In this article, I want to continue in Ephesians 2, and cover some of the exceeding rich benefits that I have received from Jesus.
I was 31 years old when I finally trusted Christ and Christ alone for my salvation. I had always claimed to be a Christian and even in some ways tried to live what I thought was the Christian life. I had been raised in a Christian home and had made a profession of faith, had been baptized, was the member of a church, and tried to live different from the other “sinners.” So, I thought, surely I am a Christian. It turns out that I had been deceived by my own heart for many years. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” I realized one day as I listened to the preacher that I had never trusted Christ as my Savior, but was trusting all the religious “right” things I had done. I was expecting all those good works to get me to heaven. I found myself in Ephesians 2:12 “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
I was in a bad way, and realized that I needed a dependable, perfect and complete Saviour that could take me all the way through. I found that Savior in Christ, and I trusted him completely by faith, and his marvelous and exceeding rich grace and forgiveness flooded my soul. I knew that I had finally found what I needed. His grace has been sufficient through all these years, and I am confident that it will keep me throughout eternity. The Scripture in 1 Peter 1:3-5 verifies my security and that of all others who have put all their trust in Christ: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Ephesians 2:810 gives God’s simple plan of salvation: “For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
I can now claim Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”