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.<\/p>\n
In 1965 she recorded an album titled, \u201cHow Rich I Am,\u201d 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<\/a>.) 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s voice. The noun translated \u201crich\u201d and \u201criches\u201d in Ephesians is plousios<\/em>. It\u2019s a common word for \u201cwealth\u201d 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\u2019s love, grace, and mercy towards us. I encourage you to pause in your reading and quickly mark these citations in your Bible where \u201crich\u201d and \u201criches\u201d 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.<\/p>\n We begin by looking back at the depth of our lost condition described in Ephesians 2:1-4.[1]<\/a> The third verse ends with the reality of God\u2019s wrath. But verse four begins with a contrast, \u201cBut God.\u201d<\/p>\n We were dead in trespasses and sins (2:1), \u201cbut God\u201d intervened.<\/p>\n We were under the power of the evil one (2:2), \u201cbut God\u201d delivered us.<\/p>\n We were children of wrath (2:3), \u201cbut God\u201d redeemed us.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cLamb slain from the foundation of the world\u201d (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), \u201ceven when we were dead in trespasses\u201d (Ephesians 2:5).<\/p>\n \u201cGod, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,\u201d 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, <\/em>translated \u201cmercy,\u201d was the Hebrew word hesed<\/em>. Often translated as \u201cloving-kindness,\u201d hesed<\/em> conveyed the character of God revealed in His loving treatment of His children. In the Psalms, Israel\u2019s worship language frequently speaks of God\u2019s loving-kindness (Psalm 5:7; 13:5; 23:6; 25:7; 85:10; 94:18). Proverbs 16:6 connects this mercy (hesed<\/em>) with atonement for our iniquities.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n 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 \u201cseated.\u201d Ephesians 1:20 was about the resurrection of Jesus and enthronement at the right hand of the Father \u201cin the heavenly places.\u201d Ephesians 2:5, 6 speaks of us being spiritually raised to new life and sitting together in and with Christ \u201cin the heavenly places.\u201d Many translations put the ending phrase of verse 5 in parentheses \u201c(by grace you have been saved).\u201d 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\u2019s use of the perfect participle, \u201cyou have been<\/em> saved,\u201d 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]<\/a> This enduring effect of God\u2019s 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 \u201conce saved always saved,\u201d 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\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n In addition, Paul reminds us that we cannot earn God\u2019s mercy and grace. It is mercy and grace because it flows from God\u2019s loving heart. In simple language, mercy<\/em> is God\u2019s righteous decision not to give us what we deserve; grace<\/em> is God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Being seated in Christ in the heavenly places means that God spiritually places us in a dimension of faith and existence whereby God can \u201cshow the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus\u201d (Ephesians 2:7).[4]<\/a><\/p>\n 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 \u201cworks.\u201d Rather, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God\u2019s love to us and the Holy Spirit stirs us to \u201cconfess\u201d that God\u2019s 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 \u201chearing, and hearing by the word of God.\u201d 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]<\/a><\/p>\n The reason that our salvation is by faith alone in God\u2019s grace and mercy is to remove our fallen tendency towards pride, or what Paul calls in Ephesians 2:9, \u201cboasting.\u201d 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\u2019s love. The reality is that God loves us\u2014even knowing our most heinous thoughts and actions, our most arrogant moments of self-aggrandizement\u2014and He calls us to reject Satan\u2019s lies and trust in God\u2019s faithful Word. I\u2019ve said it many times in preaching and believe it to be true today. Frank Sinatra\u2019s famous song, \u201cI Did It My Way,\u201d is the theme song of hell. We are only saved by God\u2019s way!<\/p>\n 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\u2019s poiema<\/em>, God\u2019s workmanship, God\u2019s creation. You can hear the connection of that Greek word to our English word \u201cpoem.\u201d A poem is a creation, a word-work of art that conveys truth beyond the mundane.<\/p>\n God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Did you listen to Joyce Shealy sing \u201cHow Rich I Am\u201d? If not, go back to the link and take a moment to listen and reflect on Ephesians 2:4-10.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/2025\/03\/05\/lent-and-the-spirit-of-the-age-ephesians-21-3\/<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Markus Barth mentions hints of the Old Testament in the use of the \u201criches of God\u2019s mercy\u201d in Exodus 34:6 and Deuteronomy 7:7-9. See Ephesians 1-3, The Anchor Bible<\/em>, p. 218.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Barth, pages 217-221; Stott, The Message of Ephesians<\/em>, p. 56.<\/p>\n
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