The Need For Geeks To Receive And Then Give Grace (In Search Of Truth, Ephesians 2:1-7)

Ephesians 2:1-7(ESV)
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once 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. 4  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.


As I mentioned in the introduction to our look at Ephesians, in this letter Paul is aiming to help us remove our blinders regarding who we are and what life is about, revealing the true nature of things so we can see reality as it is. He is giving the Ephesian believers some much needed perspective, that we can benefit from as well.

In verses 1-7 of chapter 2, Paul is providing healthy perspective on our sin and how Jesus has rescued us from separation from God. He seems to be trying to impart a perspective of humility to his readers. And humility is a vital trait if we're going to respond well to what Paul teaches in the rest of this letter.

v. 1-3

Those of us who are believers in Jesus were all once "dead". This refers to a spiritual death, resulting from our sin, that in our natural state kept us separated from relationship with God and deserving of his judgment and punishment. (Colossians 2:13-14) This was a state that came naturally to us and was also in submission to the agenda of Satan. It's the same natural, hereditary state that everyone defaults to at birth (the idea behind the expression "sons of disobedience").

In that state the norm was to just give in to our "sarx". Sarx is the Greek word translated as "flesh" in the New Testament, and refers not to our biological matter, but to our natural tendency toward selfishness. It's this natural, default state that once made us (before we believed in Christ) worthy of God's absolutely justifiable wrath.

v. 4-7

God would have been completely justified in abandoning and condemning us. (Let that sink in for a second. We'll come back to it.) But he has a rich supply of mercy, and chose to spare us the otherwise guaranteed punishment we rightly deserve. And his motive was the "agape" love he has for us.

"Agape" is a New Testament Greek word specifically referring to benevolent affection. It's a love that involves both a gentle feeling of fondness and a desire to help. It's that combination of gentle fondness and desire to help that motivated God to provide rescue for us through Jesus, requiring only that we believe the offer is genuine and accept it.

This act of rescue revived us from the dead way of life we naturally move toward and gave us some kind of connection with Christ that we don't fully understand yet. In fact, both here and in Colossians 3:1-4 we are described as being with Christ, in God's presence in heaven, right now. This is a state that hasn't been fully realized yet, but it is where our true being is found, regardless of our perceptions.

In addition to Agape motivating God to do this, he also did this as a way of revealing, for all eternity, an otherwise unknowable aspect of his character that will be commended and praised forever: His grace, or as it means in Greek, his "undeserved favor".


SIDE NOTE (Interpreting the word "saved")

I thought this would be a good moment to give an example of how we should approach the word "saved" in New Testament scripture. As I've mentioned before, the word "saved" ("Sozo" in Greek) is very broad and context sensitive, basically meaning the same thing as "rescued". It can refer to rescue from the eternal punishment and separation from God we deserve, rescue from current habits of selfishness ("sin"), or rescue from the very presence of evil (both within and around us) for all of eternity. Sozo can also refer to a combination of these three meanings. It's a word that demands examination of context in order to determine its intended meaning in a particular verse.

Given the alternative here of being "children of wrath" and "dead", and the contrasted current state believers, who are said to be "alive with Christ" and "raised up to the heavenly places", this use of Sozo would seem to refer primarily to our rescue from a deserved punishment and separation from God. (What theologians call "justification".)



SO WHAT'S IN ALL THIS FOR GEEKS?

If you've read ahead in Ephesians you know that much of it is all about relationships. And Paul seems to be emphasizing something here that is foundational to having good relationships. So we'd be wise not to miss it before we move forward.

Many of us geeks have problems in social situations and relationships. Sometimes we're just timid and insecure, sometimes we're unknowingly rude or abrasive. This common dysfunction of ours can be subtle or obvious.

As I've explored the dark places of my own heart, and spent years in ministry  with geeks (both online and in my local church), I think a lot of our relational problems are related to grace. We have trouble giving grace, undeserved favor, to other people. And at the same time we naturally default to justification of our words, thoughts and actions, rather than defaulting toward hard self-examination. We are also much more comfortable responding to others with what we think they deserve. Or we at least quietly evaluate people without bringing true, genuinely felt compassion into the process.

I'm not sure why this is true in any given case. Maybe some of us have felt judged by others, and so we just naturally default toward the same without realizing it. Maybe we've been humiliated and devalued at one or more points in life, and so we hang on to anything that makes us feel wise, intelligent or spiritually mature. But whatever the reason, our lack of grace for others is both a failure to truly appreciate our need for rescue, and a failure to imitate the love of God.

So how do we fix that?

I think it starts by reflecting (maybe for an extended period) on the fact that God would have been completely justified in not providing rescue for us at all. I suggested earlier that we let that idea sink in, and this is why:

If we think God was in any way obligated to rescue us in order to still be a perfectly just God, we can't begin to understand the problem of our own sin. As a result we will always think better of ourselves than we should and think less of others than we should. We will not experience the emotion of compassion as we're meant to. We will be incapable of anything resembling the Agape of Yahweh.

How can we tell that we're growing in giving grace?

For starters, we can see it when the words or actions we choose are motivated not by what someone deserves, but by our Agape for them. And remember that "Agape" has two chief components. One is the desire to help, and the other is a genuine feeling of fondness. We can force ourselves to use words and actions that help others. (Or what we THINK will help them. Caution is advised.) We can even mentally tell ourselves "I AM fond of this person". But if we don't presently FEEL that gentle, tender fondness for them, our agape for them is incomplete.

I'll confess to you guys that MOST times my agape for others is incomplete. I can choose gracious words and tone and still harbor a lack of sympathy in what I'm actually feeling internally. But try as I might, I can't wriggle my way out of the Greek meaning of this word that was inspired by the Holy Spirit and written for you and I to adopt into our lives.

The hope I can offer is that I've truly seen the real feelings of my heart begin to change toward people who have offended or wronged me. It has happened when I turn my mental focus away from how I've been wronged and instead focus on how I have wronged others, or how I maybe (in only some teeny tiny way, of course) contributed to discomfort, tension or even conflict in my relationship with the ones who have wronged me.

As I reflect on my wrongs (comparing myself to Christ and not whoever I have my issue with) I see my need for Jesus, and begin to realize that the person I have trouble being around, talking to or thinking about is someone else who needs Jesus, too.

I've discovered that my ability to truly reflect on and feel genuine remorse for my sin is directly related to my reliance on the tireless grace and forgiveness of Jesus, and the righteous record e has placed on top of my own. If I'm not bringing that safety net to mind I won't dare jump off that cliff of hard self-examination. But relying on that safety net gives me a tremendous feeling of relief and freedom as I confess my self-centeredness to Jesus, knowing he has already paid for and erased that sin from my record.

That process, which has involved tears in solitude, frees me up to see others more in the way that God sees them, and play the gracious role in their life that God has positioned me for.

I'm still an introvert, so socializing is still draining for me. But when I take the time to reflect on these truths, pray through my sin and the sins of others, my interactions with others are much less stressful and more fulfilling, as I see God providing me with opportunities to speak into the lives of others in a way that they will be receptive to, and that reflects the tender compassion and love that Jesus gives to me.



Resources used to prepare this study include:
"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House)
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Blueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality)