Today we continue our series entitled “Destiny’s Child – You Are Not a Mistake!” Yesterday we looked at Ephesians 2:8-10. As I prayed over what to share with you concerning it, the two major points I want to drive home over the next few days are:
1. You were saved by God’s unearned grace.
2. You were not saved to sit; you were saved to serve. There are “good works” God already planned for you to do.
Today I will only deal with the first one. To do so, I will just share Ephesians 2:8-10. I want us to look at verses 1-10.
(Eph 2:1-10 ERV)
1 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God.
2 Yes, in the past your lives were full of those sins. You lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God.
3 In the past all of us lived like that, trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. Like everyone else in the world, we deserved to suffer God’s anger just because of the way we were.
4 But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much.
5 We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.)
6 Yes, it is because we are a part of Christ Jesus that God raised us from death and seated us together with him in the heavenly places.
7 God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.
8 I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.
9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.
10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
So what does this mean for you today? I will share a few things about salvation. If you have accepted Jesus as Lord and you are Born-Again, you are saved from sin and death. But you are not saved because of anything you did. You are only saved by the grace of God. All you did was believe and receive, by faith, what God already provided, by grace.
1. Paul teaches us that every human on the planet was born “dead in our trespasses and sins.” We were dead-men-walking. We were born with a sinful nature because of Adam. It was our nature to sin. We were born that way. We were not sinners because we sinned. We were sinners because we were born that way. The only way we could change is by being BORN AGAIN!
2. Every human on the planet has lived to, as Paul puts it, “please our sinful selves.” Paul says, “We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. Like everyone else in the world, we deserved to suffer God’s anger just because of the way we were.” We were born sinners, and we practiced sin. We deserved punishment. We earned God’s anger. If God gave us what we deserved, we would all be men and women most miserable. But God, in His love, chose to provide us with mercy (He withheld the punishment we deserved) and grace (He blessed us with what we did not earn or deserve).
3. While we were born in sin, the Bible tells us that our heavenly Father was rich in mercy. Motivated solely by His love for us, while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son Jesus to die in our place. Jesus, thinking of us and not His own well-being, took on a debt He did not owe and paid a price we could not pay. Jesus traded His righteousness for our sin so we could exchange our sin for His righteousness.
4. After Jesus paid the ultimate price, all that was left for us to do was to repent from our sin and embrace Jesus as Lord. The Father freely gave His only Son as a sacrifice. The Son freely gave His life as payment for our sin. When we receive Jesus as Lord, the Holy Spirit freely takes up residence inside of us, and we are Born-Again. Once we are Born-Again, we have a new nature. It’s no longer our nature to sin. It is our nature to live righteously. We are delivered from the power of sin and the sting of death.
5. God did all the work in salvation. All we must do is receive His free gift. Now, when we do, should we take credit for it? Accepting a gift is nothing to boast about. The fullness of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Spirit) earned our salvation; all we did was receive it. Paul said, “You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about” (Eph 2:9). It was nothing you could or did achieve—it was God’s gift to you. So whatever you are now, you owe to the grace of God.
6. Let’s say a man is drowning in the ocean, calls out for help, and a lifeguard saves him. Does the man have anything to boast about? Of course not. All he did was call out. The lifeguard did all the work. In the same way, all we did was call upon the name of the Lord because Jesus had already paid it all. Salvation was already attained for us and offered to all men as a free gift. All we did was call out receive it by faith. We have nothing to boast about. We did nothing. God did it all. Therefore, all the glory belongs to HIM!
7. Salvation is a free gift, paid for IN FULL by Jesus the Christ. You cannot work for a gift. If you work for the gift, the gift is no longer a gift (Romans 11:6). At that point, it becomes payment for your work. You cannot pay for eternal life. Jesus paid it all. All you can do is receive the gift of eternal life, provided to you free by God, through the finished work of Jesus.
8. Everything we are, we owe to the hand of God upon our lives. Even after salvation, we have nothing to boast. We are who we are and what we are by the grace of God (1 Cor 15:10).
9. If it were not for the grace of God, we would be undeniably lost, and we would be lost forever. We could never save ourselves. We are saved by God’s unearned grace! I know this series is about your destiny, but the first step towards your destiny is repenting from sin and accepting Jesus as Lord. Tomorrow we will see that once we are saved, we are supposed to spend the rest of our lives “doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.”
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of LEVELING UP for me! I LEVEL UP because of Your amazing grace. Thank You for blessing me far beyond what I deserve! I will never cease to give You praise for Jesus. The most important event of my life was the day I repented of sin and accepted Jesus as Lord. Every other day pales in comparison. I am eternally thankful that You saved me, covered me with the blood of Jesus, washed me from my sin, filled me with Your Spirit, called me according to Your work and purpose, and now use me daily for Your glory. Outside of You, I am nothing. In You, I can do all things. By Your grace, nothing is impossible! Therefore, GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
