WHAT GRACE HAS DONE

Ephesians 2:5-6, 10 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ[17] (by grace you have been saved), ⁶and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus … ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Evidently, dead men may walk; that is, they may be dead to the eternal world but alive to this world, which is moving past like the films of a moving picture. The death of the spirit is compatible with much active interest in the course of this world. Behind the shifting scenes of the material is the great enemy of souls. As the Spirit of God works in the obedient, so does the evil spirit work in the disobedient. (Gen 6:5; 8:21; Jer. 17:9) Note this emphasis on evil-the course of this world, the lusts of our flesh, and the prince of the power of the air. If we desire to save men, we must be in living union with the all-conquering Spirit of Christ. We must have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:16)

Notice, also, the past tense which describes the finality of Christ’s work, Ephesians 2:5-6. In the purpose of God, we have been raised from the grave of sin and are seated with the risen Lord in the place of acceptance and victory. We were one with Christ when He lay in the grave and arose. In God’s thought, we have already taken our seat with the glorified Christ upon the throne; only the pity is that we do not believe this or act as if we had done so. All this is the gift of God’s unmerited love. By grace have we been brought into this position, and by grace are we maintained in it. We are of God’s “making;” such is the Greek word for workmanship in Ephesians 2:10. We have been created for good works; they have been planned for us, and we have only to walk in them.