Dead in Sin, Alive in Christ

Ephesians 2:1-10

Dead in sin, Alive in Christ

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Pastoral Prayer

Oh Sovereign and Almighty Lord, we come to you this morning, asking that your power and your glory be advanced. May it be advanced as our sister church gathers this morning in Wamac Missionary Baptist Church. May it advance through the proclamation of your word there today, that the saints there might be built up and equipped to do the ministry in which you have both called them to and given them. Almighty God, we too pray that your power and your glory would advance to the ends of the earth. We pray this morning for the nation of India, a nation with barely over 2% of the 1,428,627,663 people there who profess to be born again Christians. We pray for these believers, we pray for the local churches in India that they would stand firm on the truth of the gospel and be laboring to strengthen one another in their gatherings. But LORD, we also plead with you for those countless souls who are perishing daily without having ever heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. We pray father for more laborers to be raised up and called out to go and take the hope of the gospel to those in India. O Sovereign LORD, we too want to take time this morning and pray for the Persion people group in Kazakhstan. A people with only 0.2% evangelical, meaning that most of this people group in Kazakhstan has not heard and believed the gospel. LORD, will you not open their blind eyes to see, will you not penetrate through the stubbornness of their hearts and draw them near to yourself, to believe in your beloved Son, Jesus. LORD, for the sake of your glory, we ask that you will do this mighty work. And LORD, we too pray this morning as we now turn our attention to your word. We pray LORD for you to give us ears to hear and eyes to see the truth of your word. That we would draw near to you in love and worship for what you have done for us in Christ Jesus.

Introduction

If you follow the news at all, it is easy to think the world has gone mad. That people have lost their marbles, and that the world is getting darker and darker. Some even in our midst like to talk about how things were so much better in the good old days. How there were better morals, how the world didn’t look as it does now. We think that the answer then is to turn to a simpler time, to recover lost values and all will be right in the world again. But friends, that is a simple thinking that fails to see the world rightly. It is a thinking that misses to see the powers at work in this world. To rightly understand the world around us, we need a right and Biblical worldview. A worldview is simply how we see the world and understand the world to function.

Therefore a Biblical Worldview helps us to understand the world in which we live in from a Biblical perspective. It helps us to understand first and foremost that all that we see, and the world in which we live is created and designed by God and accountable to God. But the other part of that Biblical Worldview is to understand that though in its creation, all was good and right, that the world and all that is in it has fallen. It has fallen under the curse of sin. Therefore all around us has been affected, including us as mankind. Therefore, we need to see just how far we have fallen in sin and its effects, and then why the hope of the gospel is truly so awe striking in light of that. And I think as we turn to Ephesians 2:1-10 this morning we will be helped to both understand the world in which we live, the state of fallen man, and the beauty of God’s grace and mercy in which he has saved us with.

As we have seen over the last two weeks, the book of Ephesians is a letter written to the Church of Ephesus from the Apostle Paul. And so far, Paul has emphasized the rich blessings that God has poured out on those who have been united to Jesus in faith. With this emphasis on the blessings God has poured out on those who are in Christ, Paul wants to emphasize with clarity the power of God and the power given to his beloved son Jesus, the same power that is now at work in us who believe in Jesus. And it is to this point we pick back up this morning as we turn to Ephesians 2, verses 1-10.

Main Idea: Christian, though our trespasses and sins had left us alienated from God and dead in sin, God in his rich mercy has made us alive in Christ.

We are going to unfold this in 3 points: (1) The death which held us, (2) The grace which saved us, and (3) The grace which transforms us.

The death which held us

Verses 1-3….

Dead in the trespasses and sins you walked

We are first reminded that we were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked. In saying that we were dead, Paul does not mean a physical death, but a spiritual one. A death in which we were cut off and alienated from God. For though all that God created was good in its creation, when Adam fell in the garden, we too fell as we were in Adam. For does Paul not elsewhere rightly speak of us when he writes in Romans 5:17 that death reigned from the one man Adam?

All of mankind, including us sitting here this morning, were conceived and born in sin. That is the reality of the world in which we entered. Our natural state is a state of sin. A mind corrupted by sin, a body filled with sin. And therefore by nature, we are those born dead in our trespasses and sins. It is our natural habit to walk in these sins and trespasses.

To walk describes the regular pattern of daily living. The daily commitment of trespasses against our God and the committing of sin. The undermining of him as king, as ruler. The turning to idols and making them our god. The lying and stealing we committed. Acts of failing to love one another in committing acts of sexual immorality, murder, coveting what was our neighbors, dishonoring our mother and father. And many more. These are the ways that we once walked, hinting at the truth that we no longer do as those united to Jesus by faith. But we must hold this hope for a moment and further consider the ways in which we walked as we were under the powers of this world and were walking under them.

