, the truth of the matter is that we were dead through the trespasses and sins in which we once lived. Without Christ, we are dead. Dead because of our trespasses and sins. Dead because of our way of life, because of our walking in sin. Dead. Meaningless. Without Christ we have no relationship with God, and our relationships with each other are distorted. And the consequence of sin is death. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death.

We were dead because we followed the ways of the world, the worldly age in which we live, the world of evil, the world that is opposed to God, the world that doesn’t think too highly of God. This is a life of disobedience to God. A life of sin. Paul says that all of us, including 1st century Jews and Gentiles, including us today, once lived as disobedient, living according to passions, according to our sinful nature, following our cravings and desires. These are normal human needs, but distorted and subverted. The result of this sinful way of life, without Christ’s intervention, is God’s wrath. We are children of wrath. God’s wrath is his Holy response to sin.

Sin is universal. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But this pervasive problem does not mean that we have no value. On the contrary, we were created in God’s image, and though we have a sinful nature as a result of the fall, we still have enormous worth. We are still somehow worthy of God’s love.

And so, even though we were dead in our sins, even though the picture is not a pretty one, God acted. Even though we were dead . . . but God. But God who is rich in mercy. But God who is merciful just because he is that kind of God. But God, out of the great love with which he loved us. Because he is that kind of God. But God, even when we were dead through our trespass. But God made us alive together with Christ. To be saved from sin and death involves a savior, Jesus Christ. A gift requires a giver. By the gift of grace we are saved, not by our own merit, but by the mercy and love of God. The solution to our death is resurrection, a life infused with the life of Christ.

We have been raised up with Christ and God has seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. We are saved by both Christ’s death and his resurrection, and we have been raised and exalted with him. And not only have we been raised with him, we are already seated with him in the heavens. The world is not our home. What is true of Christ is now true of us. We are joined to him, and we are where he is. Because of Christ we have a life of privilege, honor, security, and responsibility. Because we are in Christ, under his influence, we have been changed from death to life, from the world to heaven.

By grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not of our own doing but it is the gift of God. It is not because of works, but simply because of God’s goodness and favor towards us. Though we deserved God’s wrath because of our sinfulness, we instead are the blessed recipients of his saving grace. This is God’s merciful, loving, grace-filled nature. Grace is God’s gift of himself to us, and this very grace connects us, joins us with Christ. And we receive this grace only by our faith. We are saved by grace, not by faith; we receive grace by our faith. “Grace is a gift from the trustworthy God, whom we believe.”[2]
This gift of God, this grace, is, again, not the result of our works, not something we can achieve or do. It’s not about any condition or accomplishment of our own. It is not something we can do anything to acquire. There is nothing we can do to improve our standing before God. The only thing we can boast about is what God has done for us. All we have, all we are, all we do comes from God.

We are what he has made us. We are his workmanship, his artistry, created for good works which God has prepared for us to walk in. We are God’s masterpiece, the result of his and only his creative and redemptive activity. We only receive the gift that is offered. And as his creatures, we are also called to be creative and active and productive, doing good works, living in obedience, being good neighbors: loving our neighbors as ourselves. Good works are the consequence of God’s grace and our salvation. Good works, performed out of love, gratitude, and obedience are the evidence that we have been transformed.

I think part of the problem we have with this whole passage is that we don’t take it seriously. We don’t believe that we are as bad as Paul says we are. After all, we think we are pretty decent folks, thank you very much. But . . . we also don’t believe that we are as good as he says we are. Does God really love us that much? Are we really raised up with Christ? What does that mean? It means that with God we have hope. With God we have value.

Paul clearly states that our condition without God is impossible, fatal. Life without God is meaningless, transitory, chasing after the wind. We don’t like to think about sin and death, but look at the evil in our society. Look at suicide rates, at alcohol and drug abuse, at the greed that has contributed to the current economic crisis. We don’t like the idea of being dead in our trespasses and our sins, but when we choose to live without God, that is in fact our reality. When we ignore God, that’s sin.

We also don’t like the idea of the wrath of God. After all, we prefer a loving, feel good God, made in our image. A wrathful God, we think, is so old-fashioned, so yesterday, so Old Testament. But the whole Bible, the whole story of from the fall to the coming of Jesus to the book of the Revelation, it’s all the story of a holy and wrathful God’s response to sin and disobedience. Just as hate is not the opposite of love, so wrath is not the opposite of love. God’s wrath in fact expresses his love for the world. “If God can look at the sin and injustice in this world and not get angry, he is not much of a God! The God of the Bible is not some immovable, unfeeling force, but a God who cares.”[3] And this loving God’s holy nature abhors our sins. It is as bad as he says it is.

But because of his great love for us, love that supersedes his wrath, and while we were still dead in our sin, he sent his Son to die for us. And by his death, our sinfulness is put to death and we are joined with him and raised with him. From death to life. Jesus’ victory over sin and death determine who we really are: We are united with Christ and raised with him. The same power which raised Christ from the dead is available to us who believe.[4] We are as good as Paul says we are. And this, this is the Good News.
[1] Lincoln, Andrew T. Word Biblical Commentary: Ephesians p. 84
[2] Snodgrass, Kyle. The NIV Application Commentary: Ephesians. P. 105.
[3] Ibid, 111.
[4] Eph 1:19-20