Ephesians 2:3-5, 8-10
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh, and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We lived among them at one time: Before we became Christians we were just like all the other lost people.
Gratifying the cravings of our flesh, following its desires and thoughts: We used to go after all the pleasures of this world to try to satisfy our wants, thinking like the World.
Like the rest of the lost people of the World, we were by nature, the human nature we were born with, objects of wrath because of the sinfulness of our nature that causes us to make all the foolish choices, called sins.
But erases what just went before.
God, Everything always starts with God, and is finished by Him.
Because of His great love for us, This is how much God loves each of us.
Who is rich in mercy, Mercy is God not giving us the wrath we deserve.
Made us alive, because we were spiritually dead--life is spirit.
With Christ, When Jesus was Resurrected, He gave us His Resurrection Life.
even when we were dead in transgressions, our disobedience to His Law that results from our having that defective human nature; we are all born dead.
--It is by grace that you have been saved, ... For it is by grace that you have been saved, Grace is God's Riches At Christ's Expense, the goodness that we can never earn or deserve.
Through faith, trusting in the truthfulness of what God has said in His written Word: that we all deserve death and Jesus took our death upon Himself for each one of us on that altar of the Cross, to pay the eternal debt we each owe to God for the sin-nature we were born with.
And this faith is not from yourselves, we have not the ability to muster up this belief within ourselves, it is impossible.
It is the gift of God, God draws us and grants us this gift of the ability to believe.
Not by works, not by anything we can do or say or think or engender in ourselves.
So that no one can boast. No one will ever be able to compare their Redemption to anyone else's. No one will ever be able to take pride in anything about their own coming to Salvation, because it is all God and none of us.
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, God's masterpiece, that He has made and molded and produced and decorated.
To do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. God created each of us new in order to live our lives in His power of His Holy Spirit, doing the things He planned before He created anything; and He has prepared us, or is preparing us, to each do our part in His great Plan of the Ages.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