In his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer helps us here as he writes, “The moral qualities which belonged to the divine image were lost at the Fall; God’s image in man has been universally defaced, for all of humankind has in one way or another lapsed into ungodliness.”

These are the paths in which we previously walked. Let’s now consider what it is we followed in these paths.

Following the course

Verse 2….

We see here the first two powers in which we once walked under. The power of the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

First, we walked and followed the course of this world. In Paul stating that while dead in our sins and trespasses that we were walking the course of this world, he is referring here to the fact that we followed the ways of society without God. We lived under the world’s system of law and rule. We walked under the social system of the world. We walked following the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in this world, seeking the treasures of this world. Treasures that will corrupt and then soon fade away. These are the ways of the world in which we followed after.

The second power we see in verse 2 that we walked, following after is that of the prince of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. That is to say, we were walking following after the power of Satan. Now, the argument that rises up in many hearts, maybe even of some here this morning, we have never followed Satan, even before we were Christian. Here is the thing though, we are either a servant of God, submitting and following his ways, or we are a servant of Satan, submitting and following his ways. There is no indifference or any middle ground. This is not something that we can simply be on the fence or on the sideline with.

We either walk as sons of obedience with God as our King or we walk as sons of disobedience, throwing off God’s rule and reign. And by following the course of this world, we were following the path of disobedience, the ways of the power of Satan.

The passions of the flesh

Now, the third power in which we were walking in and following is found in verse 3…..

We previously walked in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. What are the passions of the flesh? Well does not Paul give us a full list from Galatians 5:19-21? Are the works of the flesh not evident as Paul states there? The works of sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the things like these? The things that oppose the kingdom of God? Are these not descriptions of all of us in our natural birth as we entered this world? While we may not each have been given to all of these in their fullness, we certainly were given to many of these in some shape and form, walking in them, following them. We idolized wealth, so we did whatever necessary to acquire wealth. We envied what others had, so we lied and cheated to get what they had. We disagreed with others and therefore strife and fits of anger and rivalries and disessions and divisions entered in.

These three are the powers in which we all have previously walked in and followed, Christian. This was our former state, this is what we have been saved from. And those apart from Christ are still walking in these ways and following these powers. They are still dead in their sins and trespasses. So, friend, if you are there this morning as one who has yet to believe in Jesus, examine your state as one who remains dead in your sins and trespasses. Consider the path in which you are currently walking. Awaken from your deathly slumber, especially as we turn to our second point this morning. As we consider the powerful words of, ‘but God.’

The grace which saved us

Made alive with Christ

We were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked, but God. We were following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, but God. We were following the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, but God. We were children of wrath, but God.

Despite our trespasses and sins, despite our disobedience, despite being children of wrath, despite us being under the power of Satan, God’s mercy was made known to us in Jesus. Verses 4-6….

But God, two glorious words that bring us from despair at what we once were to hope. Because of God’s love for us, out of the riches of his mercy, he brought us in Christ from death to life. Salvation comes to us in Jesus. And it came when we were dead in our trespasses. It came when we were unlovely. It was by God’s grace. It is by God’s grace we are saved. It is by God’s grace that we are made alive together with Christ. Grace is an unmerited gift given. By God’s grace, by his rich mercy that he has lavished on us, he has saved us in Christ.

How? For in the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the grave, he used to raise us from our own death in our sins and trespasses. As Jesus was made alive, we too have been made alive in our union with him. A union established by faith. But not only has the Father made alive those who are united to Jesus by faith, he has raised us up with Jesus and seated us with him in the heavenly places.

Certainly Paul does not mean here in verse 6 that those who are in Christ are no longer here in the world. No, what he means is that by God the Father raising us with Christ, in his great power, he has already given us the blessings of dwelling with Christ and ruling with him. That is if we are a Christian, united to Jesus by faith, we are no longer under the rule of the Prince of air, we stand with Christ over the prince of air, over the course of this world, over the passions of our flesh. We are made new with Jesus in this.

John Stott in his commentary writes, “For if we are seated with Christ in the heavens, there can be no doubt what we are sinning on: thrones! Moreover, this talk about solidarity with Christ in his resurrection and exaltation is not a piece of meaningless Christian mysticism. It bears witness to a living experience that Christ has given us on the one hand a new life (with sensitive awareness of the reality of God, and a love for him and for his people) and, on the other, a new victory (with evil increasingly under our feet). We were dead, but have been made spiritually alive and alert. We were in captivity, but have been enthroned.”

What transformation comes as God’s love and mercy and grace are made known to us in Christ. The death and resurrection of Jesus does not just simply atone for our sins and transgressions in wiping them away. Indeed it does do that. But even more so, the good news of the gospel here that Paul is emphasizing with great clarity is that the gospel transforms us. It makes us new people who are alive and reigning with Christ.

