Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Ephesians 2:1-10 | Date: April 12, 2026 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Problem of Human Sin

Ephesians chapter 2. This is the fourth in our series of Christianity Explained. We are trying to expound the basics of the Christian faith. We are answering the question: what is Christianity all about? And what is its message, basically? And what does it have to offer? And we saw that the purpose of Christianity is to address the problem of human sin.

And we saw that the gospel—the word “gospel” means good news. The Christian message is good news for sinners, with reference specifically to that problem, the problem of human sin and the alienation that has brought us against, with reference to God. We saw that the message of the gospel begins with introducing us to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He’s the promised one, the Messiah, the Christ. He is the Son of God, he is the Lord from heaven, he has divine authority, authority even to forgive sins.

We saw that in the Gospel of Mark. We also saw in the Gospel of Mark that the focus in really all of the Gospels is on the death of Christ, his saving death. As Jesus said himself, he came to give himself a ransom for sinners. That in his death, he paid the price, the penalty for our sins so that we would be saved. So the Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven, universal authority, establishes that authority to forgive sins by offering himself in sacrifice to God in the place of his people. The result of that then, God has raised him from the dead as God’s statement, his public declaration that his death was in fact accepted, that he has in fact exhausted the curse against sin and that we now may be saved. We saw then also that the resurrection established Jesus as universal king and judge as well. We will face him one day in judgment.

And now we come then to the fourth step in all of that, and that is to address this question of salvation by grace. Salvation by grace. Ephesians chapter two, and I’ll read verses one to 10:

And you were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is at work and the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So we have seen that the Christian gospel tells us about Jesus, his unique authority. It tells us that he is the only savior. He has offered himself in place of sinners so that we may be saved. God has raised him from the dead in public declaration of his successful saving work. So the question now is, how does all of this salvation that Jesus has come to accomplish, how does that all come to be mine? How does it come to apply to me? Jesus lived. He died in place of sinners. God raised him from the dead. All that was 2,000 years ago. How does that become mine? Not everyone will be saved. The Bible is plain on that. There will be a hell, and it will be populated with unbelievers. How then does that salvation that he accomplished actually become my own experience?

Well, in answer to that question, there are essentially two answers that could be given. And the first answer is probably, without doubt, the most common answer that is given, and that is in order for this salvation to be mine, I must do something. Without doubt, that’s the most common answer that’s given. Generally what’s in mind when that answer is given is that we must do good things, we must not do the bad things, we must be a good person. Usually what’s in focus in that is you must do certain religious things: be baptized, join a church, give your money to the church—that’s especially helpful. Do good things, be a good husband, wife, parent, be a good citizen, and hopefully in the end, your good will outweigh your bad, and God will accept you. That’s the most common answer that is given to the question.

The problem with that answer is, it doesn’t address the problem of sin. Doing what you ought to do in no way answers the problem of what you have done that is wrong. Once you’ve done all what you should do, what then still about the sins that you have committed and that have put you in opposition to God? And that common answer that is given, that most common answer, somehow do good, do your best, be sincere, be religious, whatever it is—none of that addresses the fundamental problem of human sin. Well, if the answer to the question is not, “I must do something,” well the only alternative then is to say I must do nothing. God must give me salvation freely, without any obligation on my part. Now that answer has its problems too. The problem with that answer is, what about the problem of human sin?

Can God just let bygones be bygones? Frankly forgive sins and that’s that? Overlook it? What about the reality of divine justice? God’s justice, his righteousness requires him not only to demand righteousness on the part of his creatures, but his righteousness also requires him to punish unrighteousness on the part of his creatures. And so if we’re going to say, “God will just forgive me outright, despite my sins,” that question still must be answered.

And that is the question that the Christian gospel focuses on exactly. God saves us and he saves us freely. And he does so by means of Jesus Christ who has done the work for us. Salvation is free to us because the work that is required was done for us in our place by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look how Paul keeps this central in these verses. Look at verse four. Verses one to three, we were sinners. Verse four: “But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together”—underline if you are one who writes in your Bible—”with Christ. By grace you’ve been saved.” He’s raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it’s the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Now that expression, “in Christ,” “with Christ,” “in him,” “through him,” that’s something of Paul’s trademark. Something like his signature. We have a doctrine, we call it the doctrine of union with Christ. And that is central to everything that the Apostle Paul tells us about salvation. That all the work was done by Jesus Christ. He died for sin. He paid the ransom price of sinners. And sinners then experienced that salvation only, only by virtue of their union with him. Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no salvation; in union with Christ, in him, in Christ, with Christ, all that he accomplished becomes ours. He’s paid the ransom price and salvation now is found only in a right relationship with Christ. And so in short, the work of salvation is a work that Jesus does. The penalty that God’s righteousness demanded, Jesus paid. The righteousness which God demanded, Jesus gave in his life.

And it all becomes ours only as we are associated with him. We are associated with him in faith, and we’ll see that next time. And so the gospel announcement is—and you’ve heard this many times, it summarizes it well; I’ve heard it, I think, since I was a little boy in Sunday school—it is the difference between “do” and “done.” And there’s all the world of difference between the two. The gospel does not come to us saying you must do this, that, or the other. The gospel comes to us with the happy announcement, the good news that the work of salvation is done. And we may have it freely by association with the Savior. Jesus does the work. We’re just the beneficiaries of it.

And so as we saw at the time before last, as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3, he bore our sins in his body on the tree. Our sins made his, or as Paul will say it in 2 Corinthians 5, he who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Or as he says to the Galatians, he has redeemed us, ransomed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us. Christ in our place doing all the work that saves and we receive it freely by association with him. And that in short is what the Bible teaches and tells us when it says that salvation is by grace. It is free gratis because it was done for us by someone else, and we have it freely in Christ.

Most of you are familiar with the Reformation slogans, slogans that were given to characterize the teaching of the Reformation. We have the Latin versions of it. In English, it’s simple. The first two: Christ alone. Christ alone does all the work, not you, not me, Christ alone does it. And there’s a link then, there’s a logical relationship between these slogans and you need to understand it. Because it is Christ alone who does the work, salvation comes to us by grace alone. He does it all, we receive it freely in Him. We don’t do anything to earn it, to deserve it, precisely because Jesus Christ did it all.

And so the gospel can make that radically stunning declaration that God, the righteous judge—God justifies the ungodly. Fascinating statement that God, the righteous judge, declares ungodly people to be righteous because of their association with Christ. They receive it freely.

Our Condition Prior to Grace

Now perhaps no passage in the Bible—I’ve given you the long and short of it, that’s in case you fall asleep, you’ll get the long and short of it up front—but there’s no passage in the Bible that gives us, I think, more directly an explanation of salvation by grace than Ephesians chapter 2. All I can do here is give us a brief overview of it. I would love to spend a couple of weeks in this passage and unpack all that’s here, but let’s do just an overview. Verses 1 to 3, Ephesians chapter 2. Here the Apostle Paul describes our state naturally, our condition prior to grace.

Verses one to three, we’re dead in trespasses and sins. You’ll notice that these descriptions of our condition is not very flattering. Dead in trespasses and sins. Verse two, we followed the prince of the power of the air. We’re sons of disobedience. Verse three, we’re children of wrath like the others. All right, several ideas here, let’s see them quickly. First of all, he’s telling us we’re sinners. We violated God’s law, verses one and two. We walked or behaved in trespasses and sins. We followed the course of this world. We followed the leadership of Satan himself. Verse three, we lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind. We did what we wanted to do. Or to put it in Frank Sinatra’s famous song, we did it our own way.

We’re disobedient people. That’s verses one to three. But he’s not saying only that we are sinners. He’s going deeper than that in these verses. He’s telling us that we are sinners by nature. Look at verse three: “By nature, we are children of wrath.” And the sins we commit, verse three, were according to our own passions and desires. We sinned because that’s what we wanted to do.

I realize—and I should stop to clarify this—I realize how out of step this is with contemporary understanding of humanity. I’m sure I’ve told you this before, it comes to mind every time I touch on this subject. I was teaching at Penn State one time, and we were on the subject of human sinfulness, and one of the students raises his hand and says, “A psychology professor told us that we are basically good.” And there are two questions that come to mind when you hear that. You hear that all the time today. We’re basically good people. Two things that should come to mind, two questions. Number one, is that a Christian notion? And two, does that really match up with reality? You wonder sometimes how people can say that. The reality is, we have a distinct bent towards sin. You know this in your own experience. Any of you who are parents, you’ve seen it in your children as well. It’s a fascinating study on its own.

You never had to teach your siblings or your children how to hit their siblings in a temper fit. “Now if you’re not happy with what she does, here’s how you throw a toy at him and hit him in the head.” And you never have to teach your kids how to throw a temper tantrum. You never have to teach them how to rebel. I know this; it was true even of my own kids.

