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CHOSEN

Mar 06, 2016 | Rev. Dr. K. Rick Baker

Grace is the Game Changer

Ephesians 2:1-10

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Here's why you were not free to choose Christ...

Until you understand how dead you were in sin, you will never really appreciate how alive you have become in Christ (Eph. 2:1-3).

You were never free to choose Christ because you were spiritually dead in sin—dominated by the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” and by the desires of your flesh.

BUT, here’s why you are now free to live for Christ…

When Christ was raised from the dead, all of those “in Christ” (before the foundation of the world) were also raised with him and seated with him in the heavenly realms (2:4-7).

Salvation is the radical repositioning of a human heart (spirit) into an entirely different realm (heavenly), an entirely different placement (in Christ) – with an enlivened spiritual capacity to love, trust, and obey God in a stunning and noticeable way.

God’s grace is the game changer of our lives and Christ’s resurrection secured our salvation and the object of our faithfulness (2:8-9).

“Have been saved”- verb tense indicates a past event (at Christ’s resurrection) with continuing results. (We were at the cross, our sins were nailed to the cross, while enemies, Christ died, raised with him from the tomb)

The grace of God comes with the power of God to make a life of faith in God possible (Phil. 1:28)—God commits himself to us and attaches himself to us in Christ; we in turn live out the implications of that “adhesion.” (Snodgrass)

Biblical faith changes your address, connection, culture, and every disposition of your life—living in Jesus for Jesus—this kind of faith indicates that salvation has come.

You were not saved by good works, but you were saved for good works (2:10).

Creation and New Creation are the ways God makes himself known to his creation. God’s masterpiece of salvation is radically changed lives, once dead in sin, now fully alive in Christ and modelling the power of God’s grace to transform people to live completely for Christ.

TWO WAYS TO LIVE

Dead

Alive

In sin

In Christ

Worship self

Worship God

Belong to world

Belong to Christ

Controlled by Satan

Controlled by the Spirit

Under the wrath of God

With Christ in the Heavenlies

Dominated by the power of evil

Overwhelmed by the power of God's grace

Series Information

In this series Pastor Rick takes us through what it means to be CHOSEN. Follow us as we study Ephesians and find out what it means to belong to Christ.