You go before me, you're there beside me
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1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Put your hands up if you remember watching the Disney film Pinnochio?
Today I want to explore this passage using the story of pinocchio as an illustration and exploring similarities and differences with us.
So firstly
That was God’s plan all along.
But he knew what we would do, and still felt we were worth all the pain, and the suffering we would cause him.
In the story of Pinocchio, Gepetto the toy maker has plans and purposes for his puppet. He longs for a child who he can love and be loved by
And for us, course we were chosen before the creation of the world to be children of God.
That was God’s plan all along.
But he knew what we would do, He knew we would turn away, and yet, He still felt we were worth all the pain, and the suffering that we would cause him.
Now Pinocchio starts off as a piece of wood which is paintstakingly carved into the form which his creator, his Father desired - just as you and I were held in the mind of God the Father, before our earthly conception. He already knew how he wanted to create us, but we didn’t have life.
And then, we were given life. But due to the rejection of God by the first humans, sin has entered the world. And in fact, it’s entered us as humans.
There’s a Christian doctrine, which means a teaching, of something called original sin. It wasn’t created as part of our human charachter by God, but came about when Adam and Eve rejected God, they failed to trust him, and had to leave his presence because of their sin.
Most parents notice the first sign of disobedience in their children at about 9 months. When the glint in the childs eye is seen for the first time, as they say NO! to the request of their parents.
“Don’t throw that toy” - then the child gives that little rebelious look, sometimes with a cheeky smile, and they throw the toy. They disobey their parent.
But that disopbedience was not part of God’s design for us, however it is something which is now a part of humanity.
As humans, sin has distorted the original design for us, and we can’t deny that we have a tendency to give into temptation and to sin.
So we don’t live as real humans, if sin was never part of God’s design for us. We live with sin as our master, the thing that drives us to do what we know isn’t right.
Paul says “You were dead in your transgressions and sins”, all the wrong stuff we do, all the disobedient desires we follow through on.
We were dead in our transgressions and sins.
This means spiritually dead. Unable to have life in all its fullness.
And who are we following?
Paul says
“You were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Eph 2.3
When we followed the world around us and particularly the ‘ruler of the kingdom of the air’ - to which he means the devil. Each of us is tempted daily in the same way Satan the snake tempted Adam and Eve
[Remember Honest John and Giddy - roll the clip]
Paul’s point is that we were dead to sin and controlled by it to continue sining. Our identity was purely as sinners
{Remember this from a few weeks ago.
Our society lures us in to believeing our identity is defined by the actions we do that flow from our feelings
Feelings are king and from them flow our actions which define our identity
By this method, I feel like sinning, I act out of that and sin, and therefore I am a sinner. By definiton, a sinner sins and the nasty cycle goes on and on}
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
What is Wrath?
Paul tells us in
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
The Wrath of God, the anger of God, is displayed in him handing us over to the consequences of our sin. When we mess up and don’t repent, don’t say sorry to God, he hands us over to the consequences of our sin.
Remember Pinocchio?
The consequences of his sin was starting to turn into a donkey.
But there’s a truth here about sin. If we were created to live with God, to live with Him and to take our direction from Him, and yet we live a life away from Him, sin disfigures us. It disfigures our nature.
That’s why in the baptism service I pray
“May almighty God, deliver you from the powers of darkness, restore in you the image of his glory, and lead you into obedience of Christ.”
Because sin has mutated, warped and distorted the person we were created to be.
Now that sounds rather dim and dismal.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
Eph
This is the good news
We were made alive in Christ
Let’s see how Pinocchio turned out...
We no longer have to live a partly human life. Yes, we’re not perfect this side of eternity, but our status as full children of God is restored. And he has raised us with Him in the heavenly realms - something we explored last week. Don’t forget the authority and power that is in us through the Holy Spirit.
Instead of going the wrong way we are now following God’s way.
And can we earn this life? Can we earn his love?
No - it is by the grace of God that we were saved, we cannot earn His love which he has freely given us.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
For we are his handiwork, created
He made us, He loves us, He saved us, He lavishes us with grace, and He calls us to follow His way, to follow faithfully through praying, reading and learning about Him. And then Telling, Serving, Giving to whoever he asks us to.
He goes before me, he’s there beside me
Using Pinocchio as an idea
Dead in our transgressions and sins
Imagine
Jesus around us
St Patrick’s breastplate?