Intro
In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the allegory/novel, “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll and Hyde are one and the same man, but one character is good & the other is evil
Acting on the theory that it was possible to separate his character into good & evil, Dr. Jekyll created a potion that could change a man into an embodiment of his evil side, thereby also making pure his good side. After using the potion on himself, Jekyll became physically smaller as his evil nature became predominant; this persona was called Edward Hyde.
The potion had not worked as planned, in that the outer shape-changing was successful, but the identity of Jekyll remained unchanged while adding an alternate character who was purely evil. After a few trial runs as Hyde, Jekyll soon began to undergo the change regularly in order to indulge in all the forbidden pleasures that he would never have otherwise committed
However, the Hyde aspect himself began to grow strong beyond Jekyll’s ability to control it with a counter-potion. Eventually, Jekyll wakes up in bed one day to discover that he has turned into Hyde overnight. He resolves to give up Hyde for good, but the allure proves too strong to resist, and after two months he takes the potion once more.
This time, Hyde does not just indulge himself; he commits murder, and can no longer be seen in public for fear of being recognised and sent to the gallows.
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- Stevenson was well aware of the nature of man
- That he has two sides to him
- On the one hand, he has enormous capacity to do good, appreciate & preserve beauty, but on the other hand, something selfish, evil & sinister lurks beneath the surface
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- In this passage today, it will be tempting for you to understand man’s nature as either all of good, or all of evil & that is the issue being discussed
- To do that, will be misunderstand the core of this teaching
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- After describing the spiritual blessings Christians have in Christ
- After praying that Christians would realise the lofty position to which they have been called
- After describing the absolute reign of Christ & His triumph over the would-be powers of the cosmos
- He then reflects on the contrast between man’s ability to save himself & God’s ability to save - these are the issues
1. Man’s Ability to Save
1. We were Dead (v.1)
- One thing you notice about the dead - they are unresponsive
John MacArthur speaks in his commentary about a boy who ran into his office one day screaming “come quickly”, “come quickly”. He went with the boy into his home around the corner & their was an infant laying on the bed lifeless with his mother calling for him to wake up. He quickly called the ambulance while he tried to revive the infant. The ambulance came & tried CPR but it was soon evident that the infant was dead
- People who are dead can no longer respond & no matter how much yelling & how much CPR was carried out, the little child could not respond
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- In the story of the Prodigal son, we have in this parable a young man who was unresponsive to his father’s will
- He left his father after receiving his share of his inheritance & squandered it in wild & loose living
- When a famine hit & he realized his predicament - that he was penniless - he humbled himself & returned to his father
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- Rather than sending him away for being a fool, he welcomed him home
- Listen to the way Jesus told this parable...
Lk 15:22-24 .. 22 “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23 and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
- The man’s son was unresponsive to his father’s will but has now returned willing to honour & obey his fathers wishes
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- Paul says that our former state before God was that we were dead, in unresponsiveness to God because of our trespasses & sins
- That men were so caught up in sinful desires, they had no time nor desire for God - in fact, they went in the opposite direction
- On their own, people have no ability to attain or maintain a right relationship with God - they are dead to God - inept
- This doesn’t mean that men & women cannot do good, but it does mean that we had no ability or inclination to believe
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- Here is the human dilemma - an inability to get right with God
- This is the norm for today
- People think that by throwing a few dollars to charity, they can “please God”
- People think that by doing some amount of “good”, they can bargain their way to eternal life
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- The apostle is telling us that this is utterly impossible
- Stay with me though, because whilst unbelievers are dead, God has done something to make them alive if... & I will tell you what that “if is” later
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- But firstly, lets see how this deadness has come about
2. We were Led Astray (v.2)
A little clock in a jeweler’s window in a certain Western town stopped one day for half an hour at twenty minutes after eight. School children, noticing the time, stopped to play; people hurrying to the train looked at the clock, and began to walk more slowly; professional men, after looking at the clock, stopped to chat longer in the sunshine; and all were late because one small clock stopped. Never had these people known how much they had depended upon that clock until it had led them astray.
