Last week left us in a heavy place. We were faced with the reality of our sin. We realized that what we have all earned is death and wrath. And that's difficult, because we often believe we are pretty good people, doing pretty good on our own. But no, last week left us realizing we need someone to step in on our behalf. And I promise you that verse 4 will be sweet music to your ears.
This week as you do your homework, please stop each time you study and pray. Ask the Lord for wisdom and discernment. Ask Him to help you to remember the dark reality of life without Him. I encourage you to slowly work on your homework throughout the week. This helps you savor the text instead of rushing through it just to get it completed. (Tip: Each paragraph below could be treated as a day of homework)
Let's start by reading verses 1-7 of Ephesians chapter 2. Look for the word that marks a big shift or contrast (but) and place a black slash before the word but. Marking contrasts help us to see that there are two major things Paul is showing us the difference between. Last week we looked at the dark reality of being without Jesus, this week we will look at the other side Read back through verses 4-7. What did God do? Paul lists out several things God did, let's number each one to help us see them more clearly. When you have marked them, get out your journal a make a list of what God did. How is God described in verse 4? I would like us to break down what we learn about God here. We learn two things in verse four about God, write them down in your journal.
The two attributes of God that we see here are His mercy and His love. Using Blue Letter Bible do a word study on mercy and love. Now let's look up some cross references. Look up these cross references and write down what you learn about God's mercy & love: Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 1:3, John 15:13, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 1:4-5, 1 John 3:1, 1 John 4:7-8.
Now we must ask ourselves, because of God's mercy & love, what did he do for us? Remember that list we made? Let's look at it further. The first thins we see that God did, was while we were dead, He made us alive (by grace you have been saved). Look up the phrase alive together in Blue Letter Bible. Write down in your journal what you learn. We must ask ourselves, how were we made alive? Did we earn it? Did we strive toward it? The answer is there in the text. It's by grace that we were saved. Look up the definition of the word grace using Blue Letter Bible. Write down what you learn. There are probably a million cross references on grace, let's look at just a few: John 1:14-17, Romans 3:23-24, 1 Cor 15:10, 2 Tim 1:8-9
What is the next thing that God did for us? He raised us up with Him. What does the word raised up mean? Look up the definition using Blue Letter Bible and write down what you learn in your journal. Let's look up some cross references. Look up these cross references and write down what you learn in your journal: Colossians 2:12, Colossians 3:1. Now I want you to ask yourself after God raised us up, what did He do? He seated us with Him in the heavenly places. Look up these cross references on the heavenly places and write down what you learn in your journal: Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 1:20,
Now let's look at verse 7. verse 7 has a phrase we call a term of conclusion. a term os conclusion is often determined by the use of the phrase "so that" or "therefore." Find the term of conclusion in verse 7 and mark it with a black box. Now we must ask ourselves what is Paul concluding here? Look at the text and try to answer the question based on what we see in verse 7. Write down your answer in your journal. What the the ultimate outcome or conclusion? That in the age to come God would show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Let's look at this a little closer. We have already looked up the definition of grace, so let's look up the definition of kindness. Write down what you learn. I encourage you to stop and read back through verses 4-7. Conclude this week by thinking about what God has done in Jesus on our behalf. Remember that He did this when we were dead. Dead people can't help themselves, we needed someone to intervene on our behalf.
Know that I am praying for you this week! Asking God to open your hearts and minds to the goodness of His grace, mercy, and kindness!
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