Weekly Devotional: May 20, 2026

GOD’S WORD
EPHESIANS 2:4-10

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

DEVOTIONAL BY
This eight-week series will be excerpts from the late Lt. Colonel Allen Satterlee's book “Heavenly Places Revealed"

Devotional
ALIVE IN CHRIST

But Because

The shadows of despair outlined in the first three verses of this chapter are blasted away by the bright light that starts, "But because ..." We were on the gallows, the noose around our necks, all appeals exhausted because our guilt was beyond question, the gravity of our crime demanding justice.

Enter God's love, the very love that we callously pushed away. As William Barclay points out, "Sin is a crime, not against law, but against love."' Nonetheless, in the gift of salvation, God's love takes the noose from around our necks, loosens the shackles, and leads us gently away from our fate. Mercy is the operative word for His intercession, "even when we were dead in transgressions." The stench of our decay is swallowed by the sweet aroma of God's mercy.

Sentence Passed to Another

Our execution has been stayed. For anyone who is sure he is taking his last breaths, that is a great enough display of love and mercy. But there is so much more! The Lord Jesus Christ's own execution was not stopped as He felt His human life ebb slowly away. Although His torn and abused body was hidden away in a cold tomb, He has pushed aside the worst that Satan could do in the victorious moment of resurrection. God raised Him and exalted Him, and look! "God raised us up with Him!" He has been seated in heaven and "seated us up with him in the heavenly realms."

Get this. We were damned criminals, totally diseased living dead, all hope extinguished to do even the smallest thing on our own behalf. But God changed all that, not only wiping our record clean, stopping our punishment, but giving us a place in the very heavens with the Savior who rescued us.

Sit back and think about that. These are the "incomparable riches of his grace, expressed to us in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."

Grace Through Faith

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast." (2:8-9). Paul helped us with one of the best sentences ever to understand salvation. he spoke of grace, which has classically been defined as "the unmerited favor of God." But how can we understand better what that means?

Here is a newborn baby. She had nothing to do with her formation in the mother's womb. When it came time to be born, she could do nothing to aid in that process. In the birth process, there are those around to assist with her entry into the world. With her first breath in an alien environment, arms lovingly wrap her, and tender voices soothe her. She cannot feed herself, talk, walk, or even return the smiles so lovingly directed her way. She is loved simply for being. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, she can do to provide for herself. She is living in grace, the unmerited favor of those who love her and provide for her. As infants in Christ, we are regarded by God with an infinitely greater grace than any of us can possibly show to a newborn.

As she grows, though still living in grace, she is expected to do more. When she can, she will hold her head up, roll over, and return smiles. As she matures, she will learn and be given more responsibility. This does not make her any more loved than she was as a newborn, but it is reasonable to expect that she builds on her abilities and does something with them. Indeed, a healthy individual wants to do more. That is works at work.

God's Handiwork

Finally, Paul says we are God's handiwork. Original sin marred us at the beginning, but our choices made a bad situation even worse. Then grace entered and not only saved us from sin's awful penalty, but God began to make us into something better than we ever might have been otherwise.

Here is a giant slab of marble, wrestled from the earth. It is cleaned off and scrubbed, removing everything that is not marble. Then comes the sculptor. With his skill, he takes off huge chunks here.

Then, with a chisel and other tools, he begins to do finer work. In time, we forget that this was a piece of ugly, shapeless stone because of the work of art that is now a statue. That is what God does with us. We were ugly and formless, but with His great skill, He makes us into something beautiful, fit for His own purposes.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1) What does it mean to you when Paul says, God raised us up with Christ?
2) How does the illustration of a newborn help us understand grace?
3) How is God forming you to be His handiwork?