Thoughts on the Sermon, “God is Gracious - So We Do Not Have to Prove Ourselves” Ephesians 2:1-10
by Vermon Pierre, Lead Pastor
1. People try to prove their lives matter in all sorts of ways. Some try to do it through family. Others through their achievements. Others through their relationships. Still others through religion or doing lots of “good things.” In all these cases what we are trying to do is show that our lives have significance and worth. Unfortunately our efforts tend to lead to stress, anxiousness, guilt, shame, and bitterness as we try to hold on to the things we think will show our lives have meaning or try to attain the things we think will give our lives meaning.
2. The fact that God is gracious frees us from the lifelong campaign to prove ourselves. God’s grace means we can have God’s approval, which means having eternal significance and worth.
3. To fully receive the grace of God in your life you must first accept that you have no power on your own to prove yourself to anyone. The reality of sin means that our lives are shackled to emptiness and meaningless. This sinful reality is shown in how we deny the greatness of God, try to be glorious over against God, and seek to replace the goodness of God with ugliness and evil. We are given to self-proving, self-seeking, and self-glorifying – all of which puts us in opposition to God and facing a rightful judgment from God.
4. The answer to our sinful situation is the grace of God. God shows great love and mercy towards us through the death of his Son, not because of anything we’ve done or could have done but because God was pleased to be abundantly loving and kind to an underserving people. God’s grace totally transforms us. By his grace we were who dead in sin are now made alive in Jesus. By his grace we are placed in Jesus forever, where we found ourselves remade, restored, and raised up to his level. This new position lifts us out of our sins and frees us to know, enjoy, and live for God.
5. God’s grace is demonstrated by God’s saving us out of our sinful deadness and also giving us the faith to receive this very salvation. Truly then, everything about who the Christian is now is a function of the grace of God.
6. Having been saved by the grace of God through Jesus we now are to live out the grace of God through Jesus. This means the following:
a. All boasting is eliminated
There is no need to prove ourselves to anyone. There is no need to perform or feel we need to earn approval in order to justify our existence. We have been forever justified and approved by God.
b. Self-esteem is firmly established
We have been given an identity in Jesus Christ. Since Jesus is perfect and unchanging and is ruling in heaven, we who have been placed in Christ are established and secure. We have been "created in Christ”(v.10) which means that when the cosmos looks upon us all it sees is Christ.
c. Good deeds can be done
God’s grace prepares us and releases us to act in good ways and to do good things in this world. This good comes out of being created anew in Christ, which gives the good things we do a divine quality and meaning. It means we that the good we do now is God’s good, done in Christ, not for our glory (which is transient and blesses us primarily) but for God’s glory is eternal and blesses everyone who experiences it).
And so we have experienced the grace of God can now be abundantly gracious to the people who’ve hurt us and who we’ve hurt. We can be abundantly gracious to the people who’ve neglected us and who we’ve neglected. We can be abundantly gracious to the people we have trouble getting along with or who frustrate us. We can do all these things and more, because of the grace of God in our lives through Jesus.
