Ephesians 02: We are God's Refrigerator Art

Grace doesn’t massage your resume; it resurrects your life. We open Ephesians 2 and watch the sharp turn from “dead in sin” to “alive with Christ,” and it changes everything about worth, identity, and the way we live. Instead of a grind to earn approval, Paul shows a gift we could never secure on our own—salvation by grace through faith—so no one can boast. That shift frees us from old medicators and habits, not by shame but by healing. The heart gets new desires, and good works become the natural outflow of a life remade.

We also press into the radical unity at the center of the gospel. In a city famous for power and spirituality, Paul announces a deeper peace: Jesus tears down the wall between Jews and Gentiles and forms one new humanity. Hostility dies at the cross. Access to the Father is shared through the Spirit. That vision stretches across our modern divides too—race, class, culture—and reframes church as a reconciled family, not a club for the already-alike. With Christ as cornerstone and the apostles and prophets as foundation, we’re built together into a living temple where God’s presence is at home.

Along the way, we wrestle with identity: you are God’s workmanship—think “refrigerator art” cherished by the Artist who made you. That means critics don’t define you, failures don’t disqualify you, and success doesn’t secure you. Grace does. We end with a call to live out the prepared works set before us: acts of courage, mercy, generosity, and peacemaking that display the wealth of God’s kindness. If this conversation restores your hope, share it with a friend, subscribe for more daily chapter breakdowns, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. What good work is calling your name today?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Welcome And Episode Setup