Q. Have you ever been led astray? It’s painful isn’t it!
Eph 2:1-2 .. 1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
- People walk or live according to the course of this world
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- The course of this world is a “dog eat dog - win at all costs mentality”
- It is a world that calls good, evil & evil, good
- It is all the perverted ideas propagated by the television & glossy covered magazines
- It is the cultural bondage of materialism, worldliness, the denial of absolutes
- It is secularism, self, pride, ego & all that goes with it
- It is an antagonism to God & a desire to explain the world apart from Him
Julian Huxley wrote, “Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler, but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat”. He also wrote, “For my own part, the sense of spiritual relief that comes from rejecting the idea of God as a supernatural being is enormous” (Religion Without Revelation [Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1979]).
- You can’t tell me that the likes of evolutionary theory is not driven predominantly, by an anti-god agenda
- It tries to explain the world apart from a personal Creator
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- Paul says that men & women have been led astray by the prince of the power of the air
- Behind it all, he says, is Satan & his demonic spirits who influence the world of men & women
- He works to falsify all that God is & what He has done
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- In Rev. 20 we are told that he leads nations astray
- In 2 Cor. 4, Paul says that he blinds the eyes of the unbelieving to the truth about what God has achieved in Jesus Christ
- Men & women are led astray & what is so sad is that they do not even know it
3. We were Enslaved (v.3a)
I noticed Thursday that the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jenson has used his Easter message to call for a renewed effort to end slavery. He mentioned that there were commemorations around the world last month for the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But Peter Jensen says slavery continues through modern day sexual servitude and the use of child soldiers. He says it is a powerful reminder of the human capacity for cruelty and sin.
- Now it is easy to think that, “Oh, it is other people who do evil”!
- However, this verse is rather inclusive & there are no exceptions mentioned - Paul even includes himself
Eph 2:3 .. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind
- Among them - among who? - “the sons of disobedience” - those who are disobedient to God
- We too once lived in the lusts/desires of 2 things: the flesh & the mind
Flesh: has to do with the body - sensual cravings, pursuits of wealth etc.
Mind: is about the thoughts of the inner person (the heart of the person)
Mt 15:19 .. 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
- Both flesh & mind speaks of the desires for self-gratification
- It is the self that is put before God & mankind
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- There is nothing wrong with natural desires for say, food, sleep & sex
- But when food becomes gluttony, when sleep becomes sloth & when sex becomes lust, those natural desires have been perverted into sinful desires
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Q. There have been some really good & benevolent people in the world (e.g. Fred Hallows), but does there “goodness” exclude them from being dead to God?
- No, because apart from doing God’s will, they are still dead to God, led astray by Satan & enslaved to the flesh & mind which by the way includes the position of “I don’t need you God”
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- Many people too, instead of thinking of a relationship with God, they think of their “performance”
- That by doing good, they think that they are good enough for God - that their goodness will appease God & He will then accept them
- People are led astray by Satan in thinking that eternal life is associated with their “performance” of goodness or niceness
- But I tell you what, even behind some of the good things people do are ulterior motives
- It is not performance, but relationship
Stott: We had rebelled, knowingly & voluntarily against the loving authority of God and so had fallen under the dominion of Satan
4. We were Condemned (v.3b)
- Not only dead, not only deceived, not only enslaved, but condemned
- By nature, objects of God’s wrath
- Wrath means anger, but not necessarily in the same way we think about anger
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- There is a selfish anger when we can’t get our own way
- There is a protective anger when our loved one is being picked on
- But there is also a righteous anger against evil
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- God’s anger against humanity in general is an anger at the practice & perpetuation of evil - & keeping Jesus out of your life is evil itself!
- When men & women think they can be like performing seals that somehow arouse the amusement & benevolence of a holy God, then they have missed the truth by a huge margin
- Performance is never a substitute for a relationship with God & anyone who keeps thinking that, will never escape His wrath
2. God’s Ability to Save
Q. Have you ever seen the astronauts in their space capsule in the weightless environment?
- The interesting thing is that when they are suspended in mid-air, they can wriggle, swim, flap & do whatever, yet they are unable to move forward even an inch
- That is how effective man’s ability is in obtaining eternal life
- We were dead, unresponsive & unable to obtain eternal life
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- But here we see something of the love & mercy of God come into play
- We see a contrast between “by nature”...objects of wrath & “by grace”...we have been saved
- It is a contrast between the past & the present
- What we were, left to ourselves, & what we have become, because God intervened on our behalf - we move from judgement to salvation
- Paul lists here 4 aspects...
