Word of Salvation – May 2026
Sermon: “The blessing of God’s law”
Reading: Eph 2:1-10; (with Heidelberg Catechism LD 1 [Q/A 2])
Rev John Zuidema
Congregation, question one of the Heidelberg Catechism remind us of our most privileged position as Christians that our comfort in life and death, both body and soul is that we belong to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.
Now in this world, people derive comfort from having loved ones around, or having a good family doctor, a healthy bank balance, or some blue-chip shares. But none of it lasts. Only Christ as Saviour gives comfort and peace in this life and the sure and glorious hope of eternal life! Now I want you to live in the joy of that comfort. I want you to delight in knowing and belonging to Christ.
Sometimes Christians can be depressing for all they focus on is how terrible things are with them and the world around them. And often the reason is because they do not fully understand the truth the Scriptures reveal about Jesus Christ. To have Christ as Saviour is more than just a feeling or an emotion. It is that to be sure. But it needs to be based or grounded in knowing what the Scriptures, God’s holy and infallible word sats and reveals about Jesus and how the Holy Spirit applies that knowledge to our minds and hearts!
There is a danger that we can have the right badges on our tee shirts and make all the right Christian noises without really knowing about Jesus, and particularly his completed work of salvation for us personally. And when you don’t understand fully what Jesus has done, or you don’t remind yourself regularly by reading the Scriptures, then it cannot fill you with joy and comfort nor drive your life.
So, this morning I wish to remind you of three things from Scripture. First, I want to remind you anew from what you have been saved. In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul reminds us of what we once were without Christ. He mentions in v1, that we were dead in our sins and transgressions. In my study, I have this DVD series called “Amazing Grace,” second edition.
In that DVD the author explains what this deadness actually means. Interestingly he admits a mistake he made in the first series of this DVD. In the first series, in trying to explain our deadness because of sin, he had this guy, on life-support in an intensive care ward with all sorts of tubes and leads running out of him. But inadvertently, he was wrongly implying with that imagery, that there was still some hope of recovery.
In the new DVD series, he has the person lying in an open coffin. He wants to make it clear that there is absolutely no hope for that person to come to life again. He is dead in his sins and needs to be buried! That is what Paul is saying in Eph 2:1. We may be alive physically, but as far as God is concerned, without Christ, we are spiritually dead. We may be physically walking around, but spiritually we are as dead as a person lying in a coffin. And if we remain like that, we are like dead people walking!
And the reason why we are like that is because we cannot keep God’s law perfectly as God requires. We do not love him as God expects nor do we love our neighbour as God’s law demands because of our sin! The perfect law of God highlights our failures and our inability. When we sin, even by being disobedient to one of God’s law we have broken them all with the result, that because we haven’t perfectly obeyed, the law sentences us to death. Our holy God demands perfection and we cannot achieve it.
So, as the Scripture say, the wages of sinning is death! (Rom 6:23). We know God’s law and what we should be doing. But the very thing we know we should do we often don’t do! And the very thing we shouldn’t be doing is what we sometimes do! Wretched people we are!
Now the fact that we break God’s law and are sinners is one of the hardest things to teach and for people to accept. Who wants to admit that they are sinful and have broken God’s law! Indeed, many people don’t even acknowledge there is a Holy God whose law we are to keep. Some are even happy to agree they are not perfect, and in today’s society, that is quite fashionable!
Others suggest that if it wasn’t for our culture, or our environment or our upbringing, everyone would be good. In other words, it is everyone else’s fault and not their fault. Sinful man always tries to excuse their sin. It started with Adam and Eve and it is still happening today!
The measuring bar of what is good or sinful are not for our courts or our legislators to determine, but God’s law. In God’s eyes we are worthy of eternal punishment for disobeying his law perfectly and that is what matters! To not love God with all our heart is sinful. To not love our neighbour as we love ourselves is sinful. That is breaking God’s law!
To have other gods in your life, or misusing God’s holy name, or blaspheming, or not honouring your parents, or stealing, or committing murder, adultery, or bear false witness and coveting, is breaking God’s law.
The Scriptures reveal for instance, that to have a same sex partner is not just an alternative lifestyle, but it is against God’s law and will for our lives. Deliberate abortion or euthanasia isn’t just healthcare or being humane, but it is murder. Have an extra marital affair is committing adultery. Premarital, teenage sex isn’t just a natural expression of love but sexual immorality.
All these things are sinful for we are breaking God’s law. That is the bar! So, if you wish to live in the joy and comfort of knowing that Jesus is your Saviour, don’t throw out the law of God. Don’t say it is irrelevant. Don’t say it is unfair that God places these demands for obedience on us. For if you do, you will never know your sin or how to be forgiven and saved unto eternal life.
