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Sermon preached on Ephesians 2:1-10 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/30/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
One way to describe us believers is to say that we are a “born-again Christian”. This is an essential doctrine of our faith. You may recall that Jesus told Nicodemus, that unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus didn’t know what that meant, and Jesus had to explain it to him. Jesus will explain it to us again today, through this passage given to us by the Apostle Paul. Here, we find what it means to be a born-again Christian and something of how that change happens. So then, we’ll study this passage in three points. First, we’ll consider how we were dead. Second, we’ll consider how God made us alive. Third, we’ll consider that our new birth and its related salvation is not a result of our works, yet it does result in good works.
Let us then begin by considering how we were dead. Verse 1, Paul says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Note that Paul specifically is addressing this to the Ephesian Christians, but by application it applies to all Christians. We were dead in sins and trespasses. Now, by adding that language of sin and trespasses, it begins to clue us is in that Paul is not talking about physical death. This is the problem that Nicodemus immediately had when Jesus talked about needing to be born again, he started thinking of physical life. Paul here is speaking about the state of our souls. We are born into this world with a sinful nature that is so sinful that Paul can accurately call it dead in that sin. Notice that verse 3 talks about this state as something that we were by nature. That word for nature there refers to our natural state that we are born into. This is our default state, save anything that would change that state. We are born physically alive but spiritually dead. This was true for every human being except three.
I have in mind Adam, Eve, and Jesus. Adam and Eve were born physically and spiritually alive. Yet, they fell prey to work of Satan and fell spiritually dead in that initial sin and trespass. Since then, every human born ordinarily from their lineage are made in their fallen image. Jesus is the only exception, because he was not born in the ordinary fashion, but by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing the womb of Mary and conceiving Jesus, the God-man, within her. Jesus, therefore, was born into this world both physically and spiritually alive, and never fell into any sin and transgression.
Sadly, the world is a testimony of this fact. That’s what verse 2 goes on to acknowledge. It tells us two related things there about this world. One, this world is full of people who walk in sin and trespasses. It says this is the “course”, or “age”, of this world. That is how this present age is characterized, a world fallen in sin and who thus lives in sin. The other thing Paul tells us here about this world is that Satan is a sort of prince leading the godless of this world. I refer to how verse 2 describes the prince of the power of the air, generally understood as a reference to Satan. Recall, that Ephesians repeatedly mentions spirits such as angels and demons and their power and authority. So, Paul says here that we, along with all the world, used to follow Satan as our spiritual prince. Satan is working in this world in the lives of the spiritually dead, to promote continued rebellion against God. This is the continued state of fallen mankind. Our first parents fell prey to the powerful working of Satan, and mankind continues from birth to follow in their footsteps.
Verse 3 further explains how spiritually dead we were. It says that we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. In other words, our sinful natures that we are born with are ones that love and crave sin. Our physical bodies yearn for it. Our minds lust after it. This is the natural man and sadly we know this too well. This is the doctrine of total depravity.
Here we have then the three classic enemies, Satan, the world, and our own sinful nature. That results in two “complementary”, but not “complimentary”, descriptions of us. Verse 1 says that the natural human is a son of disobedience. Verse 3 says that the natural human is a child of wrath. That sums it up. We have all been born into a spiritual death that makes us people that disobey God and thus be guilty people that deserve his wrath. Paul says this is what we Christians used to be. Let us appreciate that past tense language, that we “were” dead, as we now head into our second point.
Let us then talk about how God has now made us alive. Pause with me for a moment and understand that Paul is still talking to the Ephesians and thus he is still describing something that is true only for Christians. While it is true that all people are born into this world in a state of spiritual death, it is only for born-again Christians that can we say that such is now past tense, that we “were” dead, and that now we are alive. Let us understand that while God has made us Christians alive, the rest of the world is still spiritually dead.
Look then at verse 4. Here is the glorious transition that marks out someone going from spiritual death to spiritual life. Verse 4, “But God.” Our natural state was being spiritually dead. What caused us to be spiritually alive? God. It does not say, “But then you did something that caused you to be born again.” No, it says, “But God.” God did something to make us Christians alive out of our spiritual death. That is what verse 5 goes on to say, that God made us alive. When we talk about being born again, this is what we are referring to. This is the doctrine of regeneration. We were dead spiritually but to be made alive spiritually is to be reborn. The born-again Christian is someone whom God has made their spirit alive from this previous state of dead.