1. God made us Alive (v.4-5)
- When my wife Ros gave birth to our first son Joshua, she lost a lot of blood in the process
- I remember seeing her lying on the delivery bed looking like a corpse
-She was unresponsive, pale & lifeless(I thought I was going to lose her)
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- The doctor decided that she needed blood & he ordered a couple of bags for her
- As I watched the blood go into her body, I saw her colour come back, she looked alive from the dead - & she became responsive
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- When we were dead to God, not responsive to His will, under His judgement, we had no hope
- But here we read that God is rich in mercy & love
- Mercy is the desire to help those who cannot help themselves (us)
- How fitting it is that our Creator who has come to our aid
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- God has turned the table on the deadness of humanity
- Now, He is making people alive, when they were formerly dead
- But it is not their doing, it is God’s doing
- God’s grace is bringing about a loving response to Him from men & women
- Christians are now doing His will
2. God Raised Us (v.6-7)
- Satan, I have just described, is the spirit that leads the world astray
- He has a command over people - they don’t know, or realise it
- It’s like people who have a habit they know they should quit
- They say they could quit it if they want to, but they don’t want to, they are not ready yet
- That, for many, is simply deception. They don’t want to quit, because they can’t quit - they are hooked!
- The demonic forces at work have the ungodly in their power
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- God has raised the Christian up with Christ
- The Christian has been given a new quality of life
- They have been given a position over the spiritual powers that have in the past controlled them - they are no longer controlled & led astray by Satan & the demonic spirit world - Christ is their victory
3. God Empowered Us (v.10)
Q. Have you heard of the saying, “what comes first, the chicken or the egg”?
- You might say, the chicken, because without the chicken, you cannot have an egg
- Ah yes, someone else might say, but without the egg, you cannot have a chicken
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- I have just made a case against a person’s “performance” as being any help in escaping the anger of God
- But performance does have its place - its place is at the foot of the cross
- We don’t “perform” good works in order to come alive - “performance” of good works is a result of God making us alive
Eph 2:10 .. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
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- That we should walk in them - how interesting
Q. At the start of this passage, what was our past “walk” before we knew Christ?
Eph 2:1-2 .. 1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked
- There is a change when a person knows Christ
- Instead of walking according to the evil ways of the world, the Christian now walks according to the will of God
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- Christians are salt & light to the earth
- They do good works & uphold God’s moral law in His world - that is part of the good they do
- God’s moral law is good for society
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- Mark Stein gives a good example of the Christian influence in India
In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" -- the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural: ’’You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
- Finally, we see in this passage that...
4. God Saved Us (v.8-9)
- When I was young, I remember swimming in a public pool with my sister Debbie
- We were young - I was old enough & competent enough to swim across the pool, but Debbie was 3 yrs younger & not too water-safe
- I encouraged her out into the middle of the pool (I think we were going to swim the width of the pool)
- But she got into trouble in the middle & panicked
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- I swam over to try & help her, but she was wildly thrashing about as you would expect a youngster to do when they are drowning
- But instead of helping her, I found that she was drowning me
- In her effort to stay afloat, she held me under
- Fortunately, an adult jumped in & rescued her & I managed to gurgle my way back to the edge
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- Here is a picture of a rescue, a saving
- It is a deliverance from death, isn’t it?
- The human race is unable to help themselves out of trouble - they need saving
- To Christians, Paul says...
Eph 2:8 .. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God
- This means that anyone can be accepted by God
- Because this is not about performance, but about receiving a gift!
- You can be dead to God, misled, enslaved, condemned, but through the gift of God’s grace to you, you can be alive, be raised up, empowered for good & be saved
- Saved from what - saved from God’s anger & judgement
Conclusion
- This is what Easter is all about
- It is about the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ
- In sacrificing Himself on the cross, Jesus provided the gift of life eternal
- In raising Jesus from the dead, God made a statement to everyone that Jesus’ sacrifice satisfied God’s justice
- It was the remedy for the waywardness of humanity
- A price had to be paid for that waywardness
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- Thus, Jesus’ death & resurrection became God’s gift
- All who come to Christ, who believe in Him, can receive that gift of eternal life
- But it is through faith, it is through relationship, not performance
