Last week, we looked at Ephesians 2 in the Bible study.

The chapter begins with Paul’s reminder of what we were before we became Christians: how we were dead in transgressions and sin and totally separated from God and all of His promises for mankind. Now, we have been made alive together with Christ: indeed, we have been raised and made to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places, that God might show even more riches of His grace in the ages to come. All of this, God did by His love, grace and mercy. Our part is faith – and even that is a gift from God! – not works, so that we cannot boast that we engineered our salvation ourselves. The end result is that we have been created in Christ to walk in good works, which God planned beforehand for us to do.

The second part of the chapter looks at how far we have come as Gentiles, courtesy of Jesus Christ. Once strangers from the promises made to Israel and without God in the world, we can now draw near through the blood of Christ. By His death on the cross, Jesus abolished the law and commandments which separated Jews and Gentiles and has reconciled us both to God in one body. We Gentiles can therefore be fellow-citizens and members of God’s family. We are alos part of that grand temple being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the cornerstone. We then become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

In the discussion that followed, there were many points raised for reflection. Perhaps the most fundamental is that without an appreciation of our true state without God, we cannot appreciate the enormity of what God has done for us. We do not have a ‘cheap salvation’, but one which cost so much because our state was so desperate. We can marvel at God’s love, grace and mercy, but we can never earn these things. They are offered freely to us. Then the challenge is to walk in the works God has prepared for us to do. As Michael Card so eloquently says in his song ‘The Poem of your Life’ (based on the Greek word for ‘workmanship’ (poiema) in Ephesians 2:10):

“Life is a song we must sing with our days
A poem with meaning more than words can say
A painting with colours no rainbow can tell
A lyric that rhymes either heaven or hell.”