Appreciate why God made us alive. It’s there in verses 4 and 5. It’s God’s mercy, love, and grace. It says that God is rich in mercy, this compassion where he pitied our sore estate and made a way to pardon our sin. It says God has had not just some love, but great love for us, such unconditional love that loved us when we were yet enemies to him. It says by grace he has saved us, emphatically because he repeats it in verse 8, grace not works, a gift not a wage. His rich mercy, his great love, his emphatic grace, determined a way in Christ to reconcile us disobedient children of wrath to become adopted sons. We are now his children that he has bestowed such an inheritance upon us so that in the coming ages, he will continue to show us the riches of his grace. That includes how he is presently at work in us, which we’ll consider more in our third point. But it also includes how he will shower us with the riches of his glorious inheritance in the age to come at the day of Christ.
Let us also appreciate how this passage connects this with our union with Christ. When it says that God has made us alive, it says that he has made us alive together with Christ. A careful look here in verses 5 and 6 and we see three things that describe our regeneration in terms of our union with Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead, we rose from spiritual death. Jesus ascended up into heaven, we have ascended with him, spiritually. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, we are seated with him there. This wonderfully reminds us that God saves us in Jesus. Jesus accomplishes our salvation. He wasn’t born dead in trespasses and sins, rather he bore our trespasses and sins, so we could be forgiven. In his victory over sin and death, we share in that victory as those united to him by faith.
Recognizing our union with Christ also helps us recognize that God regenerates us by the Holy Spirit. Remember, last passage mentioned the power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead and ascend him and seat him. Paul prayed that same power would continue to work in our lives. Well, that power is the Holy Spirit. So if we have been raised, ascended, and seated in Christ, then that also is something the Holy Spirit has worked in us. So, I love how we see all the persons of the Trinity at work in this. God the Father has chosen us to be his sons, and he makes us alive by God the Holy Spirit, uniting us to God the Son in faith.
This is a wonderful truth that God has wrought new spiritual life to our previously dead souls. This is why we can believe in Jesus and confess him as our Lord and Savior. This is why we have now an interest in the things of God. This is why we have a desire now to live for God instead of serving Satan. God has conquered our hard hearts and given us a heart of flesh that has responded to his love for us with a love for him. This all is what it means to be a born-again Christian.
Let us now in our third point relate being born again to the topic of works. We’ll see that our new birth is not brought about by our own works. But we’ll see that God caused our new birth for the very purpose of making us a people who do good works.
Look at the start of verse 8. For by grace you have saved. That points us back to verse 5 which emphasized that God is the one who makes us alive. It’s God’s work not ours. But verse 8 does go on to say that we are saved through faith. We Christians know that faith is essential to salvation. To be a saved Christian, we must turn and put our faith in Jesus. We will not be saved if we don’t have faith in Christ. Paul reminds us of the instrument of faith in our salvation. There is a response to the gospel needed. But as soon as he reminds us of this, he immediately clarifies, “This is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.” Our faith is God’s gift. We don’t believe because we were smart enough to believe. We believe because God made us born again. When we were spiritually dead, we would never have believed in Jesus, because we were dead. But God in his grace made us alive which one result of that is our spiritual eyes are opened up. We begin to recognize that we are under God’s wrath because of our sin. Then we truly see the free offer of the gospel, that God will pardon our sin and grant us eternal life, if we will trust in Jesus in faith. In our new birth we then believe upon Jesus and are saved. Paul here explains this important order of how we are saved. Grace makes us born again. Faith grabs hold of the gospel offer and is saved. Since our faith is a result of our new birth, it is rightly called a gift from God. Therefore, we are saved ultimately by God’s work to regenerate us.
Verse 9 gives us the application. This means that we can’t boast about our salvation. Yes, we can boast about God saving us. But you can’t boast about saving yourself because you didn’t save yourself. God regenerates us, we don’t regenerate us. This is the technical definition of monergism. That word is made up of the Greek words “mono” and “ergon”. “Mono” means “solo” and “ergon” means “work”. Monergism says that it is only God who works in our regeneration. Monergism is in contrast to synergism which would consider both God and man working together. There is no sense of synergism in our regeneration. The new birth is entirely a work of God. As Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Yes, if want to see people born again, we should bring them the Word of God and pray for their conversion. But whether someone actually is born again or not, is going to be solely the work of the Spirit in someone’s heart. None of us is capable to change a heart the way God can. We can’t change our own heart, let alone someone else.
