The late Joyce Shealy was an outstanding Christian singer. Her voice was that of an accomplished opera soprano. Trained at the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music and Indiana University, she taught at Emmanuel University and then for twenty-seven years at the University of Oklahoma. Her husband, Dr. Floyd Shealy, grew up in Franklin Springs, Georgia, and was part of a family immersed in the IPHC. I had the honor of preaching her funeral in Oklahoma City on December 18, 2021.
In 1965 she recorded an album titled, “How Rich I Am,” which was the lead song of that album. Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, you can listen to her rich voice (Click here to listen.) My mother loved Joyce Shealy and that album was often played in our home in the 1960s. In fact, my mother played it so much that I still remember the words.
When I read in Ephesians about the riches God has given us in Jesus Christ, I see the words of the Apostle Paul but I hear Joyce Shealy’s voice. The noun translated “rich” and “riches” in Ephesians is plousios. It’s a common word for “wealth” in the New Testament and in classical Greek. Six times in the first three chapters Paul uses this word to describe the abundance of God’s love, grace, and mercy towards us. I encourage you to pause in your reading and quickly mark these citations in your Bible where “rich” and “riches” are used in Ephesians 1:7, 18; 2:4, 7; 3:8, 16. We have already seen its use in the first chapter of Ephesians. Here, we take a few moments to consider its use in the second chapter.
We begin by looking back at the depth of our lost condition described in Ephesians 2:1-4.[1] The third verse ends with the reality of God’s wrath. But verse four begins with a contrast, “But God.”
We were dead in trespasses and sins (2:1), “but God” intervened.
We were under the power of the evil one (2:2), “but God” delivered us.
We were children of wrath (2:3), “but God” redeemed us.
It is important to remember that when Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God was not caught by surprise. In His divine nature, the eternal Son of God, Jesus, was prepared as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:18). In the abundance of His mercy and love, Christ died for us even while we were in rebellion against heaven (Romans 5:6), “even when we were dead in trespasses” (Ephesians 2:5).
“God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,” shows us that divine mercy flows from the loving heart of God (Ephesians 2:4). It is important to remember that Paul is a Jew, and he writes from the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul knew that behind the Greek word eleos, translated “mercy,” was the Hebrew word hesed. Often translated as “loving-kindness,” hesed conveyed the character of God revealed in His loving treatment of His children. In the Psalms, Israel’s worship language frequently speaks of God’s loving-kindness (Psalm 5:7; 13:5; 23:6; 25:7; 85:10; 94:18). Proverbs 16:6 connects this mercy (hesed) with atonement for our iniquities.[2]
The second clause of Ephesians 2:5 is a doublet of Ephesians 1:20 in terms of the theme of resurrection and noting where we are “seated.” Ephesians 1:20 was about the resurrection of Jesus and enthronement at the right hand of the Father “in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 2:5, 6 speaks of us being spiritually raised to new life and sitting together in and with Christ “in the heavenly places.” Many translations put the ending phrase of verse 5 in parentheses “(by grace you have been saved).” Theologians Karl Barth and John Stott see this phrase as an element of early Christian worship that Paul used in these verses. Stott notes Paul’s use of the perfect participle, “you have been saved,” which refers to something that occurred in the past and endures through the present and into the future. As far as God is concerned in His response of grace and mercy, our salvation is a past action that continues.[3] This enduring effect of God’s saving grace toward us in Christ Jesus means that we can have confidence that God will not change His mind about our eternal salvation. It does not mean we are “once saved always saved,” in the sense that we can continue in our sinful ways or backslide into a life of sin and still presume on divine mercy. Nor does it mean we cannot reject God’s grace by our own actions or by apostasy. In such an instance, it is not God who has rejected us, but rather we have rejected the life-giving and life-transforming power of grace. The Bible is clear, however, that Satan cannot take us out of the loving hands of God (John 10:28, 29).
In addition, Paul reminds us that we cannot earn God’s mercy and grace. It is mercy and grace because it flows from God’s loving heart. In simple language, mercy is God’s righteous decision not to give us what we deserve; grace is God’s righteous decision to give us what we do not deserve. What then is the place of good works? Paul answers that question in Ephesians 2:10.
Being seated in Christ in the heavenly places means that God spiritually places us in a dimension of faith and existence whereby God can “show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).[4]
In verses 8, 9 Paul returns to the parenthetical phrase in verse 5. All that God requires of us is faith in what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. Even then, it is not that our act of faith is a form of “works.” Rather, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God’s love to us and the Holy Spirit stirs us to “confess” that God’s Word and action is indeed truthful, leading us to saving faith. In Romans 10:17 the apostle Paul affirms that saving faith does not arise from our own rational thinking. Faith comes from “hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” There is an interplay between the Holy Spirit, the preaching or reading and hearing of the Word of God, and conviction in the human heart that leads to belief. Upon hearing the convicting Word of God in our hearts, we repent by turning away from our sin, and we believe by turning towards grace.[5]
The reason that our salvation is by faith alone in God’s grace and mercy is to remove our fallen tendency towards pride, or what Paul calls in Ephesians 2:9, “boasting.” To boast is to give glory to ourselves. We want to somehow prove to God that we are worthy. But that lie of Satan either deceives us with our own self-merit or works to condemn us as feeling as if we can never earn God’s love. The reality is that God loves us—even knowing our most heinous thoughts and actions, our most arrogant moments of self-aggrandizement—and He calls us to reject Satan’s lies and trust in God’s faithful Word. I’ve said it many times in preaching and believe it to be true today. Frank Sinatra’s famous song, “I Did It My Way,” is the theme song of hell. We are only saved by God’s way!
But after this strong statement of mercy, grace, and faith, Paul returns in Ephesians 2:10 to what living in such grace means. God makes us a living piece of art, crafted in His Word. We are God’s poiema, God’s workmanship, God’s creation. You can hear the connection of that Greek word to our English word “poem.” A poem is a creation, a word-work of art that conveys truth beyond the mundane.
God’s will for us is to live for His glory. We do that by trusting Him and by living according to the power of grace and mercy He has given in repentance and justifying faith. Our good words are those deeds of mind, heart, and body that lie before us as we serve God. God has prepared them so that we might display His glory; that we might be trophies of grace for His glory.
Did you listen to Joyce Shealy sing “How Rich I Am”? If not, go back to the link and take a moment to listen and reflect on Ephesians 2:4-10.
[1] https://iphc.org/gso/2025/03/05/lent-and-the-spirit-of-the-age-ephesians-21-3/
[2] Markus Barth mentions hints of the Old Testament in the use of the “riches of God’s mercy” in Exodus 34:6 and Deuteronomy 7:7-9. See Ephesians 1-3, The Anchor Bible, p. 218.
[3] Barth, pages 217-221; Stott, The Message of Ephesians, p. 56.
[4][4] Notice Paul’s use of “kindness” in verse 7, reflecting the backdrop of the Hebrew hesed.
[5] Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Teachings, Volume 2: Christ and Salvation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012) p. 75. I commend this entire series to you, four volumes which are an excellent overview of classic Wesleyan theology.
