God’s Solution: Jesus Christ • 12.21.25
Nick Lees   -   December 21, 2025

God’s Solution: Jesus Christ
Ephesians 2:1-22

How does God’s solution of Jesus Christ fit into the gospel?

  1. Recognize the depth of our sin problem
  2. Rejoice in the rich mercy and love of God revealed through Jesus Christ
  3. Receive the gracious gift of salvation through faith in Jesus
  4. Remember what Christ has accomplished

Manuscript:

Good morning, church family! (Welcome guests + introduce self)

Dismiss 4th + 5th graders

Ushers + Bibles (Ephesians 2; page 1159)

This is week 3 of 4 in our series The Beautiful Gospel. In previous weeks we’ve studied the incomparable holiness of our Creator God and the devastating effects of our own sinfulness, most notably that, left to ourselves, we are spiritually dead and unable to save ourselves. Understanding both the holiness of God and sinfulness of humanity are necessary for us to understand why Jesus had to come and just what he accomplished through his life and ministry.

Today our focus is on the revelation of God’s solution in Jesus Christ. Our aim is to answer the question, “How does God’s solution of Jesus Christ fit into the gospel?”

There are so many wonderful passages that we could study this morning on this topic, but I have chosen Paul’s writing to the Ephesians. In this letter, Paul reminds them of the beauty of the gospel message, which centers around the finished work of Jesus Christ for the redemption of sinners like us! I chose to narrow our focus to Ephesians chapter 2 because in a single chapter it captures so well the larger scope of God’s grand redemption plan. As I read this chapter, see if you can follow the progression of God’s gospel plan through it.

Ephesians 2:1–22 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Were you able to follow the progression of God’s plan of redemption in this passage? Paul does a wonderful job of summarizing it in 22 verses. Let’s work through it together as we seek to answer our question “How does God’s solution of Jesus Christ fit into the gospel?”

It begins with what we read in verses 1-3. We must…

  1. Recognize the depth of our sin problem

This is the component of the gospel that we focused on last Sunday. As I said then, you won’t understand the glorious beauty of the good news unless you first grasp the utter darkness of the bad news. And though I don’t intend to spend as much time on this as we did last week, it’s worth reviewing this morning.

In these verses, Paul describes the human condition outside of Christ as dead in our trespasses and sins, following the world, our flesh or sin nature, and Satan. Whew! That is quite the assessment given by God through Paul. I don’t know that most people think of themselves in this manner, but that is what God says is true of you. It is a very sobering and humbling assessment that is meant to give us great pause to consider our desperate need for rescue and redemption! Paul then goes on to state that the result of living in sin is that we are by nature children of wrath.

This coincides with what we’ve heard in the previous two weeks of this sermon series. It is not an easy message to hear, but it is the honest assessment of our Creator God of humanity. Our sin is a BIG deal because of God’s UTTER holiness. If there was not a MOST HOLY God who created us in his image to be holy as he is holy, then things would be different… But that’s not our reality. The truth is that we have been created by a MOST HOLY God and he holds us to the standard of his perfect holiness, and we have all rebelled against that by going our own way and living for our own kingdom. We are all guilty of treason against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Last week we defined sin in the following way:

  • Sin is missing the mark. (Of God’s holiness)
  • Sin is rebellion.
  • Sin is treason against the Supreme Authority.
  • Sin is not only doing wrong but being wrong to the core of our personhood.

And we heard that the consequences of sin are:

  • Sin has broken our relationship with God.
  • Sin has broken our relationship with one another.
  • Sin has broken our relationship with creation.
  • Sin leads to death.
  • Sin invites God’s wrath upon us.
  • Sin invites God’s judgment of a hardened heart and downward spiral into more sin.

We do not have time to review these in depth today. If you missed the sermon last week, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to it. But I do want to reiterate the point that we must recognize the depth of our sin problem.

These are serious matters. Sin corrupts our best efforts. We cannot cleanse ourselves of it. On our own, we have no hope. We will not change. The Scriptures are clear about this assessment. We have no desire for God. We are spiritually dead. Humanity’s situation is dire indeed due to our sinfulness!

If anything is going to change in our situation, God must act. We need rescue/redemption from outside of us. And this reality is why the gospel is such good news! Our sinfulness is the problem that the gospel solves!

The gospel is the good news of a divine rescue plan! God the Father sent God the Son to make a way of salvation. This is why the angels proclaimed that Jesus’ birth was good news of great joy for all the people. And that is why the words in Ephesians 2:4-7 are so wonderful. Let’s read them again:

Ephesians 2:4–7 (ESV)

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

But God. That’s how verse 4 began. But God… Those two words are so important! They are filled with such hope! Though we were dead in our sin and under the wrath of God… HE. HAD. A. PLAN. He is rich in mercy and full of great love – even towards sinners who have rejected him and rebelled against him! And he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to make us spiritually alive with Him.

Think about that! Those who were once spiritually dead in sin are now made alive in Christ. This is a divine miracle! A spiritual resurrection and impartation of life from our Savior. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves – brings us from death to life!

Paul affirms that this is a work of God when he states, “by grace you have been saved.” God is the one working here. He is the one who saves, who gives new life, who then raises us up with Christ and seats us with him in the heavenly places. These are wonderful truths for us to consider this morning! When Jesus rose from the dead and was subsequently exalted by God the Father, all those who would later be united with Christ by faith were beneficiaries of the same resurrection and exaltation! What you are hearing from Ephesians 2 is that God does not hold back his blessings for those who have faith in Jesus. His plan has always been to show the riches of his mercy and love through Jesus Christ to sinners like us. Which brings us to our second response to God’s solution of Jesus Christ in the gospel:

  1. Rejoice in the rich mercy and love of God revealed through Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the solution to our sin problem. Though our sin had rendered us dead and under the wrath of God, God the Father sent God the Son to rescue and redeem us. And Jesus willingly came to pay the price for our redemption!

Now I want to briefly depart from the letter to the Ephesians to share yet another beautiful Gospel truth from the book of Romans. It captures so well and so succinctly the way a perfectly holy and just God can address our sin problem through Jesus Christ. This comes in the midst of the segment where Paul is sharing God’s universal indictment of humanity. It is the answer to the question, “How can a holy and just God overlook the sin of so many people?”

Romans 3:21–26 (ESV)

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The answer is that God’s plan was always to provide Jesus Christ as our propitiation. That means Jesus both satisfied and removed God’s wrath from those who believe in Him. This is God’s solution for our sin problem. Jesus Christ, the perfect, sinless Son of God suffered in our place and willingly drank the cup of wrath dry! There is no wrath left for those who have faith in Christ!

God’s justice is satisfied by judging Christ for our sins. This is known as substitutionary atonement. And this was always the plan of God to save sinners. We’ve heard this idea unpacked over the last couple of weeks. It is a testimony to the love of God that the Father would willingly send His Son to die in our place and that the Son would willingly come down, take on flesh, and endure the suffering and wrath meant for us on the Cross. This truth is a central component to the Gospel. We’ve heard it each week in Romans 5:8:

Romans 5:8 (ESV)

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And 2 Corinthians 5:21:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Here is another passage where the Apostle Peter rejoices in the same reality:

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

What happened at the Cross was the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant song of Isaiah 53, which was prophesied ~700 years before Jesus’ birth. What God had promised, he accomplished.

This same truth is what Paul has been rejoicing in with the Ephesians. In the first chapter of his letter, in the middle of a long segment of praise to God, he writes about Christ:

Ephesians 1:7–10 (ESV)

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

The Word of God is consistent in pointing to Jesus Christ as God’s solution for humanity’s sin problem! The shed blood of Christ was necessary as payment for our rebellion. The sinless Son of God had to die to satisfy the wrath of God for our sins. And this was always the plan! This is evidence of the riches of his grace which he has lavished upon those who believe in Jesus.

If you’re following along closely, then you’re hearing a consistent message that salvation is from God. It is his solution, not ours. We didn’t come up with it. We don’t earn it by anything we’ve done. It is pure grace.

Grace – God’s unmerited favor. God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.

Here’s what Paul said about this gracious solution in our original passage today:

Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It is not from our own doing. It is a gift of God. And what is the appropriate response when God offers you a gift?

  1. Receive the gracious gift of salvation through faith in Jesus

This is the emphasis of Pastor Chris’ message for next week, so plan to come back to hear more then. But for today, I’ll simply point out that the Scriptures are quite clear that salvation is a gracious gift of God through faith in Jesus, not a result of works. This truth stands in opposition to all the works-based religions that exist in the world.

Every other religion requires you to do works to receive the good outcome in the end. Biblical Christianity is the only religion that says you could never do enough nor be good enough, but God is and he has made a way of salvation for you through himself! The Gospel is indeed beautiful. You aren’t enough, but He is. And Jesus came down and dwelt among us and lived the perfect, sinless life that we could never live. He kept every command and always pleased God the Father, in our place. And then he willingly went to the Cross and endured the scorn of men and the wrath of God for OUR sin. The innocent lamb of God dying for you and for me! So that we could receive his gracious gift of salvation and be cleansed by the blood of the lamb. Receiving his righteousness in exchange for our sinfulness. What an awesome exchange and hope filled promise this morning!

