Once Dead, Now Alive!
Ephesians 2:1-7
When God first created mankind, he created within him an active spirit. This spirit (life) was able to commune with a Holy, righteous God.
God said, “If you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.” He was speaking to all aspects of mankind. First, man’s body was introduced to death and he began dying physically. Second, if he died in unforgiven guilt of sin, his soul would dwell in eternal death and punishment. Third, and extremely important, that spirit that was able to understand and communicate with God’s Spirit ceased to work.
When police dispatchers are able to talk to police officers in the field by radio, they say they are live. When they cannot be reached, they say they have gone dead. Our spirits went dead with Adam and Eve’s sins and it would take something supernatural to make us alive again.
Eph 2:1-7 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.
I. Predicament of Sinners. (1)
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…”. The use of the word “you” is not an accusation but an inclusion. All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.
“You were dead in the threspasses…” (paraptoma – I like the word “transgressions” better. The word “progression” means to move in a pro, or positive direction. “Regression” is to move in a re- or backwards direction. Trans means to move in a trans, or counter direction.)
We all move in a direction counter to God’s direction, against His flow. We were “…dead in … sin…” (hamartia – missing the mark.)
Illustration. I am a decent swimmer, or used to be. I have been in West Texas too long and I probably forgot how to swim. However, there are people who can swim far better than I ever could.
Imagine standing on the beach in California, about to enter into a swimming race. We all begin, some fast, some slow. The goal, to swim to Hawaii.
What can you swim, a couple hundred yards? Half-mile? 7 miles?
Arguably, the record for unassisted oceanic swimming is held by Penny Palfrey at 63 miles, requiring 40 hours and 41 minutes, and coming out mostly unrecognizable. Diana Nyad is somewhat questioned in her claims of swimming 103 miles, using a mask to protect her face against jelly fish stings, taking some 53 hours. Officials are doubting her claim to no assistance.
The problem in this race is that Hawaii is 2,467 miles from California. A few rare swimmers might could manage the 67 miles. It’s the 24 hundred that’s the problem. The fate of good swimmers and poor swimmers will be the same. We will all drown.
When mankind tries to live up to God’s standard without a Savior, it doesn’t matter how good we are, we miss the mark by so much, all of us, good and bad, end up dead in our trespasses and sins. We have the power of sin against us.
II. The Power of sin (2b)
“…in which you once walked…”. Again, this is not an accusation, but an inclusion. There are three strikes against us in this passage to keep us from succeeding on our own.
A. The world system – “…following the course of this world”.
If you had nothing else against you, this would be a problem. In the world around us, there is no model of success. So all of our models are broken down here on earth.
Ill. Sociologists and psychologists tell us that the character of a person is fully developed by the time a child reaches 6 years old. The stew of his or her personality, the directing of the parents/guardians, and the modeling of the adult world, teaches a child how to react and survive.
Let’s consider that, …
1. First, fallen personalities.
Our personalities were broken before birth. Psalms 58 reminds us that we come from the womb speaking lies. What a horrible thing to say about an innocent baby?
Ill. Listen, we had a baby once, and still, in his mind, his problems are larger than mine, or anyone else’s. From the beginning, his cry reminded us that he was born with the idea that he was the center of the universe. Any discomfort, hunger pang, wet or dirty diaper initiated a demand that everything else in the world must stop and cater to him. It mattered not if he got a nudge of hunger or he simply dropped his toy from the high chair and wanted it back. His scream said the world was ending.
We are born with a sin nature and it only takes moments to reveal itself after birth.
2. Faulty Parents.
We parents are faulty in our discipline. Your parents were faulty. Being imperfect, the result of our discipline creates more complications than it corrects weakness. Hebrews 12:9-10 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
Ill. In his latter years, my dad asked in tears, “Why is it we are given children to correct and raise when we are young and immature? Then, when we gain wisdom and maturity, it can only show us how we already messed up with our kids.”
3. Faulty Patterns.
Not only is our discipline flawed, so is our modeling. Imperfect people cannot model perfection to impressionable lives. Parents pass on to their kids their greed, selfish attitudes, anger, laziness, wrong priorities, poor views of life, and what else plagues them.
Ill. I remember the day my dad sat me down and told me that my main problem was insecurity. He admitted that he had an inferiority complex.
I was absolutely stunned. He was my dad. I thought he was perfect and I was the messed up one. I then realized that he had unintentionally passed his messed up patterns to me.
So, we walk in the course of the world, or the messed up influencers from our youth.
