9.25.2026 - Jody Duncan

September 25, 2026

God Builds his Church through Mercy

Ephesians 2:4-5

We read today from Ephesians 2:4-5. Read the passage now or at the end of this devotion. Let the words of scripture speak to you as you connect with God, the Father.

Though Ephesians was long accepted as one of Paul’s letters, more recent opinion among biblical experts is that it may have been written by a follower of Paul’s, after the Apostle’s death. These scholars point to the letter’s sentence structure, which differs from Paul’s, as well as to sections that suggest a church that is more established and less embryonic than it was in Paul’s time.

Whether written by Paul or someone else, the lines in Ephesians 2:4-5 are especially beautiful and compelling. They tell us that we were ‘dead in transgressions’ but became ‘alive in Christ’ through God’s mercy.

What does it mean to be ‘alive in Christ?’ For that matter, what does it mean to be alive?

There is a Youtube video I have watched five or six times because I find it so fascinating and thought-provoking. It is an interview with James Tour, a world-renowned chemist who was drawn into the scientific community exploring the origins of life. Scientists began attempts to create life in the early 1950s, and Tour’s contention is that they are no closer to solving the riddle of life now than they were 70 years ago. They are, in fact, further away from answers now than they were then, as the almost unfathomable

complexity of even a single living cell has revealed itself through more powerful microscopes.

During this interview, Tour suggests that scientists don’t even know what ‘life’ is! “You have a living cell,” he says. “The cell dies. What have you lost? What has changed? The cell still has all the structures it had when it was alive; but they are now inactive, dead. What was lost?”

So … what is life? Even the most brilliant scientists can’t answer that question. But we all know it when we see it. We know what life looks like.

We know what ‘life in Christ’ looks like, too. We see it in the eyes of those living in Christ – before they speak, before they act, we see it.

It is there when they are joyful. It is still there when they are burdened and sad. And it is the greatest witness for Christ imaginable.

Let us live in Christ today, a life offered by God through his mercy. Let us shine as witnesses and evangelists of the great act of salvation God has given us through Christ Jesus.