The pattern for the book of Ephesians is this. In Ephesians 1:1-14, Paul outlined the blessings Christians have received through Jesus’ redemption of them. In Ephesians 1:15-23, Paul prayed that the Ephesian Christians’ understanding of those blessings would be deepened. In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul stepped back to contrast the Ephesian Christians’ current exalted status with their past. He said that previously they had been “dead in transgressions and sin” (Ephesians 2:1). Furthermore, instead of being a part of Jesus’ kingdom, they were trapped in the kingdom of Satan, “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), unable to control their sinful desires and deserving death (Ephesians 2:3). Many Christians take their salvation for granted, not recognizing the terrible state they were in before and the terrible state other people are in. And, Paul added, the dramatic change has come about purely by God’s grace: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:9). There is nothing Christians could have done to save themselves. It is God and God alone who has rescued us.