Religion & Spirituality
Unity by GraceOctober 17 2021 • Ephesians • Week 2Teacher: Dave Brown---1 Sin2 Temptation3 SalvationEphesians 2:1-10 NIVAs for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in 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. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving 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 transgressions — 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 show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:1 NIVAs for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.Sin is anytime we rebel against God in our thoughts, in our desires, in our words, or in our actions.The ways of this WorldThe Ruler of the Kingdom of the AirThe Cravings of Our FleshC.S. LewisIt does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing...Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one– the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.The result of sin is disunity with God and disunity with others.Disunity with God = DeathJ.I. PackerWe are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners, born with a nature enslaved to sin.Ephesians 2:4-5aBut because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.ἀγάπη—agapēEphesians 2:8-9 NIVFor it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith— and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works so that no one can boast.Mercy is the withholding of rightful punishmentGrace is the giving of something that we do not deserveWe have a new identityποίημα - pŏiēmaWe have a new purpose