B. The worldly spirit – “following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience…”
There is an orchestrated spiritual force working against you. I am not trying to scare you, but there is a spiritual world in constant combat all around us that our eyes cannot see. From your earliest moment, the evil spirits are watching you, looking for a direction to take you that is against the way of God.
1. In Respectable Flesh. (Ref. Romans 3:23)
Some of you have what Dr. Bill Gillham calls USDA Grade-A flesh. These are the ones who, in analogy, can swim 50 plus miles off the shore of California. Satan tries to convince them that they can keep on going and make it to Hawaii. Too good…
These are hard to witness to, because sometimes, morally, they are better people than the ones witnessing. It’s harder to get these to realize they need a Savior than, after they realize it, surrender to the Savior.
But the problem is, they are not going to be judged by the rest of us. Satan’s trick is to take their goodness and convince them they are righteous and don’t need to repent and turn to God. God’s call to these beings with, “There is none righteous, no not one.”
2. In Rotten Flesh.
Then there is what we can call yucky flesh. These people make no pretense of being good. As a matter of fact, the evil in the spiritual world tries to influence these into embracing their evil.
“Your only human, lighten up.” They say, “What I do isn’t hurting anyone but myself. It is no one else’s business.”
These people resent the idea of being answerable to anyone, especially a holy, righteous God. Even after these people are saved, they continue to battle the chains place on them by Satan until they learn how to live as one freed through Christ Jesus.
Satan observes as early in a child’s life if this one is going to be greedy, hateful, selfish, a quiet victim, a dominant bully, a compliant pleaser, a creative achiever, a gifted performer, a worthless nobody. Whatever he sees, he attempts to exploit this in the child’s life to keep him or her away from Christ.
Ill. In a family I know, there are two brothers, raised by the same parents, in the same home, in the same way, a little over a year difference in age. Satan noticed that one of them had yucky flesh, and this one remembers events as a victim, attributing the worst motives to those around him.
His brother had a different view of the same events. What seemed as constant criticism for the first son was the expression of a sense of humor to the second son. What one thought funny was used as destructive in the life of the other. What seemed as rejection from the first son seemed as beneficial correction to the second son.
That is how Satan works, angling for a foothold in every child.
The third strike is pointed out in verse 3.
III. The Path of the Soul. (3, Ref. Romans 8:24, Isaiah 6:5)
“…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.”
This is where the Satan begins picking with his dirty finger nails. This is where he begins kicking for a foothold. It is the brokenness passed on to us from Adam and Eve, the first rebels.
It is the truth that, to begin with, before the manipulation of Satan, before the influence of the world system and imperfect parents, we are already broken. In baseball, three strikes and you are out.
No wonder Paul asked, “Oh wretched man that I am, Who can save me from this body of death” (Ref. Rom 7:24). No wonder Isaiah said, “… "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isaiah 6:5).
This is the reality of man without Christ. And we can do nothing for ourselves to better this situation. Rom 3:10-12 “…as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’"
I know, this is one of the most negative sermon you have ever heard. This is among the most hopeless message coming from the pulpit. But, I am glad to say, “God made a way.” All of this has been true and we can do nothing, but look at verses 4-7
IV. The Pity of a Savior (4a)
A. Mercy.
“But God, being rich in mercy…” What hope did we have if God had not taken pitty? Mercy means that God looked down to us, and despite the fact that we were not worth saving, and never could be, He made a way.
B. Love.
“because of the great love with which He loved us.” (4b) Mercy, pitty, spawned by love towards the unlovable. This is the salvation of God. “even when we were dead in our trespasses…” It took mercy motivated by love to save us because we were dead to save ourselves.
John 3:16 is the heart of the message of God. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
We were doomed to perish because we had no other hope. John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Condemned, dead to even the capability to help ourselves.
V. The Price of Salvation.(4b-5a)
“…because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses…”
Christ gave us life. To do that, He had to give His life. Someone had to die for your sins and for your sinfulness. Do you get that? The price of our salvation.
VI. The Prize of Salvation. (5c-6)
That is what it took to “make us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. It took life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save us. Now, we who are saved have life.
Then we are reminded, “by grace you have been saved”. What does grace do?
VII. The Place of the Sanctified (7).
Not only did he take condemned, helpless, defiled sinners, but He “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…”. This assurance, of holding our lives with him, already in heaven, is a guarantee of our inheritance. That inheritance is “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
We know very little about heaven, but I once heard a theologian describe it as "an unknown region with a well-know inhabitant," and there is not a better way to think of it than that.
Richard Baxter expresses the thought in these lines:
My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim,
But it's enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with him.
To those who have learned to love and trust Jesus, the prospect of meeting him face to face and being with him forever is the hope that keeps us going, no matter what life may throw at us.
