Faith Is Our Yes to God

Meditations on the Book of Ephesians

May 19, 2020

Faith Is Our Yes to God

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

Ephesians 2:4-5

Read: Ephesians 2:1-7

In this opening passage of Ephesians 2, Paul discusses our salvation, which he characterizes as death becoming life. By salvation, Paul means that we have been saved from a fate that we deserved. Because of sin, we were separated from God. Our destiny was to stay in our sin-miserable life. But Christ’s sin-conquering death makes it possible for us to leave the life in sin and enter into life in Christ. This possibility is an undeserved gift, or grace. We may accept this gift of new life in Christ by believing and trusting that what God says is true, which is what Paul means by faith. Now faith is not something we do to make ourselves acceptable to God. That’s what Jesus did. Faith is our yes to God’s gift of new life in Christ. To emphasize this point, Paul identifies the many attributes of God that make our salvation possible:

“God is so rich in mercy;

he loved us so much;

he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead;

It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!;

he seated us with him in the heavenly realms because

we are united with Christ Jesus;

the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us”

(Ephesians 2: 4-7).

Over and over, Paul makes it clear that God accomplished His purpose in us by uniting us with Christ.

Paul also shows us why God had to go to such great lengths to save us; we have an adversary, the enemy of God. Paul says when we were lost in our sin, we were “obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God” (Ephesians 2:2).

My Takeaway: When I think about the wonder of God’s great love for us, setting us free from sin and death and from the grip of the evil one, I join my voice with Saint John, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1a).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.