Because our new birth is not a result of our works, we could mistakenly come to the conclusion that our works are therefore not important. This is a concern people have repeatedly raised about Christianity through the years. They’ll say that our teachings on grace and mercy can result in a license to sin, the so-called “carnal Christian” or “easy-believism.” But the gospel is not antinomian, throwing out the law since we’re saved by grace. Rather, verse 10 immediately corrects any such faulty conclusion that works are not important. Verse 10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” This now introduces the doctrine of sanctification, that God is working to make us people who do good works. So, there is clearly a category for the Christian where we are to be seeking good works.
This is the wonderful and biblical difference between our regeneration and our sanctification. In our regeneration, there is absolutely no activity, no work, on our part that in any ways is involved in being born again. Faith is an outcome of our regeneration, not what causes our regeneration. Yet, in sanctification, there is a way that we are very much active in it. As it says here, that we should seek to walk in good works. That being said, verse 10 still puts even that in its proper perspective, because it says this is a result of God’s workmanship in our lives. In other words, while sanctification involves our activity too, it is still ultimately a work of God’s grace in our life. As Berkhof summarized in his Systematic Theology, “It is a work of God in which believers co-operate.”
We can’t say that about our regeneration. But in our sanctification we are called to diligently use the means of grace God gives us to grow. We are told to put off sinful living and put on godly living. The Bible doesn’t teach us to be passive or indifferent in terms of our sanctification. Having been born-again, Christians should pursue good works. Yet, ultimately we recognize that even in our sanctification it is God’s work in our lives. A good cross reference here is Phil. 2:12-13 which says, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Remember how chapter 1 repeatedly mentioned how God predestined Christians unto salvation? Let us appreciate how verse 10 also touches on the doctrine of predestination. It mentions there that God prepared beforehand for us to walk in good works. In other words, God’s predestination wasn’t just to forgive us of our sins. It also included that we would be made into a sanctified, righteous person.
Verse 10 also subtly implies that being born-again does not mean that we never ever sin again in this life. I wish that were the case, but our experience confirms this is not the case. Rather, verse 10 speaks of how a born-again Christian is under construction. As God’s workmanship, God is currently creating us to be the holy person he intends us to become. But we are still a work in progress. The rest of the book will continue to develop this point. For example, chapter 3 will see Paul again praying for our growth. Chapter 4 will talk about how Christ is currently growing his church into maturity through spiritual gifts. Chapter 5 will describe Christ’s continued sanctifying of the church by the washing of the Word until he ultimately presents the church to himself holy and without blemish at the last day. Chapter 6 recognizes until then, we will be involved in a spiritual battle against evil spiritual forces, but Christ will give us the strength for the battle. Sanctification is ongoing work of the Spirit in our lives to make us a people who do good works.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, I hope you have been blessed with this teaching on the radical change God has worked in your hearts and he is continuing to work inside you. Let me summarize today’s message by bringing together the several things that have changed for the Christian. One, we were spiritually dead, now we are spiritually alive. Two, we were under Satan’s rule, now we are seated in the highest place authority with Christ Jesus. Three, we were worthy of God’s wrath, now instead we’ve received God’s mercy, love, and grace. Four, before we were walking in sin and transgression, now we are to be walking in good works.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, today’s passage highlights God’s powerful working in your life. He already worked powerfully in your regeneration. He continues to work powerfully in your sanctification. Some might wonder what application we might take from this. Verse 9 gives us a very clear application. Don’t boast. As Christians, there is never a place for us to think better of ourselves than non-Christians. It can be tempting to look down on some in the world who deny God and reject Jesus. We can be tempted to think highly of ourselves, since we know the truth. Yes, we do know the truth and that is better than the world who doesn’t know the truth. But we know the truth by the grace of God. The doctrine of regeneration leaves no room for spiritual pride. Being born-again Christian should cause us to rely on God more and to praise God and thank God.
In conclusion, may we take heed to how we walk. This passage spoke about how we walked when we were dead, and how we are to walk now that we are alive. May we each walk in step with the Spirit, seeking to live the new life God has prepared for us. Let us trust that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
