Saved by Grace

Sermon Manuscript

Ephesians 2

A gospel message on grace, reconciliation, and the peace Christ creates between those who were once far from God.

Salvation is not the reward for our efforts. It is the gift of God’s grace given to those who place their faith in Christ.

For He Himself is Our Peace (Ephesians 2:14-18)

What is the gospel? It is reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Just as Apostle Paul described, its that we who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)

How were we before meeting Jesus? We were foreigners of God’s Kingdom. These days the church has become international. To preach the gospel, it requires us to cross borders wherever the Holy Spirit calls. Yet, there are barriers to do so. First off, restrictions on visas pose an issue. People cannot cross the border easily because of legal restrictions. It may not seem completely fair because much of the assessment is based on an overarching conclusion that does not take into individual circumstances or accounts as much. For example, it would be a lot easier for someone from Korea to enter the US than someone from Venezuela even if they are entering for the same reasons. Not only so, but there are also cultural barriers that identify those who live differently as foreigners, and thus are closely monitored as a threat. There are nations that ban proselytizing. They consider preaching the gospel as a threat to their national integrity.

But why is the Kingdom of God being compared to the kingdoms of this world? Why is there such distinction between being a citizen and a foreigner? Apostle Paul is telling us this so that we can understand how reconciliation happens in our salvation. Being a sinner, there is a clear line which is drawn by the law of God that cannot condone those who are unqualified to enter. If righteousness is as easy as words spoken from breath, then it would easily become a mockery to others.

What is the challenge of the Christian message? You are destined for heaven through the grace of God; this is already pre-determined because of who you believe in. This kind of message causes great confusion among those who are accustomed to the expectations of the law. How can someone be so easily forgiven of his past and not bear its consequences? Is there truly an easy religion like so? For those who were burdened by the heavy loads of sin, this message is greatly welcomed. Yet for those who have believe their works have accumulated to credit them as righteous, this message seeks to destroy the very fabrics of what they’ve earned and stood on. To them, this message cannot become the reality or everything they’ve lived for until now would become in vain.

So, what is the overarching argument in favor of the law? If deeds do not determine whether you go to heaven, then what makes people pursue what is good? You can play around in this world and still enter heaven according to this theory. Does that make sense? Under the view of the law, the life of the gospel is lawbreaking. Criminals are allowed to run free on the streets. Do you think society will become better or not?

When the gospel message is shallow, then it lends itself to all kinds of criticism: that the God of the Christians is unjust and that he favors one person over another just out of association and does not consider whether the person lived justly. This obviously should not be the level which we preach.

They will become One (Ezekiel 37:15-17)

Ezekiel prophesized the day on which two nations would become one. Judah and Isarel were one nation before Solomon. However, due to Solomon’s love for the many gentile women and tempted by them into worshipping other gods, the Lord said that he would divide his nation into two. Its because of sin that the nation become divided into two. However, Ezekiel dreamt of the day that the nations will come together once again. This is because God is the merciful God who redeems his people from their sins, and restore them to their original purpose.

So, what is the true message? It is the message of reconciliation. Before there is reconciliation, there is hostility and wrath. Between God and men there is a war being waged. God’s wrath is upon all those who deviates from the law and cannot remain perfect under its supervision. For the ones who do not meet the law’s requirement, judgement for sin awaits. Yet, under the duress of reaching perfection, the imperfect man ultimately proves impossible to complete this task.

How are we reconciled? While we are still sinners, Christ died for us. He received the judgement of sin on our behalf to reconcile us to God. The wrath of God requires blood to be shed to perform justice under the law. Christ offered himself as the living sacrifice and shed his own blood so that justice could be served. Through this, we are given a clean bill and thus becoming qualified to live under God’s righteousness. Christ reconciled us to God by paying the price for us. Just as a slave must be bought in order to be set free under the Roman law, or a visa must be worked on for a foreigner to enter a country even if it’s not the person himself who works on the process but the lawyer, Christ paid the price for us so that we could enter the grace of God. This is how Christ became the good news for us.

I Appeal to You on the Basis of Love (Philemon 1:8-11)

Paul didn’t just preach the message, he lived by the message as well. To Philemon, a disciple of his who is in debt to Paul for the salvation and faith he received, Paul appealed for him to forgive Onesimus, who was Philemon’s slave yet decided to break the law and stole money from his master before ultimately living in hiding in Rome and meeting Paul there. Likely upon Onesimus’ conversion, Paul learned of his past and his connection to Philemon whom he knows very well.

Among all the letters of Paul, the Epistle to Philemon is the only one that’s not addressed to a church, but an individual instead. It was a personal letter. You do not see any elaborations on doctrine or instructions that you usually see in most of his letters. This letter had only one purpose: to reconcile Onesimus to Philemon. Why was this personal letter organized into the canonized Bible? It is because this embodied the spirit of the gospel message that Christians preach.

In this letter, Paul appealed not with force, but with sincere love. He noted how he could be bold and order Philemon what he ought to do, but he rather prefers to appeal to him on the basis of love. What kind of love? That Philemon would come to have the same love for Onesimus as Paul does, who considers him as a son while he is in chains and has become his very heart.

This person, who had become useless to Philemon because of his betrayal and clear violation of the law, was found to be useful to Paul while he remained imprisoned in Rome. For Onesimus, Paul wrote to Philemon to charge anything that Onesimus owes to him instead; that he would pay back whatever the price is that Philemon is owed. Clearly, Philemon has a debt of his own to Paul out of love as well and would have been overwhelmed reading this letter from his dear teacher.

According to early church legends, Onesimus later became a great man and served as a bishop to Ephesus, the most prominent of the churches in Minor Asia at the time. This is the story of a slave who lived under the sentence of death from his sin, becoming ultimately a great leader of the church of God through the grace of meeting Paul who reconciled him to both God and men.

He Gave Us the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

Because Christ paid the price for us and reconciled us to God through his unconditional grace, we come to know what love means. The love that Christ spoke is not the same as the world. The world speaks of flowery words that mostly prove shallow in trials, tribulations, and passage of time. The love of Christ comes to us in the most powerful way that he proved his love by paying our price with his life. This is the love that the Christians preach. Who in the world would be willing to pay the price of another with his life? For someone you barely know; for someone who you owe nothing for. Christ loves us in this way, and he was exulted to the right hand of God. This is the very love that God has shown to us through his one and only son, and that is how we know for sure that God loves us and what love truly is.

In this world, the Lord has given us the ministry of reconciliation: to reconcile men to God in the view of sin committed before God, and to reconciled men to one another in terms of sin committed against one another. The peace of God comes to us when the gospel rules us, and through this, we prove to this world that the God whom we preach is surely among us.