October 08 2025

Wednesday October 08

God Keeps Us

Ephesians 2:4-9

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Today we're looking at Ephesians chapter 2:1-9. In these first three verses, we find that sin works against us. I believe you could summarize all nine of these verses with Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Yes, sin works against us, but my friend, God works for us. And, “…If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). God has great love. He's rich in His mercy! (v.4).  In verse five, we see He's made us alive together with Christ. And also in verse 6, He has raised us up to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places. He's exalted us in Christ.

Everything's in Christ. I've underlined it in my notes, in Christ and through Christ. It's all because of Jesus. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So, not only has He loved us, but He’s also made us alive. He's exalted us. He keeps us, we see in verses 7-9, “that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”. For by grace you've been saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast”.

Yes, God also keeps us. We believe the Scripture definitely teaches we have eternal life. And when we have eternal life in Christ Jesus, it's a life that will never leave us. He is eternal. Because of that, His life lives within us. It's not our life. We didn't save ourselves. We're not saved by works of our own righteousness, but according to His mercy, His grace, He saved us. Grace is something we did not merit. We deserve death. And I love that verse in Romans 5:8. “But God commended, He manifested His love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.

That's the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. He died for us. The church at Ephesus was a persecuted church. That's why Paul wrote chapter six of this letter to the church there, reminding them that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers”. Remember, as you read Acts 19, there was persecution going on even as Paul was in process of leaving the city. And they sought to beat him and to destroy him and to kill him. And yet God protected him as he left the city with a great group of believers loving the Lord, living for Christ.

Jesus promised His believers, "You will suffer persecution." He said, "They hated me, they'll hate you." Just because now the Christians in America are facing ridicule and persecution and trials and we're seeing it happen, we forget that was the norm of the church through the centuries. Matter of fact, in many countries today, we're finding that the persecuted church and those who are dying for the name of Jesus Christ is the greatest it's ever been in Christian history. We were just in Egypt and there we were with the Coptic Christians in several locations, and we remember just a few years ago 21 of these believers had their heads cut off because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

My friend, today God wants to encourage us. You might be lonely today. You might be tired today. You might be weary today. You might feel opposition today. You might not feel like trying to take another step as a believer and living for Jesus today. You need to remember God works for you. He cares for you. He loves you. He has mercy and grace for you today. He will make you alive in Christ. He has exalted you and you should remember you're seated in the heavenly places in Christ. And our citizenship is not on earth. Philippians chapter 3, but it's in heaven with Him. We're just pilgrims passing through and oh, we have something great and awesome to look forward to.

But we can enjoy heaven on earth right now in Jesus Christ. And that's what God wants us to know. We are not trying to work for our salvation. It's a done deal. Jesus did the work already for us on the cross of Calvary. All we can do is receive. Oh, today make sure that you believe, you receive, you trust, and you take these words to heart.

God wants you to be encouraged today with these words, and I trust that you are, too.

God bless!