Mercy

Showing Mercy To All(The Good Samaritan). EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #90 (Luke 10:29-37)

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We began this section of Scripture in our last study with a look at the question that this scholar of the law asked our Lord Jesus. The questions is seen in Luke 10:25 where he says to Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This question comes to the minds of most people. Not very many people will admit to wanting to die. Most religions have some form of eternal life and with that this question comes to the minds of most people. For this scholar this was a question that he knew the answer to, well at least intellectually. He knew the proper answer to this question himself and looked to trip Jesus up with this question as we looked at last time.

So Jesus didn’t directly answer the question but asked the scholar “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” This man gave the correct interpretation of the Law by stating that the answer is that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

This answer was a proper understanding of what the Law of God will do and that is to help us to live this way in loving God and man. But the problem is still there and that is how can we perfectly live out this Law? Because the question was how to inherit eternal life and the answer really points to living that Law out. Jesus challenges this man by saying in Luke 10:28 where we finished our last study, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

We talked last time about how the Law of God exposes our sin. It shows to us what sin is and this is the very thing that it did here. But as we will see, this man just like many of us tried to find a loophole in the Law to justify his sinfulness. This brings us to our first point for this study.

1.The scholar MAINTAINS his innocence.
Look with me at Luke 10:29 that says But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

So we see this man had the right answer, Jesus confirms that his answer is correct but when he was challenged to live it out he then began to look for a way to make himself look as if he was living out the Law perfectly. Most of the religious people that Jesus encountered had this same attitude. Later on when Jesus has a conversation with the person we most often call the rich young ruler, he answered this question by saying in Luke 18:21 “All these things I have kept from my youth.”

They did not come to Jesus in hopes to find out what their own sin was or what they really needed to do to become a recipient of salvation but rather in hopes of being justified by Jesus. Luke records for us that this man looked to justify himself in Luke 10:29 by asking Jesus “And who is my neighbor?”

This man knew the proper interpretation of the law but lacked the ability to do what it said. Jesus rebukes this behavior in very strong words as we can see in Matthew 23:23-24 where Jesus says “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

Jesus had told the people in Matthew 23:2-3 “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3 therefore all that they tell you, do and keep, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. 

They knew the Law of God but they made their own laws and edits to the Law so that they could look good as if they were keeping the law. This man looked to be approved and looked to maintain his innocence by asking this question concerning who his neighbor really is? This brings us to Jesus’ response in what we will see in our next point.

2.The MAIN POINT of the parable.
Look with me at Luke 10:30-36 that says Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31 And a priest happened to be going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion. 34 And he came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ 36 Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

As we see often Jesus responds in a way to help clarify the point. In this parable that we know as the Good Samaritan we will notice that there is a point to the entire story. All of this points to the question that this scholar asked back in Luke 10:25 which was “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Hindsight tells us that we know that no one can earn salvation, no one can “do” anything to become recipients of salvation but for Jesus’ audience this would be a very intriguing question that many would want to know the answer to. They wanted eternal life, they wanted to be a part of God’s Kingdom so this answer from Jesus would be what everyone wanted to hear. But as we see he gives them a parable to see who it is that really has eternal life.

In this parable we will see 3 different men that could have helped this other man that had been robbed and left for dead. Let’s look at the first one as Jesus tells the story. Jesus says in Luke 10:30-31 “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31 And a priest happened to be going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

The first person that encounters this man that had been robbed, beat and left for dead was a priest. In the minds of those listening they would have thought that this priest would have been in the right for not going to help this man. I mean Leviticus 21:11 says that a priest shall he approach any dead person nor defile himself even for his father or his mother.

This priest could have thought this man was dead and decided to walk the other way to keep himself holy as the Law prescribed. If this priest was to come in contact with a dead body then they would have to be ritually cleansed before being able to perform duties again as a priest. Of course I believe that Jesus purposely chose this story to show them that love, compassion and mercy are attributes of people that have truly received eternal life. So I believe he chose this priest to show this scholar that they were like this priest in looking for loopholes instead of showing compassion. They would look to uphold certain portions of the Law and make new laws of their own to justify why they didn’t keep others.

