The Book of
Ephesians 2
22 verses≈ 4 minBSB
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Where we are
- 1Every blessingChosen, redeemed and sealed in Christ
- 2–3One new peopleSaved by grace, brought nearChapter 2
- 4–6:9Walk worthyUnity, new life, love at home
- 6:10–24Stand firmThe armor of God and prayer
Alive with Christ
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
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in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
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Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
It is by grace you have been saved!
Ephesians 2:5
Dead, then alive
Whiteboard
Down one side is what we were: dead, drifting with the crowd, and rightly under God’s anger. Nothing on that side climbs back up by itself. Then God steps in, “rich in mercy,” and everything rises: made alive, raised up and seated with Christ, so that for ages to come His kindness to us will show “the surpassing riches of His grace.”
Reflect
But God
Paul describes life without Christ as being “dead in your trespasses and sins,” and then turns it around with four words: “But because of His great love.” Look back at your own story. Write down what your life looked like before God stepped in, or what it might have been, and then write how He has made you alive.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8–9
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
One in Christ
For He Himself is our peace
Ephesians 2:14
by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees.
He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Two made one
Whiteboard
Two peoples who had kept apart for centuries meet at the cross. Christ tears down the wall between them and makes something that never existed before: “one new man out of the two.” Both are brought to God together, and both come in by the same door, “to the Father by one Spirit.”
Question
Quick question
Paul tells Gentile believers to remember where they once stood.
What has brought those who were far away near to God?
Christ Our Cornerstone
you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household
Ephesians 2:19–20
In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.
Pray
No longer strangers
Thank God that in Christ you are “no longer strangers and foreigners,” but “members of God’s household.” Then think of someone in your church who seems far from you, different in background, age or story, and pray for them by name as family.
You’ve experienced
Ephesians 2
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A verse to carry with you
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8–9
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