“A Spiritual Foundation: Sola Gratia”

The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
The Lord's Day, June 5, 2005
Ephesians 2:1-10

On February 3, 1998, Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman in Texas to be executed for a crime since 1863. In June 1983, she took part in one of the most gruesome double murders in Texas state history. With a pickaxe and 57 blows later, a life that started to go downhill at an early age reached its lowest point. On marijuana at age 10; heroine at 11; sex at 12; prostitution at 14; a quick marriage and divorce at 16; and double murder at 23. From the pictures of Karla Faye at her 1984 trial, she looked dour and apathetic -- in a word, dead.

However, at the time of her execution, Karla Faye Tucker looked like a totally different person: Vibrant, kind, gentle, gracious and a radiant smile. This murderess found God's gift of grace in Jesus Christ from a Bible unceremoniously left in her cell by one of the jail chaplains. Ironically, after fourteen years on death row, Karla was by all accounts, a woman who had passed from death to life.

I'm reminded of those "before and after" magazine pictures advertising a weight loss program. Before: An unflattering picture of an overweight man or woman; but then the After shot: A very impressive makeover that looks absolutely nothing like the "before" picture! That's what struck me about Karla Faye's B.C. and A.D. "pictures."

Her before and after experience seems to me to be a good segue to the message this morning from Ephesians 2:1-10. Listen to verses 1-3 for the "before" picture.

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."

These first three verses are depressing! "You," -- that's a second person plural and it means that the finger is pointing to all of us: You were dead in your sins. This is something that none of us want to hear. I surmise that most Presbyterians would rather think the best of all people, especially of those outside the Christian faith. At best, we prefer to think of them as possibly misguided. At the very worst, a little rebellious. After all, isn't all humanity at the core, basically good? Isn't spirituality hidden within everybody, good and bad? Based on these presuppositions, many well-meaning ministers have used this well-worn sermon illustration over the years to invite people to Christ:

"A man is suffering from a terminal illness. The sinner is said to be on the very brink of death. He does not have it within his own power to cure himself of the disease. He is lying on his deathbed almost totally paralyzed. He cannot recover unless God provides the healing medicine. The man is so bad off that he cannot even stretch forth his arm to receive the medicine. He is almost comatose. God must not only offer the medicine, but God must put the medicine on a spoon and place it by the dying man's lips. Unless God does all that, the man will surely perish. But though God does 99 percent of what is necessary, the man is still left with 1 percent. He must open his mouth to receive the medicine. This is the necessary exercise of free will that makes the difference between heaven and hell. The man who opens his mouth to receive the gracious gift of the medicine will be saved. The man who keeps his lips tightly clenched will perish." (R.C. Sproul, Chosen By God p. 115)

However close this illustration might come, it still misses the point. Men and women outside of Christ are not just spiritually sick or impaired - they're dead! Rigor mortis has already set in. A sinner must be resurrected from the dead to walk in the newness of life.

In contrast to walking in newness of life in Christ, you and I were on a death march before God's grace: The words, "in which you once walked" indict everyone of us! In Ephesians 2:2b-3, this state of spiritual death is described, pointing out three factors that contribute to alienation from God. Briefly put, there are the external factors; the spiritual warfare factor; and last, but not least, the internal factors

1. EXTERNAL: The first factor is that we walked "according to the course of the world." This is giving in uncritically to the way the world thinks, moves and evaluates life. We are so heavily influenced by culture, from the superficial all the way to the serious. Fashion trends and personal grooming in the former category; a middle ground in the things we do for recreation; the shows and movies we watch and enjoy; and more critically, the opinions we hold and advance on personal ethics and morality. Let me put it this way, if imitation is a sincere form of flattery, then we are extremely tickled pink with the world that we live in!

2. SPIRITUAL WARFARE: The second factor is that we also walked "according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." This is the warfare that Ephesians closes with in chapter six when it speaks of the necessity of putting on "the whole armor of God" (Eph 6:10-20). Regardless of how much it offends our modern sensibilities, the existence of Satan and the demonic realm, it is presented in the Bible as a fact of life - reality! Satan is referred to here as "the prince of the power of the air." He and his demonic hoard are said to be at work in this world sowing seeds of unbelief and doubt. I would highly recommend to you C.S. Lewis' classic novel, The Screwtape Letters. Though it is a bit dated in it's use of the then current events of the World War II generation, it still speaks truthfully and cogently to the reality of spiritual warfare. The Bible teaches that there is a spiritual world behind all that we see that must be taken into account. To doubt that is to live in denial!

3. INTERNAL: Spiritual warfare works very well with the third factor presented, "we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind…." I call this the internal factor because we are all born into sin, and we struggle with the flesh until the day we die. Humanity is not basically good. We're not born innocent in the eyes of God. We wrestle with our thoughts; we have a hard time controlling our tempers; we tear people up behind there backs with malicious gossip; we do things that we know that we shouldn't do; we trivialize and relegate the things of God to just another activity on a long list of things to do and accomplish. Here's a bold statement: I will tell you that in all probability, there's not one person in this entire sanctuary that can go five minutes without sinning! Think about that one!

Now, the temptation is to focus on one of these three. A number of years ago, Frank Peretti wrote a couple of highly influential books about spiritual warfare, This Present Darkness and Piercing The Darkness. They were helpful in that they re-introduced a mostly neglected perspective back into the Church on the reality of spiritual warfare. The only problem was that the books seemed, at least to me, to downplay the other two factors: external and internal factors. I remember one scene in the book when a character's car broke down, and a demon got the blame! "The devil made me do it" IS a valid response; but not all the time!

Ephesians is emphatic that it is all three factors: the world; the devil and sinful inclinations all work together to maintain and perpetuate spiritual death. The truth of the matter is that you and I, apart from Christ "were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest [of humanity]."

But now, I want you to hear Eph. 2:4-5. These two awesome verses serve as the hinge and key to this passage: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…."

The "but" serves as sort of a stop sign. You were dead in your sins, but God….; you were far from God, but God….; you called evil good and good evil (cf. Isa 5:20), but God…! But God, in His rich mercy and great love, came to us in Christ Jesus. One of my professors in seminary said that one of his former church members once gave him a homemade needlework plaque that read simply, BUT! It was taken from Ephesians 2:4. BUT God loved us, even when we were dead in sin, and He has made us alive with Christ. Just as He raised His Son, He has raised us as well. And then there's a little parenthetical remark at the end of verse 5 that's huge: "(by grace you have been saved)…."

During the Protestant Reformation, the Latin slogan sola gratia became popular. It means by grace alone. The Reformers wanted to remind the Church of this great truth! It is only by God's grace alone that anyone experiences new life in Christ! The initiative is solely God's! In Eph. 2:8, salvation is called a gift of God. You don't earn gifts; you don't pay for gifts received: You receive them gratefully.

In my next message, we will dwell more on the second half of this passage (i.e. Eph. 2:6-10). But for now, as we approach the Table for Communion, let's give thanks together to God for His rich mercy and great saving love. Better yet still, let's consider how we might demonstrate humble gratitude in our own lives as we go from here this morning. Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory!