The Power of Grace: Ephesians 2:1-8
This week, Pastor Dave opened a new series called The Power of Grace, exploring the deep and central role grace plays in our life with Christ. Preaching from Ephesians 2:1–10, he emphasized that grace isn’t a side note to the Gospel—it is the Gospel. It’s the unearned, undeserved, freely given gift of God’s love that meets us right where we are, even in the depths of our brokenness.
Paul's words in Ephesians follow a flow: we were dead, but God made us alive, and now we are His handiwork, created for good works. Pastor Dave pointed out that while our natural instinct is to stop at the guilt—at the “we were dead” part—God doesn’t. “Where the world wants to put a period,” he said, “God puts a comma.”
That comma is the turning point of the Gospel: “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.” Grace doesn’t wait for us to get it together—it meets us while we are still in need.
Pastor Dave invited us to reflect on where in our lives we are still trying to earn what God has already given. “Are you living as someone set free, or are you still trying to prove yourself?” he asked. Many of us, like the woman in Luke 8:43–48, carry wounds, shame, and a history of trying to fix ourselves—only to find healing when we surrender and reach out to Jesus in faith.
That woman’s story became a powerful mirror for our own. Though labeled unclean and pushed to the margins, her faith moved her to reach for Christ. “She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t earn it. She was dead—and yet, grace healed her.” Pastor Dave reminded us that grace isn’t given to the worthy, it’s given to the willing.
We were challenged not just to believe in grace, but to live from it. “The Christian life isn’t about what we do for God,” Pastor Dave said. “It’s about what He has already done for us.” Grace raises us to new life—not just for our sake, but so that “in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).
The challenge we were left with was simple, but profound: Are we living as people who have been set free by grace? Or are we still trying to earn what’s already been given? As we journey through this series, the invitation is clear: stop striving. Stop hiding. Let grace carry what we were never meant to bear. Trust that it is enough. Because it is. It always has been. And it always will be.
