You Have a Place at Grace - 8/27/2025

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath…” (Ephesians 2:1-2).

This text leaves no room for boasting and saying, “I thank God I’m not like other men” (cf. Luke 18:11). It also eliminates claims like “I’ve made my decision to follow Jesus.” The dead can’t do this. Only God in Christ raises the dead, whether it’s now when imparting faith or on the Last Day when corpses rise from the tombs.

Here, the blessed Ephesians get a reminder of their past. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5) and without the Holy Spirit, we’re “dead in trespasses.” The Law kills and man is incapable of bringing himself from the dead, both spiritually and physically. Faith is a gift, clings to Christ, and means eternal life. Yet, a life in Christ is wrought by the Holy Spirit. It’s God’s work to grant faith and make alive, something beyond the capability of the flesh. Of this faith that means real righteousness before God the Lutheran Confessions state “it is something that surpasses nature” (see Article V “Love and Fulfilling the Law, par.182). Faith isn’t a product of the flesh, but a gift of God, which means He’s behind it, not us. That’s what we want.

We can’t forget who we are before God. It’s harsh to hear we’re “by nature children of wrath” because we’re prone to think highly of ourselves. The Pharisee’s attitude in Luke 18 demonstrates the Old Adam at work. We’re given to pride when comparing ourselves to others and guilty of treating others with contempt when they don’t meet our standards. You may not be caught in a particular vice, but there’re other sins like gossip, greed, lying, or sexual immorality in the heart. God demands complete love from the heart, mind, and soul, but we never give it, not without Christ, and that’s the point: we need Jesus, a Savior, the One Who gives mercy to sinners calling upon His Name, beating their breasts with the other tax collectors and saying “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

Paul teaches this mercy as well when after his sharp diagnosis of the spiritual condition says those words we know all too well in that powerful, memorable verse “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

-By Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz, “You Have a Place at Grace,” August 27^th 2025

Grace Lutheran Church - Brenham, Texas

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod