God's Plan for unity

So far Paul has revealed to us God’s eternal plan to choose believers as those who are called as sons and daughters of god’s family through redemption in Jesus and in being sealed by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. Then Paul prayed that believers would come to know God intimately and personally and that their eyes would be opened to the hope of their calling in Jesus, the inheritance they received, and the extraordinary power towards those who believed. This power that is now available to us was proven in Jesus when He rose from the dead, when God put Him over all spiritual and earthly powers, and when Jesus created and sustained the church through His power.

Now Paul is going to show us how us sinners who deserved nothing but God’s wrath now are able to receive all of these blessings. We move from how God’s blessings are given to those who believe to now talking about how God’s power came to those who had not believed.

We are moving backwards in time. “How did those who had rejected God originally come to accept this gift that He offers?”

And the answer given, the main point, is that Sinners who believe in Jesus have been saved by grace, raised up with Him, and will be seated with Him in heaven.

Sin made us dead

We were enslaved to sin

Paul just got finished telling us of the power that is revealed through Jesus. But now Paul discusses our previous condition before Jesus. That we were “dead in our trespasses and sins”. This is not a physical death (although this also comes) but a spiritual death.

So what does it means that we were dead? It means that we had no communication with the living God. That our connection with God had been separated from us and that meant that instead we were beholden to the power of sin and everything that comes with it.

What we were dead in specifically was our transgressions and sins. A trespass is a false step, crossing over a boundary that we know we shouldn’t cross, or choosing a path we no is dangerous. Sin comes from a word that means missing the mark, or falling short of a standard. They deal with two issues, our active and passive sins. Doing the things we know we shouldn’t and not doing the things we know we should. This is not just an accidental thing, but a willful act against God.

But how did we get there? Well it was “the ruler of the power of the air”, who is that? Satan. Satan rules the world and those who are disobedient to God. If we look at the world we see the effects of sin and of Satan. We see those who are in poverty who go hungry and don’t have what they need to provide for themselves. We see racism, divisions between political parties, divorce, violence, lying, sexual perversion. We could go on, all of these are because humans have become enslaved to sin.

This is a universal human condition, all people have been ruled by sin.

Paul offers three ways that we are enslaved to sin.

The course of this world

It says that we “walked” in these things. This is a word that means we had a lifestyle, like a pleasant stroll or leisurely walk. Essentially saying that in our trespasses and sins we walked around like we lived a life of enjoyment and freedom, like there were no problems with the way our life was going. It’s the facade we put on, like our lives are so great, the social media profile that shows all the fun things we are doing, people who do the wrong things and tell you how much fun it is but don’t tell you about the regret, or the pain, or the anxiety that has come with their choices. That is what sin wants us to think, is that there are no strings attached to our sin.

That is why these are called “the ways of this world”. It’s the world of secularism, where we make our own rules, where the only person our choices affect is ourselves. Where if God, or my parents, or my teacher, tells me I can’t do something than they are oppressing me. We don’t want to be “held captive” to the ways of God. But instead we choose captivity to the devil and His ways.

The ways of the devil

We want to think to choose a way different than God’s and the Bible is to choose freedom over the bondage, but all we are doing is putting ourselves under the slavery of another. “The prince of the power of the air.”

-He is called this because the devil has power of governments and rulers, over billionaires and criminals. The world is under his authority. Sometimes we want to believe that we live in a world of “good” people. That all people have our best interest at heart. That is why we want to trust the people of this world. But that is how deceptive the devil is, is that he makes us believe that his way is the right way. It isn’t because of peoples lack of desire to do good, but because of how easy it is be blinded by evil.

The passions of the flesh

Beyond just the pressures of this world, we also have to battle the desires of our body and mind. We have many good desire that our body has. It tells us when we need to eat, when we need something to drink, when we need sleep. And it is enjoyable when we receive these things that we need. But all desires need to be in the proper order. Food can harm us if we eat many bad foods or too much of a good food, we need to quench our thirst but some drinks (like soda) will negatively affect our health if drank in excess (or even consistently). We can receive too much sleep or we can let sluggishness lead us to now take care of the things we have been ignoring. Everything has to be in its proper order or else it becomes a perversion of what it was supposed to be. Sex is also good within God’s design, it is a good desire to have. But just like all those other things, outside of its design it actually harms us. Physically, mentally, and in our relationship to God.

But it isn’t just bodily passions but desires of the mind. Ambition, pride, rejection of the truth, vengeful thoughts.

Our thoughts were also twisted. This means that the logic that we believed and trusted was a faulty one. That our beliefs about the world had been corrupted by sin. We may have felt like we had a clear picture of the world, that it all made sense, but in fact we were still confused. Have you ever had sunglasses on for a long period of time, and then forgot you had them on so when you took them off everything was way brighter than you thought it was. That is what sin can be, sunglasses to the light of God and His word.

This all made us children of disobedience

This means that the work of darkness was actively controlling and working in us. It held us captive. But we are there only because we chose to reject God’s authority and do things our own way in the ways of the world and of the ruler of the world.

This “spirit” that is working to disobedience is our own spirit. And our disobedience isn’t just disobeying god’s law but rejecting the salvation that is offered to us, this is what leads to death. It isn’t our walking in sin that leads to God rejecting us but it is how it is connected to our rejection of God. That we are deciding that we don’t need Him and our way is best.

Paul calls those he is writing to these “children of disobedience” and that we all have lived in this. Much like saying “at one time I was a child who did childish and stupid things”. What He is identifying that we have to leave that behind just like all of us need to leave childishness behind at some point so that we may grow as a person. You can’t find funny the same things as an adult that you once did as a kid.

So where did this leave us?

We were condemned to God’s wrath

So where sin left us was dead to God. If we were to sum up what eternal life is, it is eternal fellowship with the living God. Therefore spiritual death is our separation from Him. In God are all things good, while in sin and death are all sources of pain and suffering.

Now, one of the tricks of Satan is to make us believe that we are alive when we are really dead. To give us lots of amazing things on earth. People who are great athletes and make lots of money, geniuses who everyone listens two, celebrities who everyone looks up to. They seem like they have “life”, but many times they are very much dead. Why? Because they have ignored the true source of their wealth, knowledge, and fame. They are unwilling to give their glory to the one who deserves glory. No desire to give up anything to the one who gave them everything. Therefore they deserve death, the wrath of God. We do the same thing in our lives.

What does it mean that God has wrath though? Well, it isn’t like a bad temper that a parent might have, or anger that leads to lashing out. It isn’t revenge, it isn’t spite, it isn’t unnecessary or undeserved. It isn’t impersonal either, any more than God’s salvation and love toward us could be impersonal.

John Stott says it is “God’s personal, righteous, constant hostility to evil, his settled refusal to compromise with it, and his resolve instead to condemn it.”

Isaiah 45:20–25 ““Come, gather together, and approach, you fugitives of the nations. Those who carry their wooden idols and pray to a god who cannot save have no knowledge. Speak up and present your case— yes, let them consult each other. Who predicted this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the Lord? There is no other God but me, a righteous God and Savior; there is no one except me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; truth has gone from my mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow to me, every tongue will swear allegiance. It will be said about me, ‘Righteousness and strength are found only in the Lord.’ ” All who are enraged against him will come to him and be put to shame. All the descendants of Israel will be justified and boast in the Lord.”

When make think we have a case against God, that His wrath is undeserved, that He is being unfair towards us. But when we stand before Him we recognize we are put to shame. In fact, we desire God’s wrath against sin because we innately want justice…just not against ourselves. We always think we are the exception to the rule.

We are children of wrath because we have sinned and on our own we would never do good.

Romans 8:5–7 CSB

For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so.

We know that God’s wrath isn’t separated from God’s love because of the connecting verse, “BUT God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great that He had for us.”

We are saved by grace through faith

We are saved from our sin and given eternal life

What Paul identifies is that sin had corrupted us, that had left us ignorant and blinded from the truth. We couldn’t please God, we couldn’t be in relationship with Him because of this corruption.

Then we have these two words that change everything BUT GOD. These are two of the most beautiful words in the whole Bible. God acted in order to reverse our previous state. God saved us and is saving us. Notice that we ARE saved. We just weren’t saved in the past, God continues to save us. Why did God save us?

1. God’s mercy

2. God’s love

3. God’s grace

4. God’s kindness

It also says that His salvation reveals “the immeasurable riches of His grace”, it shows us just how great His love for us is and how far He is willing to go to bring us salvation. What is salvation?

Salvation is deliverance from death, erasing of our debt, removal of wrath, and victory over evil.

And that when people look at us who are believers that we will reveal to others God’s grace through our lives.

Colossians 2:13–14 “And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.”

Two important points about salvation

A gift

By faith

We were dead, we had nothing to give, what we received had nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. It isn’t an achievement, it isn’t a reward for doing good, it isn’t something we can boast in earning. In fact, it is a gift so that we CAN’T boast. So that all our of boasting goes to God.

to be saved BY faith means it isn’t BECAUSE OF our faith we are saved but THROUGH faith. It is our response to what God has done for us. It is that we trust God has saved us and since He has saved us we can live for Him. Rather than having to prove in some way that we have faith. Again, it is because we are not supposed to boast in our faith. It is God we boast in.

We are given eternal life

We are raised with Jesus. This means that when JEsus rose from the dead, those who believe in Him have that same Spirit in them that rose Jesus from the dead. That we will have a future glory with Jesus where God dwells eternally. This means when God has victory over all evil forces that we will be on the right side of that battle. That we get to enjoy this new kingdom where God makes everything right.

Jesus gives us purpose

What we see throughout what Paul writes is that our salvation, our eternal life, and our heavenly position are all found in Jesus. It is by our union with Jesus that we share in these things. Jesus gives us new life and new victory. We were dead and now we are alive, we were enslaved to sin but now we are seated with Jesus.

But it also calls us His workmanship. That is, God’s creation, something made in His image. We can’t create ourselves, we were created by another, by God. We had “walked” in trespasses and sins and now we “walk” in the image of Jesus. And in walking with Jesus we reveal His glory. That the body of Christ, the church, reveals clearly God’s grace that He has for them.

It means that because of God’s work in our life we have a changed lifestyle, that because we have life rather than death that we change the way we live. Our conduct proves our heart change.

Q: Why is it so significant that we were dead?

Q: Why is it so important that salvation is a gift and not something we can earn?

Q: How is this different than other religions?

Q: What’s the purpose of works if they don’t save us?

Q: Why is it so important that we share this news with others?

PQ: How do you think believing in Jesus has changed your life?

PQ: What does it mean that we are saved by grace through faith?

PQ: What purpose do you think God has for your life right now? What gifts has God given you that you can use for His glory?