- Before accepting Christ we lived in darkness. Even if we did "good" things, we were unholy in God's sight. (Ephesians 2:1-2)
- Without Christ to intercede for us, we deserve nothing but wrath from God, but God is merciful, and He loves us SO much that He sent Christ to pay our way. Thank you God for Your grace! (Ephesians 2:3-5)
- When we accept salvation through Christ's sacrifice, God gives us the same status as Christ has. (Ephesians 2:6)
- We have not yet seen the full extent of God's grace. (Ephesians 2:7)
- It is only by God's grace that we are saved from His wrath. There is nothing that we can do to earn our own salvation. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
- We are God's masterpiece--a work of art. We were created with a purpose, to do good works. (Ephesians 2:10)
- It is only through Christ Jesus that we can be brought near to God. (Ephesians 2:13)
- Jesus came to bring peace for all. (Ephesians 2:14)
- It is not about legalism anymore. (Ephesians 2:15)
- Jesus' purpose was to reconcile us to God. (Ephesians 2:16)
- Through Christ we are now members of God's family. (Ephesians 2:19)
- We were made to be a dwelling place for God's Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)
- Ephesians 2 starts out discussing the spirit who lives in the disobedient, and ends by saying that we were made for God's Spirit. We have a spirit living in us one way or the other. Both spirits want a place in our hearts, but we get to choose which one stays.
Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
The power of God's grace is evident in Ephesians 2. It still astounds me that we receive His blessings, though most of the time we do not deserve them.
v14- Christ is our peace. What my pastor loves saying is "you can't buy peace in a store!" I don't think I stop to think how important peace is to an individual but so many people would do anything to gain peace.
What really spoke to me is the "embrace" "4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love,5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. " God embraced us with our strangeness or with our sin, HE still LOVES and accepts us and EMBRACES us.. I wish we could all learn to EMBRACE each and every one of us, and then there would be no more rejection. And there is when we agree to follow Him and Live in Christ than there is embracing and being alive.
Amen! I love how powerful the word "embrace" is.
Thanks for your comments Rowena and Karen.