Read | Ephesians 2:1-10
Why is it that so many who have placed faith in Jesus Christ find themselves struggling and feeling defeated? One reason may be that they have never grasped exactly what took place when they were saved. Furthermore, they may fail to understand salvation’s current meaning in their life.
From God’s viewpoint, before we trusted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were spiritually dead in our transgressions (Eph. 2:5), under His wrath (John 3:36), and condemned to eternal separation from Him (Rev. 20:15). He saw us as people who deserved judgment yet whose efforts were futile against divine anger—rebellious people who were unable to turn to Him apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
God saw us as helpless and hopelessly lost. Clearly, something outside of ourselves was needed for us to be made acceptable in His eyes. And God loved us so much that He was willing to do whatever was necessary to rescue us from our desperate condition.
His solution was grace. God sent a Savior who bore our sins, became sin for us, and endured the wrath of the Father for those sins. This Savior was God’s one and only Son, who paid the debt we owed for our past, present, and future transgressions—a debt we never could have paid.
Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb who shed His blood in our place—a Redeemer who rescued us from spiritual death and made us acceptable before God. What took place? It was a miracle of life, a rebirth for all who would believe, because we were once spiritually dead.