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Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Ephesians chapter two. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be We Are God's Refrigerator Art. We are God's Refrigerator Art. Yeah, hopefully that'll make sense here in just a moment as we talk about how God sees something special in all of us. But before we do that, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Thank you so much for leaving us comments and things and letting us know how you're getting along with God's word. Thank you for sharing the YouTube channel. It really does help us as we're on our road to a thousand and we're so excited to do that together. Also, podcast listeners, I just got to be honest with you, mainly to aggravate our YouTube listeners. But podcast listeners, you always and forever are my favorite. Thank you so much. And thank you for all of you who are leaving us five-star reviews. I see you on the Apple Podcast. I see you on Spotify and all that. And I hate so bad that my Spotify listeners are not able to leave a review. So if you don't mind, I'd love for you to go over to the Apple Podcast just so that you can leave us a review. And I want to say thank you so much. And I want to read some of these online because you guys are encouragement to us and you also help us. And I want to say thank you to W Sloan09 because she said back in May, love this podcast, love the extra commentary of backstory and historical references to go along with these chapters. And I'm gonna tell you something. I love doing that because I once I realized that when I'm reading God's word, especially the book of Ephesians, I'm reading a letter that the Holy Spirit inspired for someone to write to a city, to a collection of churches in a city. And so if it's a letter, then it's only half the story, right? And it's enough. It's that's that's the part inspired by the Holy Spirit. But to get the full story, it also would be important to know who they're writing to. So when I know who they're writing to and I know what Holy the Holy Spirit inspired, it creates an even more amazing picture of what God was trying to convey. And so yeah, I love it too. And thank you so much, uh, W. Sloan09. It is an honor to read the Bible with together with everybody. Well, if you have your Bibles, you want to open up with me to Ephesians chapter two. We're gonna get into this amazing book. Don't forget, Paul is writing this letter from prison. Joker's locked up, and he is waiting to meet with the emperor. And we don't know if he ever actually got in front of the emperor or not, because before he was ever, ever able to do that, Rome ends up burning. They blame it on the Christians. Paul, unfortunately, spoiler alert, later is beheaded. But he's writing this one while he's in prison in about 60 to 61 A.D. So Jesus was crucified and rose again around 33 AD. So less than 30 years later is when Paul is writing this to this church. And the city of Ephesus is a very spiritually aware city. You know, it is home to one of the eight ancient wonders of the world, in that it was home to the temple of Artemis, this false God that they would worship. So this church in Ephesus, they know very well spiritual warfare and all these different things. And Paul loves this church. He's writing to them and saying, God's doing great things in you, and he sees even more in you than you currently see right now, which is why the first half he's writing about God's greatness in us. And then the second half is he's encouraging us to continue to mature. And so if I were to give this overall uh theme, it would be that God has called us to grow and become everything that he's created us to be, and to realize that there's so much more that God has for us than we can imagine, including the fact that we are God's refrigerator art. Well, I want to explain that, what it what that means, but first I want us to read God's word together, and then maybe it'll make sense together. So let's do this. First one of Ephesians 2 says this. Once you were dead because of your disobedience for your many sins. You used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers of the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. But God, that's amazing, is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that you have been saved, for he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all that he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed, and you can't take credit for it. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for those good things that we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Here it is. We are God's masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus so we could do the good things he planned for us long ago. Now, as a whole lot there, but basically what he just said was is that God is doing great things in you. And he has done these great things and he wants to show you off to all the other ages what he has done. And he calls you his masterpiece. And I love this even more, is he makes sure and reminds us that the grace that we have received is just that. It is a gift. We can't earn it. And that's important because so many people think that they are going to try to earn their way to heaven, only to realize that's not how it works. We don't earn our way to heaven. We what we could not achieve by moral perfection, we can't lose by moral imperfection. In other words, we we were never going to be good enough to receive salvation. Therefore, we don't lose it by not being perfect. It is something that is given to us by God. Now, we walk as close to God as we can and we walk without sin in our life because we now are no longer under the curse of the obligation to sin. Sin, most of the time, is something that we do as a medication for the broken places in our life. The reason why we look at pornography, the reason why we we overindulge in alcohol, the reason why we lie, the reason why we do these different sins in our life, the reason why we're unfaithful is because we're trying to medicate broken places in our life. Jesus came to heal us of our broken places. Therefore, we no longer have to sin anymore. Now, do we sometimes sin? Of course we do, because we're all on the growth process toward that place of perfection one day that we're never going to get to until we get to heaven. But we no longer are bound to sin anymore. Now we can live as free, whole, complete children of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, we can't earn it. It's a free gift that we received. And what God's Word is saying is that He is making us into His masterpiece. Now, what I love about this is a masterpiece is something that is beautiful to the trained eye. Now, I'll be honest with you. One time I had an opportunity, I didn't see it in person, but I had a chance to see a replica of the Mona Lisa. And I looked at the Mona Lisa. And the girl's ugly. Okay. I'm not trying to be rude. Just I'm calling it like I see it, because I am I am an untrained artist. You know what I'm saying? I don't know what I'm doing. I am ignorant, or as we'd say in Alabama, ignorant of such things. So I looked at this lady and I was like, hmm, boy, she could snag lightning. She, whoo, you can, you know. And there was, thankfully, there was a guy beside me who proceeded to call me an idiot in various four-letter words that I will not repeat here. And he was like, Do you not understand? And he started explaining to me the different intricacies of the master, Leonardo da Vinci, and and the different shadings and the different colors, which I'm colorblind anyway. So I didn't appreciate that. But when he got through explaining to me what I was looking at, I felt like an idiot. I was like, yeah. I mean, it's ugly to me, but I get why it's a masterpiece. It's amazing. And then I had kids of my own. And what would happen with my girls when they were little, they don't do this anymore. But when they were little, they used to love to draw me pictures, especially one of my daughters. And um, it was ridiculous. Like I remember this one time, uh, my one of my daughters, she took this, this, this crayon and she just drew not even a straight line, just kind of a what even a good lightning bolt. It was just a squiggly, you know, down this thing. And and I go and like she gives it to me. It's like, Dad, look, this is this is for you. And like, it's great. What is it? You know, and she's like, Well, dad, it's a castle, of course. I was like, Oh, yeah, of course, of course it is. Beautiful, baby. I'm gonna put that up in my refrigerator, right? And a few days later, I don't know, maybe a week or two later, a friend of mine comes over and he's looking at that thing, and he's not married, don't have kids, and he's looking at that and he's he's realizing he's about to tease me. He's like, Man, what is that? Because on my refrigerator is this piece of paper with not even a very good straight line on it, right? And I was like, What do you mean? What is it? I mean, what is it? I said, Well, that's a castle, of course. You know, of course it's a castle, and it's beautiful. In case you're wondering, it's beautiful. He's like, hey, okay, all right. You know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A masterpiece is only a masterpiece to someone who says it's a masterpiece. You ever went to a modern abstract art gallery? They have like a broken toilet and be like, hey, this is a work of art. Sure it is. But to the artist, it is. And that's what I want to say to you before we finish up this chapter, and that is this that God calls us the church, his masterpiece. Now, you may look around at your church on Sunday and you don't see a masterpiece, but God does. God sees what he's doing in your life, a masterpiece. He says, What I'm doing in you, I'm not doing in anybody else. And so, no matter what anybody else says about you, in Christ, you're significant, you're secure, and you're accepted. And in Christ, he calls you his masterpiece. Let's continue together. Verse 11. Don't forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. This is what a masterpiece looks like to God. You were called uncircumcised heathens by the Jews. You are proud of your who are proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from the citizenship among the people of Israel. You did not know the covenant promises of God that He made about to you about them. You lived in this world without God and without hope, but now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ Himself brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when in his own body on the cross he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of the law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between the Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this good news of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and the peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. And so for Christ, a masterpiece is when he took the Jewish people and the Gentiles and He brought us together, and now we are one body. Access to the Father through the Holy Spirit by Jesus through the cross. That is a masterpiece. Let's finish it up. So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners, you are citizens, along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ Himself. We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through Him, you Gentiles, we're also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit. Wow. So as we finish this together, I want you to remember one thing before we leave, and that is this you are God's refrigerator art. It doesn't matter what everybody else sees. It doesn't matter what everybody else says. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And just like when I went and looked at this replica of the Mona Lisa, I had no idea what I was looking at. I was completely ignorant to what that beauty was, why it was that way. I knew nothing. I really had no opinion that really mattered. And that's what happens when you're pursuing God with all of your heart and with all of your life, and people look at you and have an opinion. The answer should be and so you didn't make me, you're not forming me, you're not the one that is shaping and molding me, and your opinion is not the one that matters most. You know who whose opinion matters most? Jesus, the great artist, the one who is shaping and molding and informing me. Now it's okay that you care about the opinions of others, that's called being normal. But never to the point that you let it change your pursuit of God. Because the God who knows you and truly loves you, He says you're His refrigerator art. You may look silly, crazy, and everything else to everybody else, but to the only one that matters, He's proud of you. And he is displaying you for all the world to see. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much. Thank you that you see us, you know us, you love us, you're forming us, you're making us. I celebrate you today. I pray God you will have your way in all things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen. Well, don't forget, God's word says, and this is our hope, and that is Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10 says this. We are God, say it with me, masterpiece or refrigerator art. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things that He planned for us long ago. Shine brightly for Jesus today,