The next person to encounter this man left for dead would be who we see in Luke 10:32 that says Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Just like the priest this Levite did not look to be compassionate but looked for a reason to go the other way. The two men were both knowledgeable in the Law which they knew could provide them a cleansing if they decided to help but instead they went the other way. Both the priest and the Levite would be considered the top of the religious ladder in Jewish custom but here we see that Jesus is conveying that they were not interested in reaching out to others. They were not concerned with the well being of this man and just like them, the religious leader of Judaism was not concerned with the common people.

Then we see the third man that encounters this man left for dead in Luke 10:33-35 that says But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion. 34 And he came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’

The importance of a Samaritan being the most compassionate of the 3 men that encountered this man left for dead is significant in this story. Jews hated Samaritans simply because they were half Jew and half Gentile. They looked at Samaritans as filth, unholy and defiant against God. So Jesus uses this Samaritan as an example of a person that has shown compassion towards this man. Not only would this Samaritan show compassion by stopping but he would also bandage his wounds, take him somewhere to be cared for and gave his own money to take care of this stranger.

This Samaritan would be looked at by Jews as one that breaks the Law of God and unworthy of eternal life. But in this parable Jesus shows that the Samaritan was the one that not only knew the law but lived it. He would live out Leviticus 19:33-34 that says And when a sojourner sojourns with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. 34 The sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.

Also Deuteronomy 10:19 that says Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

He was not looking for excuses to not do what was needed but had compassion. The priest and Levite could have helped. It was not completely forbidden to help this man but it would have cost them time, money and effort in which they did not want to participate. The main point of this parable is in showing not who your neighbor is but are you being a neighbor to others as you have been told to do by the command of God? Jesus asks the man after he tells the parable in Luke 10:36 Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

This question really points towards the fact that a person that has received eternal life will not be looking for reasons to not show compassion but will be compassionate because of the desire to be like their Father and God. This leads us to the last point for this study.

3.Those who receive MERCY will do the same.
Look with me at Luke 10:37 that says And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

We see here that this scholar clearly understood the point of the parable. We do not know if this man was truly saved but what we do know is that Jesus again confirms that his answer is correct. He answers Jesus’ question of who proved to be a neighbor by saying “The one who showed mercy toward him.”

*Showing mercy towards others is an attribute of every Christian. If you profess to be a Christian and you lack compassion and mercy then I would doubt that you have received mercy from God. Jesus says in Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

1 John 3:16-18 says By this we have known love, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

In another parable that Jesus shares He says in Matthew 18:33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’

The point of that parable points to the same reality that a person that has been forgiven by God will in fact have the same attitude towards others. We will never be perfect in this but we must strive for this way of living.* The original question was what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

The answer is “Go and do the same.” This is not pointed towards earning salvation but that if you can live a life full of mercy towards others that there is no need to question your salvation because that is simply an attribute given by God to His children. My thoughts on this is that Jesus knew that this man was uncompassionate, unmerciful and unloving therefore he exposes this to him to show that his status as a scholar, his intellect and his standard would not give to him eternal life but only mercy from God. The fact that he had mercy from God would show up in the way that he lived that out towards others in his life.

Jesus Begins His Journey To The Cross. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #83 (Luke 9:51-56)

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As we begin this study we will notice an obvious shift in the direction of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus has spent most of His ministry in the area of Galilee with a very brief stint in Judea at the beginning of His public ministry. Of course we know with the Gospel of John that Jesus always traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts but for the most part His ministry has been focused on the area of Galilee. Now we will notice that Jesus begins His journey toward Jerusalem, not just for a feast but to accomplish the plan of salvation that will require His life. This direction to the cross will span from this point all the way to Luke 23 where Jesus will die and then resurrect in chapter 24. So we have a lot of content to cover in these last 9 months or so of Jesus’ life.

In this study we will look at the change of direction in Jesus’ ministry and more moments to teach the 12 disciples what they need to know as they continue this journey with Him. We have just came off of some very detailed instructions that the disciples needed to know and this will be more instructions on how they are to conduct their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Let’s look now at our first point.

1.Jesus’ DIRECTION is set towards the cross.
Look with me at Luke 9:51 Now it happened that when the days for Him to be taken up were soon to be fulfilled, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.

Luke the writer of this Gospel of course has hindsight into what happened throughout Jesus’ life but with that we clearly see that this was the transition point of Jesus’ ministry that would lead Him to the cross. We have to always keep in mind that Jesus is on the divine timeline not man’s. Many times we see this stated about the time that was planned for Jesus to die. Jesus says in John 7:6 “My time is not yet here, but your time is always here.