For the purpose of displaying God’s mercy

And the purpose of this display of power to make us alive is to draw out the immeasurable riches of God’s love for us in Christ. Verse 7…

At the front and center of who God is and his mighty acts are rooted in making his glory known. The glory of his character, including that of his rich mercy. And at the center of this rich mercy to us, is the gift of Jesus.

Jesus was given to us as the one who came to fulfill the law. He was given as the spotless lamb who was without sin. He was given to us as the sacrificial lamb slaughtered on the altar, that is on the cross, that God’s wrath against our sin could be satisfied. It is in Jesus we see God’s immeasurable riches toward us. And it is to leave us for all ages to simply marvel. To marvel at how immeasurable these riches of mercy are towards us in Christ.

Consider who we were as those dead in our sins and trespasses walking under the course of the world, under the power of the air, following the desires of our own evil hearts and to what God has now made us alive in Christ! Brothers and sisters, this rich mercy given to us should cause us to be in complete awe of God to the end of the ages.

We who have been saved by the blood of Christ and the grace of God should never ever stop marveling and worshiping our God for his rich gift to us. Because the richness of his mercy never ceases to amaze.

The grace which transforms us

And that brings us to our third and final point this morning, the grace which transforms. Paul has already written back up in verse 5, by grace you have been saved. But now he returns once more to this theme. Verses 8-9….

It is emphasized here again that our salvation is an act of God by his grace, and that it is received through faith. But Paul here now doubles down that we must understand that we have no boasting in our salvation. It is not a result of works or anything we have done. Therefore we have nothing of ourselves to boast about. Our only boast is Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:7, Let the one who boasts, boast in the LORD.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God’s gift of salvation was not initiated by us, nor was it we who pursued God. Had God not through his rich mercy and his love toward us in Christ and through the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the gospel, we would never have been stirred to hear nor believe in Christ. For we were dead in our sins and trespasses, but God made us alive in Christ. God through his Spirit awakened us to hear and to believe, to trust, to place our faith in Jesus. Therefore we have no room to boast. We cannot tell the world to look at us for making the right decision. Look at us for choosing the better portion. Our only boast is to say look at the immeasurable riches of our God that he has poured out on us in Christ. Look at God’s grace that he has lavished on us.

Salvation comes to us by grace, which again is an unmerited, an undeserved gift. A gift that we certainly did not deserve. A gift that we could not have ever labored to achieve. Friend, if you are here and wrestling with the thought that you need to get yourself cleaned up and become a better person, stop. Stop trying to think that you can clean yourself up. Stop thinking that you can ever earn God’s favor and work your way to him. Just stop. What you need to do is not try and work your way to God, you need to see you are dead in your sins and trespasses, but God has made a way for you to be made alive in Christ. Turn from your sin and believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. That he is your only hope in life and death. That Jesus is the one who took away your sins on the cross and has now been raised from the dead. Believe that the same power that raised Jesus is now at work calling you to rise and live if you will believe in Jesus alone for salvation. This is the way. This is the grace that has been extended already to us who are Christians and even now being extended to you, friend. Will you come, will you believe today? I’ll be up front here after and I’d love to talk with you more about that too.

Because salvation is by grace, and not of our own doing, we then must not boast in anything but Christ. And this means that we need to be humble people who see that we are being remade in Christ. That we are being created in Christ for good works. Verse 10….

As we have been made alive in Christ we are not being made alive to walk as we once were. We are not made alive so that we can continue following the course of this world, following what is common to man, what is of popular belief, of what is worldly and will soon perish. We are no longer to follow the prince of the air and the spirit of disobedience to the things of God. We are no longer to be following after the desires of our own flesh and heart. No, we are to be re-created in Christ Jesus for good works. For works that were previously prepared beforehand for us to walk in.

What are these good works that we are being created in and to walk in? The works of the Spirit. Starting as we will see next week in Ephesians 2:11-22 by walking with one another as one body in Christ, a people being joined together because of our mutual faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ. A people being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit as noted there in Ephesians 2:22.

The good works of being a people rooted and grounded in love as noted in Ephesians 3:17. A people who work to build up the body of Christ, working to maintain the unity of the faith as seen in Ephesians 4:12-13. The good works of living a new life in Christ, not walking in darkness, but in the light as noted in the second half of Ephesians 4 and into chapter 5.

It is these good works that God has saved us by his grace to now do as a result of our being made alive in Christ. Salvation is never by works, but our works are always evidence of our salvation in Christ. For in these new works, the fullness of God’s mercy and grace are put on full display. For these good works are what Moses wrote back in the Torah in Deuteronomy 30:14. It says, But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

By God making us alive in Christ, he has created us to be new and to carry out his words in our actions and our deeds by the might of his great power and the riches of his mercy towards us. Praise be to God from on whom all blessings flow!

Let’s pray…