Born Again To A New Life

The Blessing of Salvation

Book of Ephesians 2:1-10

What is a blessing?

The average person equates blessings to this physical world as material gain. Nothing is wrong with these blessings if they are obtained legally and according to the Word of God.

In truth the greatest blessings are not physical but spiritual!

The greatest blessing of all is to become a citizen of Heaven!

There are so many today who threaten to forsake their USA citizenship and move to another nation when they need to be forsaking sin and gaining a citizenship in Heaven.

The child of God is a stranger visiting this world, just a pilgrim passing through.

1Pe_2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

There is no greater blessing than salvation!

*****Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

The first thing we should notice is that Paul is speaking to the Church.

The Church consists of those "Born Again" Christians saved by the same almighty power whereby God raised Christ Jesus from the dead!

We, who were dead, "void of all spiritual life", now have life and life eternal by the same power that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from His physical death!

How can there be a blessing as great as this one?

**We were dead because of sin.

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

**We were in the family of Satan.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

**We walked according to the course of this world.

1Jn_2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

**We did not know our true enemy.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

**We did not understand just how cruel the Devil truly is!

Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

God did not cause this but, Satan did.

Job 1:19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Satan holds not only his "limited" power of the air but also a "limited" power of the airwaves. What are your children listening to and watching?

1Pe_5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Just as we did not know all these things, "those who are lost are unaware of all these things today", just as they were in the day of the Apostle Paul.

**There can be no doubt that we all will face death!

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

There is also "Spiritual Death". A separation from God's presence forever!

The Scriptures call this the "second death". The eternal state of being dead to God!

But we can defeat this spiritual death by the salvation that comes by "Faith" in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

**To be saved is to repent, bringing a complete change in the whole human character!

The lost do not realize that everything that occupies their time, is sin!

Mar_10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good "but one", that is, God.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Spiritual death is the separation of any human being from God while they are still living and walking upon this earth and then after a physical death, forever!

The truth:

**A person who walks in life without God and rejecting Jesus Christ, this person is already dead in the eyes of God!

**A person may walk in this life as a religious person, worshipping his own god, of his own thoughts, or his own notions and rejecting Jesus Christ and this person is also dead in the eyes of God!

1Ti 5:6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

**All persons who reject the Lord Jesus Christ and the work He has done for salvation, are dead in the eyes of God!

1Jn 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

1Jn 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

1Jn 2:23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

**Remember Satan is the father of all liars even if this is your pastor or your teacher!

*****Eph 2:3 "Among whom" also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, "even as others".

What is the real truth? All humans by nature are just alike! We all have a sin nature! Even as babies we are sinners!

It is only by the "Grace" of God that the Christian differs from those who reject Christ!

As Christians we must never be ashamed to confess ourselves to be sinners with the worst!

This is the first step toward salvation, knowing we are sinners by nature.

We are not sinners because we sin.

We sin because we are sinners. (We are born separated from God)

There is no one upon the face of this earth that does not have a sin nature! Everyone lives to fulfill the desires of the flesh!

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Does anyone teach the baby to lie?

Psa 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

Jesus Christ is the only perfect One to walk upon this earth and it is because He was God in the flesh and not born into sin!

It is only Jesus Christ who can restore us to be in harmony with God!

Before our conversion, (our salvation), we lived a life with those who are the disobedient of this world. (among whom)

Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The "children of disobedience" are all those who have rejected the Word of God and the works of His Son, Jesus Christ. (Jesus the Messiah)

We live in world that is self-centered and not God-centered!

1Jn_2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Before our conversion we all lived under the wrath of God!

And as sinners we will reap what we have sown!

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

As sinners, we will die the second death unless we receive a pardon from God.

There is absolutely no fellowship with God without this pardon!

1Jn 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Death to the sinner means God requires his soul for the second death!

Luk 12:20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

We can spend all our lives providing for the flesh but, if we do not take the time to provide for the soul, we will certainly see the wrath of God!

Thank goodness for the God who is so full of mercy and love.

*****Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

We are born so full of sin that it spews out of our mouths even when we are babes, but God is so full of mercy because of His great love that He is willing to forgive us of our sin.

To doubt God's mercy is to dishonor Him!

If we have received the mercy of God, then we are to show God's mercy to all others. God is no respecter of persons and neither are we to be!

When we understand God's love for all that is good, we will then understand God's hatred of all that is bad including all immorality!

The Love of our Father is for His Son Jesus Christ!

Jesus Christ has purchased and redeemed us by His death!

Every soul is a dear property to God and if we have not considered our soul and it is lost due to our rejection of Christ, God has lost something that is very dear to Him.

Be sure to remember, this is our choice and not God's choice!

God will save all that come to Him in faith!

The mercy of God is our greatest need as sinners!

It is by the mercy of God we have an opportunity to know the "goodness" of God! In fact, the name God is derived from the word "good"!

It is instilled in us to long for power.

It is instilled in us to long for fame.

It is instilled in us to long for immortality.

It is instilled in us to long for riches.

It is instilled in us to long for glory, but we can get none of these things without the mercy and the love of God!

Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

We might ask, just what does it take to get God to love us? Well this is really simple for God has always loved us!

1Jn_4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Even when we were dead in sins, God loved us enough to send us all a means to get back in harmony with Him.

Jesus Christ died to save His enemies!

Notice that we were already dead in sin before the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth. Had He not come, all the world would end up in the Burning Lake that was created for Lucifer and those angels that followed him.

The word Quicken means to make alive. To revive from that death!

How does God make this happen?

Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

It is by the "grace" of God through "faith"!

**The cause of salvation is God's amazing "Grace".

We all know a dead body cannot walk but, nor can a dead soul move of its own free will.

**The means of salvation is by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Each sinner, by the "Grace" of God, transferring all their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ just before His death.

By faith, the sinner can transfer all his guilt, all his misery, and his curse, to Jesus Christ and therefore each sinner becomes "a use to be", receiving all the riches of God by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

**The effects of salvation. God has raised all believers up together and made us to sit in heavenly places with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Every believer becomes a child of God!

*****Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

It is because of God's mercy that we will sit together with Jesus Christ!

It was the power of God that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead and that same power will raise every believer up sit with Him!

God raised up Jesus Christ for many reasons:

**Jesus Christ led a sin free life upon this earth.

Mankind had already sinned from birth. Righteousness and perfection had already been lost from the time of Adam.

It is only those who are perfect who can stand before God!

**Jesus Christ secured righteousness for us all!

Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

Since by the Lord Jesus Christ we are righteous, then even though we are still upon this earth, if we have the faith of Abraham, we have a place reserved for us in the heavenlies!

**The Lord Jesus Christ has already died and been raised from the dead, so God sees all believers as already been raised from the dead, exalted to live with Him forever in Jesus Christ.

When we do get to Heaven, we will not be a stranger who just got home, we will be as a son or a daughter who just left heaven to visit earth and are returning home!

*****Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Some say God was just talking to these Ephesians, but the truth is God is talking to all His Church!

We were all born without a purpose but after our salvation God extends His purpose to all His children.

God intends to show the true church the riches of His "Grace" toward through Jesus Christ!

God's riches can only flow through the Lord Jesus Christ!

We could say that God will do so much for us by His Son Jesus, that it will take an eternity to see and live it all! Amen.

The Lord God is truly King of all Ages!

1Ti 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Psa 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Many of us can sometimes think worldly about the wonders of Heaven and it is true that it will be lovely, but we sometimes forget the riches of God's "Grace" He has given us and will continue to give us by and through the Lord Jesus Christ!

Without God's amazing "Grace" we could never know the salvation plan of God!

*****Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

This may be one of the most quoted Scriptures in all the Bible.

The one thing that stands out in this Scripture is that, "salvation comes by faith"!

By definition the meaning of faith is: the settling of the mind to the truth.

So those who are lost have faith in a lie and do not know God's truth!

What is God's unchanging truth?

2Th 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

2Th 2:14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the truth?

1) Only Jehovah God can save and He alone!

It is the gift of God!

2) Faith in the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, is necessary for God to be willing to save!

Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Rom 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

3) All who have faith will be saved. But remember, faith is not a mere assent to or a profession of the truth; but such a belief as purifies the heart and governs the life.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is firmly setting the mind on the truth of God!

For those who refuse to believe, God says this: Rom 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

There is no amount of works we can do before salvation by which we can be saved!

There is no amount of works after salvation that can keep us saved!

But after salvation we will be known by our works because we will begin to look more and more like Jesus Christ, becoming Christians, becoming the Saints of God.

1Pe_2:12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Jas_2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Our salvation flows by the ""grace" of God!

Our salvation is obtained by faith and by faith only!

Our salvation is a very precious "gift" from God!

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

2Ti 1:10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

This thing is so simple that many just cannot fathom such a great gift of God to be so simple.

This salvation means we are saved from the coming wrath of God.

So how can these things be so true?

*****Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

To be saved means we were first born of our parents but we are now born of God. We are God's workmanship, not our parents workmanship!

We had a natural birth but salvation is by a spiritual birth.

Our own spirit which was once dead to God, has been quickened (made alive by God the Holy Spirit) and made alive to God!

Remember verse 1:

Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

We have been "born again" to new life!

Jesus said:

Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

We have been made a totally new creation in the eyes of God! (let that sink in)

The saving of the soul is a creation event!

In fact the only new creations since the time of Genesis are those newly born children of the God of creation!

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

God has made each Christian to be new, by the Holy Spirit!

Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Tit 3:6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

Tit 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

**Our new creation could not come about by works or any goodness.

**Our new creation could not be sustained by any works or goodness.

**Our new creation was created to be known by our good works after being made new.

These good works are an evidence of our salvation not a reason for our salvation!

God builds a masterpiece with every "Born Again" child of God but, this is a continuous work till the day He takes us home to be with Him!

Tit 3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

The strength to fulfill the purpose God has for His church, must come from Him and not from the world!

1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Amen