Grace and Peace

We continued Made for This this Sunday, into Ephesians 2. Paul opens every letter the same way. Grace to you and peace. This chapter is him unpacking what he meant.

Grace to you, what God did for us, vertical. Peace between us, what God did among us, horizontal. The greeting was his thesis all along.

Grace to you. We were dead. Not lost, not struggling. Dead. Like a body fully formed but with no breath.

That is why verse 4 does not start with “but we.” It starts with “But God,” rich in mercy. Made alive with Christ, raised with Him, seated with Him.

By grace, through faith, not by works, so no one can boast. We are His workmanship, His poem. Faith is the root; works are the fruit.

Peace between us. Remember you were once the outsiders, the nations, without hope. But now, brought near by the blood of Christ. He Himself is our peace.

The dividing wall of hostility, the real stone barrier that once kept the outsiders out, He did not reform it. He tore it down, making one new humanity in place of two. You went from being homeless to being God’s home.

Something to sit with this week:

Where are you still trying to earn what was already given? And what wall have you accepted as permanent, that Jesus already tore down?