Ephesians, Chapter 2: But God // Dustin Maddox

Is coming alive something you do, or something that has to happen to you? Can you build the good life, earn it, work toward it — or does it have to be given, if you're willing to receive it?

In Chapter 2 of Ephesians, Dustin Maddox walks through Paul's "but God" moment — the turn from dead in our own patterns to alive in Christ, by grace and not by works.

In This Teaching

• Dustin's own story of coming alive to purpose on a high school mission trip
• What it means to live according to "the pattern of this world" without realizing it
• The difference between mercy (not getting what you deserve) and grace (getting what you don't)
• How the Christmas, Easter, and ascension stories each shape what grace does in a believer's life
• Why "by grace, not by works" doesn't mean there's nothing to do
• The story of Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities as a picture of substitution and grace

Scriptures Referenced:

• Ephesians 2:1–10