Made Alive With Christ

Made Alive with Christ

In chapter 1 of Eph, Paul was emphasizing the wealth of spiritual blessings we have as because we are in Christ

Now in chapter 2 emphasizes our position in Christ.

Your position in Christ determines your spiritual possessions and authority.

ILL: Regardless of where the President of the United States may be physically, his position as the man who sits behind the desk in the White House gives him power and authority.

So with the Christian.

Regardless of where we might be physically (Paul was a prisoner when he wrote this letter), we have power and authority in the spiritual realm because of our position in Christ.

How is this possible?

God invites all of his creation to live life to the fullest, to be in fellowship with Him, to be apart of Him, and to be made alive in him.

Paul wrote in Eph 2:1-6 NIV

2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.

6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

Looking deeper into this wonderful passage

You were spiritually dead, because of sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self.

1. We are born by nature children of wrath.

2. We became children of disobedience after rejecting Christ when we reached the age of accountability.

God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins.

1. He canceled the debt.

2. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross.

A. Being Made Alive with Christ means is to experience God’s life within us.

It means being born of God through His Spirit, it means what was void in our lives filled and we are made whole.

We have new holy cravings that are filled

B. Being Made Alive with Christ means, God gave us life; he raised us from the grave of sin, and took us out of the graveyard! More than that, He made us members of Christ!

Why would God do such a thing? Look at verse 4

V4: But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

Mercy means that God does not give us what we deserve; grace means that He gives us what we don’t deserve.

Max Lucado wrote:

God does not save us because of what we’ve done.

Only a puny god could be bought with tithes.

Only an egotistical god would be impressed with our pain.

Only a temperamental god could be satisfied by sacrifices.

Only a heartless god would sell salvation to the highest bidders.

And only a great God does for his children what they can’t do for themselves.

C. Being Made Alive with Christ means we are His workmanship, His new creation.

The same loving Father that chose us, called us, and saved us has also marked out a wonderful plan for our lives!

We are new creations, begun again, linked with the fullness of life that our savior imparts.

D. Being Made Alive with Christ means he has come to live in us, and He has joined himself to us, and we are one person with Him.

(1) (John 15:5a). Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches"

Our identity is no longer "in Adam" but it is "in Christ."

We are no longer ordinary; we are by Gods Grace extraordinary.

The whole work of the enemy is to get you to disbelieve that and to go back to thinking that you are just an ordinary individual.

E. Being Made Alive with Christ means we are sitting together in heavenly places

Notice that Paul says “with Christ" three times:

We are "made alive with Christ."

We are "raised up with Christ."

We are “made to sit with Him. “

“A devout Scotchman, being asked if he ever expected to go to heaven answered, ‘Why man I live there.’”

Heaven is not a far distant place of which we know very little about, it can be experienced here and now.

(Eph. 2:4-6). “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.… and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”