We also see in John 7:8 Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not yet going up to this feast because My time has not yet been fulfilled.”

John 7:30 says So they were seeking to seize Him; yet no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

John 8:20 says These words He spoke in the treasury, as He was teaching in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.

But then when the divine timetable was ready we see John 13:1 that says Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Also Matthew 26:18 says And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am keeping the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’”

The finally John 17:1 in the high priestly prayer we see Jesus say “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.

All of this shows to us that Jesus knew when and how all of this would take place. It is now in our Luke text that we see that He set His face to go to Jerusalem. It’s not that He hadn’t been to Jerusalem before but this time would be different. He has warned His disciples numerous time of what His fate would be. They refused to listen, they refused to understand and Peter even rebukes the Lord for such statements concerning Jesus being killed.

Our next study will reveal again the call to and the cost of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus. The words that Jesus speaks to them concerning the cost of discipleship must be asked of us as well but we will dive into that in our next study. For now we will look at what Jesus begins to do as He makes His way towards Jerusalem one last time before the cross. This leads us to look at our next couple of verses in our next point.

2.The Samaritan’s did not DEVOTE themselves to Jesus.
Look with me at Luke 9:52-53 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.

As we see Jesus begins to move towards Jerusalem by way of Samaritan land. This would not be the normal route of a Jewish person because the Samaritans and the Jews did not get along. The Jews looked down on the Samaritans because of their heritage of being mixed race who practiced their own form of Judaism. The first mention of these Samaritans dates back to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah around the 5th century BC era.

The Samaritans have a rich history that sets themselves as the keepers of the Torah but the Jewish people did not see anything other than a half breed mixed race of Jews and Gentiles that were defiling the temple of God and God’s standard of living. We know that Jesus went through Samaria often because of trying to stay away from the Jewish leaders that were seeking to kill Him. In John 4 Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman by the well where she says in John 4:9 “How do You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

To build the context of our Luke passage I believe we must look back at John 7:1 and also verse 2 that says And after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. 2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.

I believe that John 7:1-9 is before He leaves Capernaum which lines up with our Luke text. So we see that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to the Feast of Booths but also because His time was drawing near. I believe as you can read in John 7 that Jesus does eventually go towards Jerusalem but not in the path the others would take. He sets out to go through Samaria to reach these people as well. Remember back when Jesus and the Samaritan woman had finished their conversation that Jesus said in John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.

Jesus always looked for opportunities to minister to people even those that were looked on and despised for their heritage. But this time the Samaritans would not be as open to Jesus. Luke 9:52 says and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.

Jesus seems to want to make a stop in this village most likely Sychar or somewhere near where He was before. He sent messengers to get them prepared for Him and His disciples to visit and spend time there before going to Jerusalem in celebration of the Feast of Booths. Of course we must also keep in mind that Jesus knew that they would not be open to their visit and that He was doing this again seeking to teach the disciples a lesson that they needed. Luke 9:53 says of the Samaritans, But they did not receive Him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.

They too would celebrate the Feast of Booths but not in Jerusalem. This seems to be an issue with them wanting Jesus and His disciples to stay with them for the feast. They reject Jesus, they do not receive Him which sets up the reason I believe Jesus sent these messengers in the first place.

3.The disciple’s lack of DISCERNMENT.
Look with me at Luke 9:54-56 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.

The messengers come back to Jesus, who could have been close to the village, with the news that the Samaritans were not willing for them to come into the city. Most people would say that these two messengers were James and John because they are mentioned in verse 54 but I do not believe they were sent away from Jesus at this point. It could have been them or 2 of the other disciples but I believe it may have been some others that were following Jesus that may have been appointed to do this. As both James and John see what is happening their arrogance and lack of discernment kicks into to high gear. We pick up the story where they respond to this rejection in Luke 9:54 that says And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

You talking about harsh words of condemnation. These two brothers had attitudes that placed themselves as more superior than other people. Even this situation did not teach them the lesson of humility they needed because we see in Mark 10:35-40 that they ask Jesus for the right to sit at His right and left hand in the kingdom. They felt like they were the leaders that could do whatever they pleased. Mark 3:17 says that Jesus gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder” to James and John. Even though we have no indication in Scripture of why they had this name, it could very well be because of their brash, harsh and demanding attitude. Of course they both were changed as time goes on. James would die for the cause of Christ as stated in Acts 12:2 and John would endure severe persecution throughout his life even to the point of exile on the Island of Patmos.

