God’s Menu: Ephesians 2:4-10
Guess what I really miss during this pandemic. Going into a good Mexican restaurant and picking out the meal I want on the menu, ordering it and eating it in the restaurant!
Inside I can pick what I want on the menu! That’s a good thing. Did you know God has a menu, and in His Place, you get the good stuff on His menu?
First, Ephesians 2:45. “(4) 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.” (ESV)
Notice in verse 5 the translation says, “made us alive together with Christ.” Literally it says, “made us alive together in the Christ.”
The place you go in to get all the powerful stuff on God’s menu is “In Christ!” The phrase, “in Christ” is repeated 4 times from verse 4 through verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 2.
First, God’s menu offers the privilege of going from death to life!
God’s response to our lost condition due to our sinfulness was to have mercy on us. He responded to us with the great love He has for us. Preachers love to tell the story about Eutychus from the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 20 Paul preached into the night in an upper room. A young man named Eutychus went to sleep and fell out the window and was killed.
Paul went down and took the young man in his arms and told the people his life was still in him and they took him up alive. He was dead but came to life!
We have all been there! We were dead in our sins and God made us alive in Christ! We are saved by grace, grace being a gift we don’t deserve. That gift is Christ dying in our place, paying for our sin completely and offering us the gift of Hs grace taking us from death to life!
I used to go to a Mexican restaurant while I was in full time ministry in Porterville. There was a meal on the menu called “Shrimp Ranchera.” From time to time I would order that meal! Sometimes it was the special on the menu!
God’s special on the menu “IN CHRIST” is the privilege of going from death to life, and that by grace!
Second, Ephesians 2:6-9. “(6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
(7) So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
(8) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
(9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (ESV)
Second, God’s menu offers a seat in Heaven with Christ!
When you come into Christ through the new birth, you’re raised up with Him and seated with Him in the Heavenly places in Christ!
In verse 7 he talks about showing his kindness to us in the coming ages, that kindness is showed to us by seating us with Christ in the Heavenly places when Jesus returns from Heaven to take us to be with Him!
The word for “Ages” is often translated “eternal.” The point is the eternal plan of God is for us to be seated with Christ in Heaven, and that, based on the fact we’re saved by grace through faith in Christ.
No one can do the work to earn this salvation that ends in Heaven, but Christ Himself, who paid for sin and eliminated our separation from Him by a gift we don’t deserve.
Notice verse 6 says we have been seated with Christ, meaning it already happened! Then verse 7 talks about it happening in the ages to come, making it in the future!
The point is God has established the promise of being seated with Christ in Heaven so firmly it’s treated as done, now, but will happen in the future.
That illustrates the assurance of His promise.
Understand this, all of us are still sinners and can prove it, but God’s salvation by the grace of Jesus through faith is so certain our place with Him in Heaven is treated as done!
Why is it treated as done? Because it’s done and is assured by God’s promise of grace!
That assurance of being seated in Heaven is on the menu and you took that assurance when you came into Christ! Rest in it, it’s where you’re headed!
Third, Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (ESV)
Third, God’s menu assures that you are created for good works.
We have established God’s menu in Christ takes us from death to life, and guarantees us a seat in Heaven, but it also assures us we have been created to do good works here on earth!
My father became a Christ-follower after serving in the Army for 2 years at the end of World War II. His family lived in Prescott, Ariz., as did my mother’s family. They met and married there, and I was born there.
My dad always served God! He was a deacon and elder in our church in Flagstaff, Ariz. He always was involved in church music and sang for the Lord.
In 1966 he took a job for a civilian company working in Viet Nam during the war. Dad oversaw the shipping, receiving, warehousing and distribution for the material for the war.
In one of his assignments he noted the troops didn’t have a chapel. He came up with the material to build one for them and figured out how to take care of everything needed to run their chapel.
He came up with a piano for the chapel. He even taught the Bible for them when no chaplain was available. My mother was a soloist and piano and organ player. He arranged for her to come over for a month, take a vacation with him to Thailand, but spend three weeks singing and helping in the chapel.
You see, dad was being what’s offered on
God’s menu, he was created to do good works, so as God’s creation for those good works, he did them.
Notice the text says God prepared good works for us to do beforehand that we should walk in them. Our way of life is to do good works God prepared for us to do!
Why is that? It’s on the menu “IN CHRIST!”
In the 1990’s I would go to a Mexican Restaurant with my staff at the church I served in Porterville. I had a secretary, youth pastor and children’s pastor.
One time I was looking over the menu and saw an item called “Pastor Tacos.” I pointed the pastor tacos out to everyone and got a bit of a laugh!
The youth pastor dared me to order them, so I did. They were good! Why did I order them? They were on the menu.
God’s menu: death to life in Christ, a seat in Heaven in Christ and the assurance of God creating you to do good works in Christ!
Just go in and order off the menu!