Interesting point actually in the history of theology, one of the arch liberals of the 19th century, Albrecht Ritschl, taught at one point in his writings—it was needful for him to argue it at this point—that people are basically good. And he offered children as proof. And he says that the children that we see around us, we see that they have a natural inclination—that was his word—a natural inclination to be good. It was just hilarious when I read one time, and Warfield answered that. Benjamin Warfield wrote in response, a critical review of the entire scheme of theology. But he picked up on this point at one point, and he says, “Dr. Ritschl does great honor to the children that he has seen grow up around him. We must confess, however, that the children we know do not confirm it,” which is a highfalutin way to say, “Come open your eyes.” And it’s true, not only of your children, you never outgrow it. You know your own heart.

You’re not tempted to selflessness, you’re tempted to selfishness. You’re not tempted to generosity, you’re tempted to greed. You’re not tempted to moral purity, you’re tempted to moral promiscuity. And go down the list of it, you’re tempted toward the opposite. The desires of the flesh are contrary to the will of God. We all know it by experience. And so we are told today that we are basically good, and this doctrine that we are basically sinful, with a bent toward sin, it just doesn’t fit in the plausibility structures of today’s society. But one, it is clearly what the scriptures teach, and two, it clearly matches up with reality.

And so one, Paul tells us in verses one to three, we’re sinners. Two, we’re sinners by nature. And then number three, he tells us that as a consequence, we are under divine condemnation. Verse three, we are children of wrath. According to the scriptures then, this is the human problem that Christianity is given to address. It began back in the garden at Adam’s sin, entered into rebellion against the Creator, alienated from God, and falling under condemnation. And ever since, humanity has been the same. We’re already guilty, we have nothing to offer, we’re helpless, and we’re unwilling besides.

All right then, that’s verses one to three. You can see then where that leaves us. If we are to be saved, it must of necessity come entirely from God’s side. It won’t come from our side. It must be free gratis. And that’s what Paul labors to press in verses four and following. In verses four to six here, he tells us what God does for us when he saves us. Notice, first of all, the sharp contrast in verse four. It’s very important. It starts out with the words, “But God.” Unless you have one of the, at least one of the earlier versions of the NIV, it blurs that a little bit. The first words here: “But God.” That’s where the contrast begins. That’s where the turn, that’s the turn in our experience. We were dead, we were disobedient, we were under condemnation, but God. Not “but we,” anything.

But God, and what God does is he gives us to Christ, joins us to him, and a great change occurs. Verse five, he made us alive together with Christ. He raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He joined us to Christ in his saving accomplishments and making us Christ’s, belonging to him, we have the salvation that he accomplished.

And this, when we were dead. Verses four and following. All of this God did for us when we were dead in trespasses and sins. Verses four and following read, almost like—and I’ll say almost—almost like we are mere spectators in the experience. He made us alive together, verses one to three, what we were: we were dead in trespasses and sins, helpless, unable to contribute anything, unwilling, already condemned, guilty, all of that. Verse four, “But God.”

And then it describes for us what we are in grace. It’s almost like we are mere spectators. Now it’s not quite true. It’s not quite that we’re mere spectators because as we’ll find out, especially next week, we are joined to Christ by faith. And we’ll expound that next time. But looking from God’s standpoint, it’s almost as though we’re spectators. We’re lost and helpless and God intervened and everything came to us from his side. And in verse seven, he emphasizes it further by telling us God’s ultimate goal, his purpose in all of this. Notice the purpose clause: “so that.” Why did he do that? Why did he give us to Christ and give us everything in him? It is verse seven, “so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” He did it to show his grace, his generosity, his kindness. It is for his own honor and for his own glory. And then verses eight and nine, he gives us another summary of it: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast.” Now he multiplies the terminology here so that you can’t miss it. He wants to stress it. It is by grace. It is the gift of God. And in fact, any contribution from our side is specifically excluded. This is not your own doing. It is not a result of works. His intent in that was specifically, verse nine, so that no one will boast. God will not save in such a way that anyone can stand before him and pat themselves on the back. All of the glory and all of the honor for it will go to him. He could not be more clear and more emphatic that salvation comes to us free gratis. Christ is the accomplished Savior joined to him. We have in him all that God requires of us.

Well, verse 10, he tells us one more time: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The work is a work that God does. So in summary, God gives us to Jesus, and verse five, joined to him, we’re made alive. Verse six, we’re raised with him, we’re seated with him in heavenly places. It is in him we have all saving blessings. We were lost, helpless, God joined us to Christ, and in right association with him, we are saved and have every saving blessing. And this, he says, verse 5, is by grace. This is what he means, verse 5 and verse 8, when he says we are saved by grace. Jesus does the work, God gives us to him.

What Is Grace?

Now, all of that sets us up to dig a little deeper here, and let’s come to an understanding, then: what is grace? When the Bible tells us we’re saved by grace, what is that grace? What are the essential ideas of what grace is? Ephesians 2 gives us something of a theology of grace.

So let’s look into this. First of all, grace—and this is a basic level here—grace is favor. Verse four, it’s the richness of his mercy. It’s the outworking of his great love, his benevolent love to us. Verse seven, it’s a lavish display of his kindness. So at the basic level, grace is favor. Let’s go deeper. Number two, grace is not only favor, grace is action. It is not just a benevolent disposition on God’s part. It’s actually a benevolent activity on God’s part. God’s favor—grace is not just God’s favor, it is God’s favor in action.

Verse five, “by grace you have been saved.” This is God going to work for us. It’s God at work in converting the soul, bringing us life, joining us to Christ so that we have all saving blessings in him. Verses one to three, there’s what we were. Verses four to six, this is what God has done. We were dead in sins, but God made us alive, raised us, seated us with Christ and saved us. And in fact, he tells us throughout this, we had a certain kind of walk, a certain kind of behavior. We walked according to the course of this world, following the prince and power of the air. But now we walk in a different way. We walk in good works. God converts the soul, converts the whole life.

Grace is not only God’s favor, a favorable disposition, it is God’s favor in action. In fact, that’s just what the human condition requires. We need God not only to have a favorable disposition toward us, we need God to do something. What we need is not just good counsel, we need rescue and enablement.

So grace is God’s favor. Two, grace is action. It is God’s favor in action. Number three, and I want to push this point a little bit as well. Grace is God’s free favor and power to the ill-deserving. Grace is God’s favor in action to the ill-deserving.

I say it that way because we are all familiar with the definition of grace that we probably have all heard in church. Those of you who grew up in church, we all heard this from the beginning. And it’s a very good definition. I’m not criticizing at all. Grace is unmerited favor. It’s exactly what it is. But I want to probe a little more deeply here. In verses one to three, he tells us we’re dead and trespasses and sins. We’re following Satan. We’re following the world. We’re disobedient. We’re children of wrath. Essential to an understanding of grace is that it presupposes sin, guilt, and ill-desert.

And the distinguishing mark of God’s grace, as he tells us here and everywhere else in the Bible, is that God’s favor is not only unmerited, it is ill-merited. It is precisely contrary to what we deserve. It’s not enough to say that this was a favor I didn’t deserve. We need to go further and say what I deserve was God’s wrath. What I deserve was God’s condemnation for my sin. And he brought favor to this ill-deserving sinner. God takes the initiative and comes to me in grace. And all that to say then, to emphasize, to draw a line under what we’ve seen already, is that no one has a right to salvation. No one can lay claim to it on his own. Salvation is never earned. So grace is favor, grace is God’s favor in action. Grace is God’s favor in action to the ill-deserving.

And I’ll push just two more points here to make it explicit what’s already implied in all of that. Number four, grace is free. Grace is free. Verse 8, it is a gift of God. It’s an implicate of verses 1 to 3. We were dead and disobedient and all of that, children of wrath, but grace is free, without conditions attached, without telling us we must live up to it or earn it in some way. Grace comes to us not out of obligation on God’s part, it is unconstrained, it is sovereignly given, sovereignly bestowed, and God is free to bestow it or to withhold it. It is free. Now there’s a mountain of reformed theology underneath the surface here that I’m dying to get to, but we’ll keep it on this level here this morning. Grace is given to us not apart from any considerations on our side.

God doesn’t look at us and say, “Well, he was baptized,” or “He tried hard,” or “He tried hard most of the time.” Truth is, for most of us, he tried hard sometime. There’s no explanation for what happened to the people of verses one to three what was given them in verses four to six, apart from this realization that grace is free.

Now to say all of that is to say one more thing, but I want to press it explicitly as well, and that’s number five. Grace is all from God’s side. Now there’s a theological term for this, but it’s been important since the sixth century discussions of Augustine and so on. It’s the word “prevenient.” God’s grace goes ahead. The initiative—put it that way—the initiative is always from God’s side.

Verses one and following, we were. Verses four and following, but God. He intervened and interrupted us in our sins. The whole story here is one of God taking the initiative to sinners; left to ourselves, every last one of us would still be in verses one to three. But God, and that’s the difference.

Verse five, he made us alive, joined us to Christ and made us alive in him. Verse 10, he made us all over again. He created us in Christ Jesus. The initiative is always his. All of this to say then that grace is divine favor as the sole source of our salvation. The relation of grace and salvation is always one of cause and effect. It is from God’s side; the effect is salvation from what God has done. Again, that’s verse five, “by grace you’ve been saved.” Verse eight, “by grace you’ve been saved.” And this, verse nine, precisely so that no one can boast. God won’t have anyone come to him and say, “Well, I,” or “You should take me because I,” anything. He won’t have you on those terms. He has saved us by grace, verse seven, so that throughout all the coming ages, we’ll all marvel at the grace of God given to us freely. Now all of this positions us well to clear away some common misunderstandings, and I want to be as pointed as I can here.