Now before we move on, don’t think that we are any better than the alternative lifestyle person or the adulterer, or the thief or the murderer. Paul mentions in vv2-3 that at one time we all the same in God’s eyes, sinner’s worthy of his just punishment. We weren’t one iota better than the next guy. In fact, we were objects of God’s wrath! So, let’s not point the finger at each other.
But that all changed. Look at the good news which is mentioned in vv 4-5, which I wish to remind you of as well. “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.”
Note carefully. Because of God’s great love! Salvation is God’s love coming down to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. We are not made alive because we had a little bit of life left in us, or we have done some good works, or we are in the right church. We are made alive because of God’s love who, says Paul, is rich in mercy! We were undeserving. God didn’t owe us anything. We were in his debt for we broke his law. But, purely because of God’s love and rich mercy, he has made us alive with Christ and that all by grace.
The powerfully working Holy Spirit has made us aware of our sin and God’s love and mercy that initiated salvation for us by helping us to embrace Jesus, God’s Son, as our Saviour. And because of the Holy Spirit’s work, we realize what Jesus did at Calvary and beyond 2000 years ago, he did for us. And our responsibility as the Holy Spirit reveals these truths to us is to embrace Jesus as our Saviour!
Sadly, many people have heard of Jesus, but they don’t see the breaking of God’s law as their eternal death sentence and hence it doesn’t change their heart and cause them to embrace Christ! But it is only when we embrace Jesus as Saviour, which is our responsibility. We may not have the ability, but we have the responsibility to embrace Christ, so we will be assured that all God has done for us through his Son at Calvary means forgiveness and eternal life!
It’s only when we embrace Christ that we will realize that the debt of all our sin has been fully paid and it was all done purely by God’s grace and mercy. We died with Christ and were raised with him and that sets us free to live for Him (6-9).
It is not something done by the works of my hands or the anguish of my soul or the depth of my prayers or the devoutness of my worship or the length of sermons. It’s not our family, or our denomination, but embracing Jesus as the only way of forgiveness and eternal life in glory by faith. Forsaking all, I trust Him. That is the only way to be right with God. Saved by Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, guided by Scripture alone and all to the glory of God alone!
And when we embrace Christ, God no longer sees us objects of his wrath, but as his dear children for we are clothed in the righteousness of His Son. That’s the only way to enjoy the comfort of belonging to Jesus Christ. As the old hymn has, ‘nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling’.
Finally, our third reminder to experience the joy of the Christian’s comfort, we must know how to thank God for such deliverance. Save someone from drowning and see how thankful that person is. Thankful people live thankful lives. At one time we were drowning in God’s wrath for our sin and are now we saved.
Surely, we cannot remain unmoved and not live thankful lives! Saved sinners want to thank and praise God for their deliverance. That’s Paul’s point in the remaining verses. In response to the great salvation, we live thankful lives and we do the very things that God has already planned for us to do! (v10)
And so, we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, encourage each other with the promises of the gospel. The list is endless. Word and deed together. That is part of living in the joy of the gospel! This is not man centred, but God centred.
To live and die, in the comfort of belonging to Christ we must know our sin, our salvation in Christ and our thankful service to Christ. Or if you will, our guilt, the grace received and the gratitude that springs from it! Now a caution. We have to be careful, for to emphasize anyone of these at the expense of the other two is to distort the Gospel and to rob ourselves of a full measure of Christian joy.
Some people say that the minister’s calling is to make the congregation feel guilty and miserable and ashamed of their sin and that they are always breaking the law! Well yes, that is part of our calling, but we’re not allowed to make the good news of forgiveness in Jesus Christ an afterthought. That’s wrong. The gospel is good news!
Alternatively, if all the stress is on salvation and grace and little or nothing is heard about sin and guilt and the need to confess and repent then that is equally unbalanced. Then we will never really know or appreciate the depth of God’s love and mercy. And equally dangerous, are those that put all the stress on service and gratitude. There are some lovely Christian people who emphasise nothing except a social gospel.
There is this constant encouragement to do more for the under privileged. And I sympathise with their sentiments because I think we sometimes take the call to service far too lightly. However, we also need to ensure that our love for God is not replaced by love for man for then salvation becomes all about what we need to do rather than what God has already done for us in Christ.
If all the emphasis comes down to what we should be doing and what we are not doing enough of, then we will be in danger of taking all the comfort and joy of belonging to Jesus away and robbing the Triune God of the glory that is due to Him!
So Christian, know you are a sinner saved by grace through faith all because of God’s rich mercy! And in response, live thankful lives of service. Now if these wonderful truths are not yet written on your heart, I pray that the Holy Spirit will soon make in-roads in your heart so that you too can enjoy the comfort of belonging to Christ now and for eternity. Amen.