成績單

If I happen to have a quiet evening, one thing I like to do is read a good biography. I find it encouraging—if for no other reason than to learn how some church leader or historical figure handled the challenges of life.

As we sail into Ephesians 2, we discover the biography of the Christian. You could call this a spiritual biography. In many ways, you and I, as believers, share a common storyline. This is a biography shared by every Christian.

The apostle Paul begins in verses 1-2 by describing where we came from:

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.

This is our biographical background—and it is pretty negative. We were all spiritually dead because of our sin. That means we were without spiritual life. And we were all following the “prince of the power of the air”—which is a reference to Satan. He was our leader, whether we recognized it or not. And his leadership was manifested in our lives, as Paul explains in verse 3:

We . . . lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

We were effectively ruled by the fallen, sinful nature we were born with. And because of that, Paul writes, we were “children of wrath,” or the objects of God’s wrath. That is a concise way of saying that we were in trouble with God and heading for judgment.

This is our biographical background. It describes us all before we were saved. Now some of us might have lived more wicked and sinful lives than others, but we were all equally hopeless, unable to lift ourselves out of our lost condition.

But thank God, all that changed. Our biography began a new chapter. In verses 4-5 Paul begins to describe where we are right now, as believers:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

We were dead in sin, without spiritual life, but God, in His mercy and love, freely gave us the life we could never attain on our own. In fact, God not only made us alive together with Jesus Christ but also “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places” (verse 6).

Think about that. In the mind of God, we are already seated with Christ in heaven because we are united with Him.

Another chapter of our biography begins in verse 7 with a glimpse of where we are going in the future.

Paul writes that all the redeemed will testify forever of the “riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” This is God’s ultimate goal in our salvation—to glorify Him forever. And we will do that, beloved, because of His gracious work in saving us.

Paul then summarizes what he has just said and gives a little more explanation. He writes in verse 8, “By grace you have been saved through faith.” Let me define grace for you: Grace is God’s undeserved favor. You did not deserve it, and you cannot earn it. Salvation is a gift of grace.

Salvation is received “through faith” in Jesus Christ. Saving faith is not a work you do; it is an invitation you accept. Saving faith is a response that says to the Lord, “I accept you and trust in You alone for my salvation.”

The apostle makes that perfectly clear by adding, “This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (verses 8-9).

Beloved, I can assure you that there are no people strutting around heaven boasting about what they did for God. But does that mean we should not do anything for God? Well, Paul answers that in verse 10:

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The word “workmanship” is poiēma, which gives us our word poem. God created us uniquely for special works—good works—not so we can go to heaven, but because we are going to heaven.

Salvation is not produced by good works, but salvation leads us to do good works, which is another way we bring glory to God. When I drive over to church and see that volunteer lady planting flowers, I am reminded that she has a unique talent I do not have. I can grow weeds without any problem. She is using her God-given talent, and she is glorifying God with every flower arrangement.

Paul then directly addresses Gentile believers and reminds them in verse 12 that prior to their conversion they were “separated from Christ.” Indeed, they had “no hope and [were] without God in the world.”

Keep in mind that there was simmering hostility between Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s day. But salvation changed that for both groups, as Paul writes in verses 14-16:

He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Jesus is the healer of hostility. That is why the governments of the world today cannot write a peace treaty that lasts for very long. It takes the Prince of Peace, whom our world refuses to follow.

Paul refers to the “dividing wall of hostility,” which he says is “the law of commandments.” In other words, the law of Moses divided Jews from Gentiles and became a source of hostility between them.

But Jesus put an end to that separation by “abolishing the law”—literally making the law inoperative. How? Well, His death satisfied the demands of the law by paying the penalty for sin. So, the cross of Christ becomes a peace treaty between Jews and Gentiles. As a result, both groups have “access in one Spirit to the Father” by following Christ (verse 18).

It does not matter what ethnicity or national heritage you claim, in Christ we are all “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (verse 19).

Frankly, you now have another home country—you are part of another nation. Your home country is heaven; you are a citizen of the nation of the redeemed.

Paul wraps up this biography of the believer in verses 20-22 by writing that the church is a building “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” These men were receiving God’s revelation—and that revelation created the foundation for the church building, so to speak. The church has been building on that apostolic foundation ever since.

We do not need any more prophets or apostles today; that foundation was laid some 2,000 years ago. We are not laying the church’s foundation, but we just must might be putting the last few shingles on the roof, bringing the church to completion and ready for the rapture.

If that great event were to happen today, your biography and mine on earth would be completed. The next chapter in our biography would reveal what God has in mind for us throughout eternity. And let me tell you, I can’t wait for that chapter to get underway!