But for this moment we see these two in acts of arrogance and the lack of compassion ask Jesus “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

Let’s just say that they definitely did not get it at this point. They probably thought that what they asked was noble and showing a sense of strength but in reality it showed their ignorance and weakness. Jesus answers in a very harsh and direct way as we see in Luke 9:55-56 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.

I do want to point out that there are brackets around the section that says [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] This indication shows us that the discovery of older texts of this Scripture in recent years has shown that the oldest manuscripts does not have this statement. This means that a scribe could have added this for clarity or a commentary in a sense.

Either way we clearly see that Jesus turned and rebuked them. I can imagine words similar to what Jesus spoke to Peter when He rebuked him. Mark 8:33 says of that moment But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and *said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

It is clear that James and John along with the other disciples are very immature spiritually and lack discernment. The commentary added in this section does give to us a little bit of clarity into why Jesus would rebuke them for such a thought because clearly the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.

*I believe the disciples knew the compassion that their Lord had, clearly they had seen how He loved people but here they allow their own self-exalting attitude to take center stage. This entire section starting back at Luke 9:46 has shown to us their lack of discernment and compassion, their self-centeredness and their arrogance thinking that they deserve more than they do. The reality is we are no different than they are. We go to God only when it is convenient, we ask God to help us in times of struggle and difficulties but never really engage in prayer at other times and we live our life the way we want and take for granted the mercy and compassion of God. We expect to grow even though we never open the Bible other than maybe on Sundays or to say we did it. The sad truth is we need to examine ourselves to see where we are spiritually and quit playing church.*

In the next 2 studies we will see once again Jesus teach the disciples what following Him actually means. The principles we will learn will cause us to examine our own lives to see if we are actually following Jesus and that we have not been making a superficial profession of faith just like many of Jesus followers that left because of hearing things that they did not like.

Podcast for….God’s Mercy In Our Redemption. EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS study #8 (Ephesians 2:1-5)

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God's Mercy In Our Redemption. EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS study #8 (Ephesians 2:1-5) – Disciple's Direction

God’s Mercy In Our Redemption. EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS study #8 (Ephesians 2:1-5)

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We move now to the second chapter of Ephesians and with the change in chapters we look at yet another view of how God works in us to bring us to the place of salvation. For some people this view of the text before us that we will look at is something that they look at in a different view than how we will approach the text. Just like the teachings on predestination or election we are not so worried that every person that reads this or listens to the podcast teaching on this believes this way. But again we can not deny what the Bible says on this subject that points to the depravity of all people and their inability to bring themselves out of their dead state to be saved. We will see over the next several studies that it is God’s mercy and grace that has made us alive in Christ and it is nothing that we have done or can do to make this possible. I am only presenting what the text says and what other Scriptures presents in this area for us to understand what the original meaning of this text is and what the writer and the reader of the original writing would have understood concerning this topic. So with this we will now look at our first point for this study.

1.The depravity of all people.
Look with me at Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. The imagery of this text is what must be understood to know the truth of the salvation that we have. We start off by noticing the that Paul says to the Ephesian believers that they were dead in trespasses and sins. This indicates to us that they are no longer in the dead state but that is where they were before being converted.

The word dead needs to be understood here as we look at the Greek word nekros (nek-ros’). This word means lifeless, unresponsive to life-giving influences, not able to respond to impulses, or perform functions. Now I know that some people may think, why did I include this definition because we all know what death means? Well I want people to really look at this definition and understand that this is the state of a person spiritually before salvation. How do we know this is pointed to a spiritual reality and not the physical? Simply by the context of what Paul says in the next section of verse 1 where he says that this dead state is in the trespasses and sins.

