God is not finished with you yet! He will never stop molding us into His masterpiece daily.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

You have possibly heard the story of the sculptor who was asked to sculpt a stone image of General Robert E. Lee. Once he was finished, someone asked him how he had created his masterpiece. The man replied, “I just got a big block of marble and chipped away everything that didn’t look like Robert E. Lee.

A sculptor will most likely tell you that he sees his figure in the finest detail before he ever begins to chip at the stone. So, in that sense he really does chip away everything that doesn’t look like what he is creating. That is what the Apostle Paul said that God has done in us as Christians through His Son Jesus.

He chose to do this with a good news, bad news scenario.

The Bad News:

We were dead in our Trespasses and Sins (V1)

Before we came to Christ, we were rebels and enemies of Him. We acted, thought, and did just like the world because we were following the ruler of this world, Satan. We carried out the desires of our flesh physically and even in our thoughts. We were by nature, children of wrath. Meaning we were headed for judgment and a sentence of eternity without God.

But because of your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. (Romans 2:5)

The Good News:

God has made us Alive in His Son Jesus Christ (V5)

There they are in verse four. Two of the most welcome words in all of Scripture; “But God.” Because He loves us so much, He made us alive in Christ! Which means that because Jesus went to the cross, died in our place and was raised physically from the dead, we too have been raised from the dead spiritually and will no longer pay for our sin. My friends, He could have left us there! But God!! He didn’t!!

Even more remarkable is the fact He did all this knowing we were still in our sins.

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. (Romans 5:8)

He doesn’t stop there! Because we are raised with Christ, we are seated with Christ in the heavens. What does that mean? It is a figure of speech meaning that God the Father considers us worthy and destined to be seated with Christ in heaven when we get there. The significance of being seated with Christ is like being seated at the head table of a great banquet where there are many important people. It is a privilege and honor and it marks us as one of the important people.