Living In The Past

When I was a kid we....

This is usually the start of a great oratory on the misguided youth of today, the sorry political environment, the lack of commitment in people or a number of other things.

I have often heard people talk about living in the past. Really they mean that we spend too much time looking backward. Often in counseling I am helping people begin to stop focusing on the past. I try to help them move past the mistakes they may have made in relationships or life.

There really are two viewpoints at play in most people’s lives.

One believes that our best days are behind us.

The other believes that the best days are yet to come.

Age plays a huge part in this. So does our belief in the eternal or final days.

Eternal day minded people know that there is much beyond our current life here on earth. Therefore, the best days are ahead.

Final day minded people tend to think the time they have left is limited not just here but everywhere.

Paul tries in these verse to help us be more eternal minded and less final minded.

Ephesians 2:1–13 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— 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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Paul here has a slightly different approach to helping the Ephesians

“Move Past the Past"

He does so by pointing out some aspects we would also do well to remember.

It is kind of an ironic statement.

“Living In The Past”

Well, Sick

Mainly because we were actually

or Dead

“Dying In The Past”

The Ephesians we dead in at least three ways.

Physically dead.

When Adam and Eve rejected God’s kindness and spurned his authority (Gen. 3), one result was physical, bodily death. Of course, that death was not immediate. But our first parents, by their “trespasses and sins,” brought a curse upon the world whereby physical death became inevitable. Eventually, their bodies did die. So will ours. Because humans sin, humans die, physically.

Eternally dead.

Our sin not only necessitates that we die physically, but it also makes us “children of wrath” (v. 3) who deserve God’s punishment in hell forever. Because of our “trespasses and sins,” our deserved fate is eternal death in the lake of fire. By calling hell eternal death, we do not mean that those who go there will be snuffed out eternally and will cease to exist. Rather, by eternal death we mean, as the Bible teaches, that the inhabitants of hell will, in the lake of fire, experience the process and agony of death forever, without ever having the release of actually finishing the process. That is what Paul has in mind when he speaks of our being “dead” in “trespasses and sins.” We deserve to experience death eternally.

Spiritually dead.

Because of our “trespasses and sins,” and before God’s intervention on our behalf, we were spiritually dead—dead to a relationship with God; dead to godly desires; and dead to any ability to please God. That is not to say that our souls (or spirits) were devoid of all activity whatsoever. Even unconverted men and women think, feel, reason, and so on. But when it comes to thinking, feeling, and reasoning rightly about God, we are utterly incapacitated apart from Christ. This deadness is demonstrated by the fact that even our faith must be given as “the gift of God” (v. 8), and by the reality that any good works we perform are actually the product of God’s “workmanship” in our souls (v. 10). Apart from his working, in other words, we would be unable to serve God or even to believe on his name! That is what it means to be spiritually dead. We were so willingly entrenched in “the lusts of our flesh” that we could not make ourselves alive to God, or even come to him in our own power. This fact is vitally important to notice, and will be the driving logic behind much of the rest of this passage. In our sins, we were not merely sick, but spiritually dead. Therefore, the necessary remedy was not simply that we be patched up a bit spiritually. What we needed, actually, was for God to create new and holy life within our souls (v. 5). Until he did so, we were entirely incapable of loving him, walking with him, serving him, or even coming to him in faith. Apart from Christ, we were spiritually dead.[1]

[1] Kurt Strassner, Opening up Ephesians, Opening up Commentary (Leominster: Day One, 2014), 42–44.

We suffer that same deadness. Our past was only leading to death.

“But God” Last Week “But now in Christ Jesus” this week.

God makes us alive V.5

Christ Jesus brought us near V.13

I want you to see something interesting.

We use phrases like

Used to be

Was

Back when

These harken back to a better, more simple time. Sometimes we even mean them as a time when I myself was better.

I remember telling my doctor that I “used to” be able to stay up all night and work all day. He told me, “yeah, well those days are not coming back Jason. You are not 20 anymore”.

These are all past tense terms. We could stay there, in the past, because those days are not coming back.

Past tense is not always bad news though. Listen to these words from our verses today.

You were

Once lived

Were by nature

Both past tense about who you were, not who you are.

Then we see some of God’s past tense

Loved us

were dead

made us alive

saved

raised

seated

saved

created

prepared

Then we go back to our past

Gentiles in the flesh

separated from Christ

alienated

stangers

having no hope

without God

were far off

Depressing huh?

No back to God’s past tense

brought near by the blood of Christ

Go back to chapter 1 and you see even more

Blessed us in Christ

Chose us in Him

Predestined us for adoption

Redemption through his blood

forgiveness of our trespasses

His grace lavished upon us

Past tense is not necessarily bad for me. or for you.

The past tense that is bad for me is the one absent of God.

My past tense secures my condemnation

God’s past tense secures me a future.

It gives me hope.

What He has done, He will do, largely because it was already accomplished in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:9 ESV

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Colossians 1:19–20 ESV

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

God’s past lets me live in the future.

Who’s past are you trusting?