But it demands a response. Every single man, woman, boy or girl who walks this earth throughout history must do business with their sin and God’s solution – Jesus Christ. If you’ve never confessed your sin and need for a Savior, then that is the appropriate response for you this morning. Receive God’s gracious gift of salvation. If your faith is in Christ, then you need to remember the truth of verse 10, that you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. You were created on purpose for a purpose! And that is to walk in obedience to God by carrying out the good works that he has prepared for you in this life.

What might those good works be? Or to put it as we have in previous weeks – How should you respond to God’s solution of Jesus Christ? This is not going to categorically exhaust the possibilities, but it includes things such as:

  • Representing Christ in your community as a faithful Christian
  • Boldly proclaiming the Gospel to your spheres of influence
  • Modeling the love of God to your spouse with a sacrificial, selfless love
  • Raising your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
  • Children, obeying your parents and honoring them
  • Contributing to the maturity and unity of the body of Christ, the church
  • Working diligently, as unto the Lord, in your vocation
  • Standing firm against the devil’s schemes as you faithfully pray for others
  • Putting off the old ways of sin and putting on the new self in righteousness
    • Forsaking lying to tell the truth
    • Stop stealing to work hard to give to help others
    • Replacing corrupting talk with words that give life
    • Pursuing self-control rather than allowing your emotions to rule you
    • Practicing the kindness and forgiveness of God towards others

And these are just the ideas that came from the book of Ephesians! These are the good works that are laid out in ONE book of the Bible. The Scriptures are incredibly comprehensive and rich are for our daily life! Will you commit to studying them and living obediently to them? The Christian life is an ongoing commitment to putting off the old ways of the flesh, renewing our thinking through the Word of God, and then putting on the new ways of righteousness in Christ.

And remember, these good works are the result of faith, they are not what save anyone. Or, as I like to say, they are the fruit, not the root, of faith. They flow out of authentic faith.

Now, we must move beyond the response that God’s solution of Jesus Christ demands and look also at the outcome he accomplishes. This is what Paul addressed in verses 11-22, where he said:

Ephesians 2:11–22 (ESV)

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Through Jesus, so much has been accomplished for the benefit of humanity and glory of God! Let’s use the rest of our time this morning to…

  1. Remember what Christ has accomplished

God’s solution of Jesus Christ has provided transformative power for every relationship in life. In this passage, Paul speaks first to the…

  • Reconciliation between God and man

Jesus is the peacemaker between God and man. Whereas before Christ we were dead in our sin and under God’s wrath, now, through faith in Christ, men and women are at peace with God. There is no wrath left for Christians. What wonderfully good news this morning!

Jesus has also provided….

  • Reconciliation between Jew and Gentile

The mystery of the Gospel has been revealed in Christ! God was at work in making one people for himself – the church – comprised of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) who have faith in Christ. Paul writes further of this revealed mystery in the next chapter:

Ephesians 3:6–12 (ESV)

6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God,

who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

God has revealed through Jesus Christ that his grand redemption plan is on a larger scale/scope than just certain individuals or even one ethnic group. He is making a people for himself through the Gospel that is from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12. When God told Abraham that through his seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed… He was speaking of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the seed of Abraham that rescues/redeems the families of earth into the family of God.

We also see that Jesus has accomplished…

  • Our exchange of identity

I love what 2:19-22 stated:

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Through faith in Christ, we move from being identified as strangers and aliens to citizens of God’s kingdom and members of his household! We become a holy temple for the Lord, both as individuals but also corporately, as the church. Reconciliation is both individual and communal!

These are wonderful truths to remember this morning! As a Christian, you have been adopted into the family of God! You are now a citizen of the Kingdom of Light! You are a holy temple, a dwelling place for God the Holy Spirit, and you are also a part of the holy temple that is comprised of all of God’s people throughout history! What glorious realities and privileges to behold and remember! (Main Points)

None of this is possible without God’s solution of Jesus Christ! Jesus is central to the Gospel. As we’ve heard this morning:

  • Jesus is the solution to our spiritual death.
  • Jesus is the revelation of God’s love and mercy.
  • Jesus is the center of salvation by grace.
  • Jesus reconciles people to God and to one another.
  • Jesus builds a new humanity as God’s dwelling place.

 

Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus! Thank you for who you are and all that you have done! May we respond in faith that leads to repentance and joyful obedience all our days. If you’d like to talk more about any of this after the service, I’ll be in the back and would love to chat with you.

Let’s pray.

Pray