Hi church family,

I hope you’re having a good week. I’ve still been thinking about Ephesians 2:1–10 since Sunday. It’s one of those passages where you could easily spend several weeks and still not get to everything. So for this week’s Pastor’s Cut, I wanted to go a little deeper on a few key ideas from the text.

1. Paul thinks something bigger than bad choices is wrong with us. When we hear “dead in your trespasses and sins,” we tend to think about individual sins; the things we’ve done wrong. Paul definitely has that in mind, but he’s describing something bigger too. In verse 2, the word translated “world” is aion, which literally means “age.” There is a whole way of living, thinking, and wanting that shapes us. Paul also talks about “the ruler of the kingdom of the air.” So there’s a spiritual dimension here as well. We find ourselves caught up in ways of living that pull us away from God. We are literally, by our own nature and by demonic forces that we don’t even see, pushed away from God. What hope do we have? That makes those two words in verse 4 even better: “But God.” God makes dead people alive!

2. Paul uses some unusual language to describe our connection to Jesus. In verses 5–6, Paul piles on many words built around the idea of being “with” Christ. We have been made alive with Christ, raised with Christ, and seated with Christ. He ties our story to Jesus’ story as closely as he possibly can. What I love is that Paul talks about this as though it has already happened. We’re still here, going to work, making dinner, paying bills, and getting the kids where they need to go. Yet Paul says that, in Christ, we already belong to the new world God is creating. Our circumstances don’t always feel very resurrected, but resurrection is already our story.

3. “God’s workmanship” isn’t only about you as an individual. I spent a lot of time Sunday talking about the beautiful truth that you are God’s masterpiece. But there’s another layer hereI want to highlight – the “you” is plural. Paul is talking about all of us. That becomes important when you keep reading. The rest of Ephesians 2 is about God bringing Jews and Gentiles together and making them into one new humanity (we’ll talk about this on Sunday). God is fashioning a people for him–a people that will be His presence on earth.

I think that’s a good word for us at Brockport FMC. God is certainly at work in each of our lives, but He’s also doing something among us. Week by week, prayer by prayer, conversation by conversation, God is shaping this church into the kind of people He wants us to be.

I’m grateful to be part of that work with you. I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I’ll see you Sunday!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Ben