So this means that before a person could ever make a decision for salvation then there had to be something else that happened because a dead person can not respond or make decisions on their own. This is no different than how a person is resurrected from the dead, for instance when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus had no part in that actions. When Jesus raised the widow’s son in Nain, that son had no part in that action of being made alive again. We had no part in our physical birth, we will have no part in our resurrection from the dead at the end of time and we have no part or ability to rise up and decide to be made alive in Christ. This is impossible because a person that is not saved has a common trait with others as we see in Ephesians 2:2-3 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The common trait of all of the human race is that we are sinners that simply follow after our own passions and desires. This act of sinfulness is explained here first as following the course of the world. The Greek word for world is kosmos (kos’-mos) which means the ordered system or worldly affairs. This word can mean the world in general but here points to the system that runs the world by the word course we see in this verse. This word is the Greek word aión (ahee-ohn’) which means an era or a specific time in the present. So this points to the system that is current in any generation. This system has many moving parts and changes with the culture and with each society. This system seems to have different views but the fact is that it is in opposition to Christianity and what the Bible says. In fact Paul says that the people of this system are following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

This points to the fact that people that are not following the Lord Jesus are in fact following Satan. They may not be worshipping Satan or actively looking for ways to please him but in reality that is what we all have done before we were saved. 1 John 5:19 says We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

The truth of the depravity of the human race is undeniable and must be understood in order to understand the greatness of the mercy and grace that God has given to us in salvation. Yes it is great that God sent His Only begotten Son to die, yes we know that we could never pay the price but when we realize that there is nothing at all in ourselves that could ever really please God and yet we have this great salvation, then there is a even more sweetness to the fact that we have been saved. Before we were saved we all were just doing what we wanted, following after the direction of the culture and as Paul says in Ephesians 2:3b carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

The question still remains then of how is it that we could just decide one day to start following God? How is it that we think that we did that on our own when we are so depraved and bent to the world and to sin? How is it that as Paul says at the end of verse 3 that we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind and yet we think we can just decide to get favor from God because of a decision that we made? According to what we have seen and will continue to see here in the text of Scripture, there is no way without God initiating the process. This is what we will look at in our next couple of verses and our next point.

2.God’s mercy has made us alive.
Look with me at Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. We will really just begin to unfold here the truth that we will see for this point and our next study as well and that is that God must make us alive in order for us to ever receive or acknowledge anything about salvation. We may know of God, we may know the Bible, we may have religion, we may have said a prayer or got baptized but it is only when God awakens us from our dead state that we can never begin to truly follow Christ. This is done, as we see in verse 4, by God being rich in mercy.

1 Peter 1:3 says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Again we see this in Titus 3:4-7 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Then as we have already seen in this very letter to the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.

Clearly it is the mercy and grace of the Lord that has given to us not just the means of salvation but also the initiative to follow Him in the first place. This is what we see Paul continue in Ephesians 2:4 and into the first part of verse 5 as he says But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

God’s mercy is motivated by His love for us that brings us to be made alive, even when we were dead in our trespasses. Once again the key to understanding this doctrine is to look at what this Scripture clearly says here about our dead state. We were dead before and now we are alive because of a work that God did in us that then brings us to have the ability to follow Him. I don’t want to jump to far ahead in what we will see in the other studies in this section of Scripture but I need to address the idea that some people will argue that this does not mean that we can’t make a decision on our own just because we were dead. I want to bring up what we will see in the coming studies about the fact that our salvation was not a work of our own but was completely a work of God by looking at what Ephesians 2:5b says which is: by grace you have been saved.

Now this will be completely unfolded as we move along in this section of Scripture in the coming studies but I do want to point out what Ephesians 2:8 says For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

So it is clear that this grace is not from some action that we took and God poured on us His grace and mercy but that His grace was given to us and the results of that grace is the mercy He has given to us through His Son Jesus Christ in which we have faith. Romans 3:21-26 says it like this: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So the faith we have is the result of God’s grace that was given to us freely without any action of our own. It was not through the Law of God that this redemption or righteousness was given, it was not because of some great prayer or work that we did, it was not because we chose this path because we all choose the path of our own for our own selfish gain, but it was solely a work of God through His grace and mercy that we have the faith to believe and follow the Lord Jesus. It is this grace and mercy that we did not earn that has made us alive together with Christ.

As we close this study I just want to say for those that do not understand this doctrine completely that when you think about this doctrine as we see it clearly presented here, it gives us a more gracious outlook about our salvation by the fact that we did not and could not have made this choice truly on our own and yet God has given it to us. We will see in the coming studies that God initiates this process that changes the direction of our life from a person that lives for passions and desires to someone that lives by faith. This will be looked at in more detail in the coming studies.