Chapter 2

Please read the chapter thoroughly at least once, and write down any questions you have or any verses that stick out to you. 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202&version=ESV

STUDY

• Who were you following when you were dead in your trespasses and sins?

• When did God make us alive with Christ?

• What have you been saved by? Through what?

• What are you not saved by?

• What are some of the words used in verses 11-13 to describe our separation from God at one time?

• Now, through Jesus we are no longer strangers and aliens, but what?

• Who is the cornerstone of our faith and salvation?

APPLICATION

• In a notebook, make this table- and fill in the blanks!

• Many people don't realize that if you aren't following Jesus, you are following Satan.  Are you one to say, well- I don't follow Jesus, but I am a good person?  Again I say: IF YOU DO NOT LOVE, FOLLOW AND LIVE FOR JESUS, YOU ARE FOLLOWING THE DEVIL. It is hard to hear, but one of the devil's greatest schemes is letting people believe that they are good, and that they don't need a Savior.  If you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, then you are a stranger and alien to God's household. 

• In verses 8-9 it says, "For by grace you have been saved...not a result of works, so that no one may boast."  Could you imagine if we had to earn God's grace and forgiveness? If you are still trying to gain His approval by your good deeds, confess to Him your sin, and repent.  There is nothing you can do save yourself. It is ALL by His grace!

PRUNING ME

    I really liked this chapter- as I love being reminded at who I am now in Jesus, and celebrating that I am no longer a slave to the devil.  In my Bible I underlined all the words associated with the "was" and "are".  Filling in the chart in the application section as powerful for me.   I WAS dead.  I AM alive!  I WAS a follower of Satan.  I AM saved and now follow Jesus.  I WAS a child of wrath.  I AM a child of God.  I WAS far off. I AM near to Him.  I WAS a stranger, an alien.  I AM a fellow citizen and a member of God's household.  AMEN!!  What stuck me powerfully too, is that it says in verse 3, that "we ALL once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind."  I guess with my past of drinking, drugs and sex, I realized I definitely lived in the passions of my flesh.  But I never completely grasped that EVERYONE lived in the passions of the flesh- even if they didn't ever drink, ever smoke pot or kiss anyone before marriage!  It's so easy to "measure" our sin- but to God we all were sinful. And when I was in the midst of all that sin, God called out my name and saved me from all that!  That goes to show that it's not by my  works that I am saved, but only by His grace. Amen!  

• Leanne