{"id":531,"date":"2014-10-23T20:28:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T00:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=531"},"modified":"2014-11-10T21:36:16","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T01:36:16","slug":"saved-by-grace-through-faith-2-it-is-gods-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"Saved by Grace through Faith (2): It is God’s Work!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DesertTree2\"<\/a>Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10<\/p>\n

We have mentioned that Ephesians 2:1-10 is one long sentence, and although we have look at some details of this sentence, it is time now to look at the overall sentence structure.<\/p>\n

I understand that\u00a0some people are a little resistant to this kind of study. To them\u00a0this kind of reading seems unnecessarily academic but has no life. To that thinking, I would like to explain that all we are trying to do here is simply to read a sentence as a sentence. That is all. It is not really a complicated or highly intellectual matter.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Imagine\u00a0listening to a sermon. If for some reason (it could be simply because of a bad sound system), you could not understand the sentences that the speaker speaks. You could not tell when he started or ended sentences but could only hear a few nice words or phrases here and there, do you think you would understand what he was trying\u00a0to say? Although you might say that in that situation God could still speak to you through broken sentences and phrases, it would be hard to believe that you could actually get the intended message from the speaker.<\/p>\n

It is the same with the Bible. We need to understand the overall idea that a speaker is speaking about, and we need to understand each sentence as a sentence in order to get the intended message.<\/p>\n

With that, let us look at the sentence in vv. 1-10. Basically the structure of the sentence is as shown below:<\/p>\n

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\u00a0You, being dead in your transgressions and sins… (description of former life in vv. 2-3, but the sentence does not complete)…2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

God made us, being dead in transgressions,<\/p>\n

(made us) alive with Christ (vv. 4-5)3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

and raised us up with Christ (v. 6a)<\/p>\n

and seated us with him in the heavenly realms (v. 6b)<\/p>\n

in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace (v. 7)<\/p>\n

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Since we had been\u00a0dead, we could not have made ourselves alive. The only way we could be made alive was by through the power and grace of God. Thus Paul interjected the expression of amazement and thanksgiving, “it is by grace you have been saved.<\/span>” (2:5) And a little later he came back and explain this topic of salvation.<\/p>\n

So structurally this is what we have in vv. 1-10:<\/p>\n

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\u00a0(You, being dead in your transgressions<\/span> and sins…. vv. 2-3); grammatically this is not a complete sentence but a participle describing the “you.”<\/em><\/p>\n

God made us, being dead in transgressions<\/span>,<\/p>\n

(made us) alive with Christ – it is by grace you have been saved!<\/span> (vv. 4-5)<\/p>\n

and raised up with Christ (v. 6a)<\/p>\n

and seated us with him in the heavenly realms (v. 6b)<\/p>\n

in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace (Eph 2:7)<\/p>\n

Further explanation of “it is by grace you have been saved.<\/span>” (vv. 8-10)<\/p>\n

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The reason the sentence is so long is because within this main sentence, explanations are\u00a0added as needed. When Paul talks about spiritual death, he further explains how people used to live. And after he mentions\u00a0that salvation is by grace, he further explains the concept in vv. 8-10. All these together form this long sentence, that is, Ephesians 2:1-10.<\/p>\n

Again, since verses 3-4 is not a complete sentence but an explanation of our spiritual condition before we came to Christ, the main statement is about God’s act\u00a0in making us alive, raising us with Christ, and seating us in the heavenly realms<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Seeing this main statement helps us to clearly see how this act is related to:<\/p>\n