Week of October 12, 2025 (Ephesians 2:1-10)
Ephesians 2:1-10
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Ephesians 2:1-10
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Ephesians 2:1-10 〰️ Ephesians 2:1-10 〰️
This week, we have a stand-alone passage outside of Titus, as Brian Lowe came to preach on Ephesians 2:1-10. We're now beginning to exit the stages of church planting (and are now entering our adolescent years as a community and church), and it was exciting to have Brian join us. Brian Lowe is the pastor of Exodus Church in Belmont, NC. He and his team have invested so much into Jordan Penley and our leadership as a whole, and he is someone the Lord has used to encourage, equip, and help us lead to the best of our ability.
So in this passage, Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul is writing to a church in Ephesus, a Greek city on the west coast of Asia Minor, in present-day Selçuk. This was a city that experienced a lot of influence from both Greek and Roman cultures. Paul wrote this letter to the early church from prison in either Caesarea or Rome (disagreements exist around when Paul wrote this letter, but it's widely accepted that this letter was written while in custody during one of his two times imprisoned; Caesarea around 57-59 AD or in Rome around 60-62 AD).
The meat of the letter to Ephesus is made abundantly clear in this passage: we were dead because of our sins, but our gracious God, in His deep mercy, made us alive because of Christ's sacrifice. One of the most easily forgotten doctrines, in practice, is found in v8: "For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—" While there is so much to unpack in this passage (literally every verse here rich with doctrine and theological truth that we couldn't possibly cover it all in one week), we're going to key in on this concept in v8. How wonderful is it that we did nothing to earn our salvation in Christ? He did all the work! The freedom this allows can be lost on us sometimes, but the beauty and joy of knowing that it was not by my own effort or good (or bad) deeds, but the complete and satisfactory power of Jesus.
We sing the song "All Sufficient Merit," on Sunday's at King's Table, and this is such a beautiful reminder that there's nothing we've done to earn our way closer to God or to be in right-standing with Him; it's entirely Jesus.
All sufficient merit shining like the sun
A fortune I inherit by no work I have done
My righteousness I forfeit at my Savior's cross
Where all sufficient merit did what I could not
It is done it is finished
No more debt I owe
Paid in full
All sufficient merit now my own
So as we enter into discussion together, we'll focus in on the gracious and finished work of Jesus and how that should prompt us to respond, both to our Lord, but also to those around us.
Discussion Questions
Could someone read Ephesians 2:1-10 for us?
What stood out to you from the passage?
Does this passage remind you of another part of Scripture?
Do you have any questions?
How do we see "from death to life" play out in this passage? Where are there contrasts (between death and life) in v1-10?
In v5, Paul writes that you are "saved by grace." Can someone explain what this means?
In what ways do you live or think as if your salvation is dependent on performance or merit? How does this passage directly refute that idea?
How does the reality that we are saved by God solely through His grace (not because of any merit on our part) shape the way we extend grace and forgiveness to others?