A Voyage Different From Before

Last night we opened by talking about belonging to God and that is important for the Voyage that a disciple of Jesus is on. Over the next four nights we are going to continue to look at the Voyage in terms of how we walk. Each night we will look at a passage from the book of Ephesians that makes mention of the way that we walk.

Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and pray

Just in reading this passage together, I hope you can see a clear division in thought here. Paul addresses the spiritual state of the Gentiles that he was writing to prior to their conversion and then what (or who as we’ll review in a minute) made them alive and makes us alive.

The Voyage of the Dead

Verse 1 begins by reminding us that those he was writing to were indeed saved at the time of receiving the letter but it is helpful for us to see the symptoms that they had while they were dead. We can simply ask the questions, “what makes a person spiritually dead?”

There are symptoms here that are given and I believe that these sorts of things are similar to when paramedics show up to respond to a 911 call. Rather than immediately getting the paddles out to shock someone or administering CPR, paramedics will check a person's pulse or see if they are still breathing. There are ways to determine whether or not a person is alive and in that same way there are ways we can determine whether or not a person is spiritually alive or dead.

They walk in sin. The dead in verse 1 are recognized by their trespasses and sins. That is, the things that separated them from God. There has not always been a separation between God and His human creation but Genesis 3 happened and there is now a gap between mankind and God.

The spiritually dead walk in sins but verse two explains that they follow this prince. The prince of the power of the air is a reference to Satan himself. To do anything that is not obedient to God is to do what it is that Satan would want for us to do. He is adamantly opposed to God’s will and will stop at nothing to attempt, and that word is important, to make sure that it does not happen! So when we sin, we are following Satan whether it is intentional or not. To walk in that sin and continually do so without repentance is following the devil himself.

Living amongst those who are living in sin is also a symptom of being spiritually deceased. There is a group literally called the sons of disobedience, who Satan is working in. In the state of spiritual death, a person will live among these people and often give in to the passions of their flesh. The company that a person keeps is very telling. Hear me when I say that it is important to spend time with people who do not know the Lord, but when their actions of living in their flesh begin to become tempting, that is when distance needs to be maintained. The longer a person tolerates being around sin, the more susceptible we might be to falling into it. This is why Paul is clear about what to do with sin in 2 Timothy 2:22

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

The final symptom of death here is the carrying out of the desires of the body and the mind.

Now, Pauls uses these various ways to describe a person who is dead but at the end of verse three, he says something striking. He says that when they were dead, they were like the rest of mankind. Sinful. Disobedient. Bound for hell. It has been said in this pulpit and in many churches all over, there are two groups of people: those who will die and go to hell, forever away from God or there are those who will spend eternity with Him in heaven. When a person does not live set apart, they are condemned to hell just like the rest of mankind. To put it plainly, there is no difference between the spiritually dead and the world! This outlook is bleak and could leave the reader wondering what the alternative is. The good news is that Paul does not linger.

A Change in Direction

Look with me at verse 4. But. God. The two most important words found together in God’s holy inspired word. It is our human tendency to turn the remainder of this passage into a story about us but the fact is that verses 4-7 are all about God and it just so happens to include us.

What I mean is that the focus could be on us and what we’ve done to earn salivation. I don’t want to shy away from that because the truth is that the gospel is built firmly on God’s ability to make us alive. However, what I do want to focus on instead is God and His nature.

It is in God’s nature to take what was once dead and make it alive. Let me show you how this is His nature.

Verse 4 states that He is rich in mercy. The God that you and I know and serve is a merciful God but so much so that it is overwhelming. Paul doesn’t just say, “because He is merciful.” Instead, he says that He is rich in mercy. His mercy is abundant. It is overflowing.

But that isn’t all of what we know about God from this passage. We also see that His love for His children is great. He doesn’t just have a love for us. He has a great love for us. When we think of the love of God, it is impossible to do so without thinking of John 3:16. The love of God is great, as this verse mentions, but it is so great that He loved all of mankind. And this is the same love so great that He loved us while we were still in our trespasses as verse 5 makes mention of. That is a serious love to still care to pursue those who sin against you. But in our state of separation from Him, He still desires that we would be joined with Him once again.

And this love is also what has made us alive. Because of His great love, we are no longer dead but are alive in Christ and because of Christ. This is huge! Then Paul makes a bit of a pause and recognizes, in one word, what this saving means. It is by grace that we have been saved. The free gift of salvation has been made possible because of God’s mercy, His love, and now His generosity!

We’ve talked about how God’s mercy and love are both important to who He is and also what fueled our salvation. Finally we see that it is in His nature to raise us up. We have to understand this raising up as both in a spiritual and physical nature. We are raised up spiritual as alluded to the idea of the heavenly places with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is constantly making us more and more like Christ Himself. We pray that God would continue to work in us so that we can become more like Him.

The physical nature of this is also important when it comes to an eternal standing. Let’s not forget the physical bodies that we will receive in heaven. To be seated with Jesus in the heavenly places is a physical setting. This is good news.

I hope you can see how God’s making the dead alive is in God’s nature in what we’ve seen so far, but verse 7 reveals one final aspect of God…

He uses us, those who have been saved, to demonstrate His kindness and goodness. The world may not understand how a good God could allow evil and injustice and sickness into the world, but the Christian person is a testament to His kindness. In this kindness, God puts on display the grace that we sing of so often.

The gospel is centered on a kind and loving God whose nature lends itself to saving those who give their lives to Him. But that does not mean that those who fail to submit to Jesus will avoid the hell that we are all deserving of.

The Voyage of the Living

Most certainly God uses us but I want for you to understand just what it is that turns our lives around. We have been saved by grace through faith! The grace that has been given to us is free to us. It costs you nothing to repent and believe. And yet this free gift cost Jesus his whole life. But if it costs us nothing, then what is it that we should do?

Verse 10 says that we should walk in good works. This means that the deeds and things that we do should be noticed. We have to understand that nothing that we can do can earn His salvation, but that salvation makes it necessary to live for the Lord. You don’t go to church so you can go to heaven. You don’t give to the poor or love your neighbor so you can go to heaven. However, you do it because you’ve been given grace and now walk in a different way. Because we are His workmanship, the output of our action out to mimic the way that He works!

Pray.

You might be in a place of thanksgiving this morning and feel the need to kneel before God and thank him for the truths that have been put on display today. Whatever God has laid on your heart, I want to encourage you to take action!