The Bible is so plain that salvation is by grace that virtually all sides have to say that. Whether you’re Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, whatever, all sides have to say that salvation is by grace. But when it comes down, not only to the street level, but even in some of the theological formulations, grace becomes spelled differently. What do you mean by grace?

Well, usually what’s meant by that is that God does us a favor by saving us when we are baptized, when we join a church, when we try to be good, whatever it might be. Or, “Yeah we’re saved by grace, but in the end it’s because our good has outweighed our bad.” Or because in the end it’ll be judged that we were sincere. Or we tried our best. Amazes me when people say that. Who in the world has ever tried his best? Or, “Grace—God gives grace at the outset, and then you must…” So the question is, how do you spell grace?

The Apostle Paul could hardly be more clear or emphatic on it. Saving grace is altogether exclusive of human merit of any kind. Works are completely and explicitly excluded. In no sense whatever do our works play into the ground of our acceptance before God. Paul makes a statement to this effect, fascinating statement a few pages earlier in Galatians chapter two: “If salvation comes by works, then Christ has died in vain.” What was the point of his death if you can earn it? Jesus Christ did the work that saves, and we are saved only because in grace God gave us to him. And that’s it. That’s the whole story. And in grace, God gives us to Christ, and in Christ, we have all that God requires of us.

According to the Bible, if you expect that God will save you because you anything, you’re not saved. If you expect that God will save you because you were baptized, because you’ve joined a church, because you’ve tried to be a good person, you’re lost. The Bible is plain on this. A Christian is not one who claims that he has done well enough. A Christian explicitly is one who confesses at the outset, “I have nothing. All I have is Jesus. God, you’ve promised that you’d have me if I come by way of him, the Savior.”

So where does this leave us? If salvation is by grace alone and there’s nothing that you can do to ingratiate yourselves to God, where does this leave us? Recognize that we’re sinners. We finally come to grips with the reality that we stand before God condemned. What can we do? If salvation is by grace and I can’t do anything, what can I do then? The answer is all you can do is cast yourself on God’s mercy and plead that he will save you for Jesus’ sake. That’s it. And that’s all.

We go to God with an open confession of our sins, thanking God that Jesus has not come to call the righteous, but he’s called sinners to repentance. And we plead only what Jesus has done for sinners. And so, go back to those Reformation slogans. It is by Christ alone who does the work, and therefore it is by grace alone, and we receive it through faith alone.

This is what makes the gospel good news. It has this radical concept, almost counterintuitive. You can’t do anything, but God freely, contrary to what you deserve, freely gives you in Christ all that he requires of you. And this is the glorious offer of the Christian gospel. Trust in Jesus Christ and have freely in him everything that God requires. He’s an all-accomplished savior and all you need is in him. And this is the testimony of every true Christian.

When God first came to us and opened our eyes to our sin, we went running to Christ. We had no pretensions of our goodness. We had nothing to offer. With a recognition of our sins, we went to God saying, “I don’t have anything. But Jesus—Jesus has done the work, and I plead only Him.”

And God freely gives us in Him everything that saves. And to our joy, we find that when we go to God, confessing only our sins and pleading nothing but Jesus, we find our sins forgiven, we find that we’re accepted, and we experience His love. As it should, this whole concept… to the world, I’ve often thought this must seem so ridiculous. But as it should, this concept has worked its way well into Christian hymnody. And even though when we sing it, we say we are nothing, we have nothing, we confess our ill desert, we love to sing it:

“Thy works, not mine, O Christ, speak gladness to this heart. They tell me all is done. They bid my fears depart. Thy pains, not mine, O Christ, have paid the law’s full price and purchased peace for me.”

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” That’s it, that’s all. “No merit of my own, his anger to suppress, my only hope is found in Jesus’ righteousness.” And even after coming to Christ, when conscience accuses us and we feel and recognize that we’ve still sinned, as we sang this morning before the message, we let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul. All my hope is in Jesus. And for the sinner coming to Christ for the first time and for every day since, what assures our hearts is that Jesus Christ has done all the work that saves and God gives us freely everything he requires of us in Jesus. And it’s the assurance we have in coming to Christ in the first place and it’s the assurance we have every day since that God accepts me not because of anything about me. God accepts me for Jesus’ sake. He’s given me Him and has joined me to Him in faith. Next week we’ll explore that further as well.