Death To Life

Dead In Sins and Trespasses

Sin

The Greek word Paul uses for sin is hamartia. It means to miss. So as we understand sin, it simply means to miss the target that God has set for us in any phase of life. We often see sin as a violation of any of the 10 Commandments. We are right to understand that the violation of any of the commandments is sin, but sin is much broader than the act of violating the 10 commandments. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about through a series of questions?

Are you a perfect son or daughter to your parents?

Are you a perfect spouse to your husband or wife?

Are you a perfect parent?

Are you the perfect employee or business owner?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no” then you have missed the target that God demands.

Why does God demand perfection? Because anything less is not what he would desire for us! He loves us that much! He does not settle for mediocrity.

Trespass

The Greek word Paul uses for trespass is paraptoma. It means to slip or fall. More broadly it means to miss your intended destination. To take the wrong road. To go one direction when we should have gone another. Trespass affects us all. Let me ask some other questions that can help you understand trespasses.

Are you where you should be physically?

Are you where you should be mentally?

Are you where you should be spiritually?

4. Could you have done things differently in the past that could have helped you be where you should be?

Trespassing is taking a wrong road in your life that prohibited you from being where you should be!

Sin Kills

When we sin it kills in three ways: it kills our innocence, ideals and will.

Sin kills our innocence

When we sin, we are never the same afterwards. I remember in a counseling class that I took in seminary they taught us that everything that we do is captured in our mind and does not leave. It may not be in the forefront of our mind but it is there. When we sin there is guilt that is associated with that sin. Over time we can suppress the guilt to a point that we no longer feel bad about the sin.

It is kind of like getting a stain on your clothing. You can put stain remover on it and wash it, but you can never really remove the stain. It is there, just a little less visible. This is the way sin works on our innocent soul. The guilt serves as a film on our soul that takes away its purity. Much the way a virgin when she loses her virginity, she cannot get it back. It kills the innocence.

Sin kills our ideals

This is when we know something is wrong and hate it. The next phase is we are tempted to do the very thing we hate but feel bad and uneasy when we do it. The third phase is when we do the thing that we know to be wrong and don’t care. This is a terrible place to be. It is in form a suicide to the soul!

It is like a parent that refuses to discipline a child. If a child does something wrong and mom or dad don’t correct it, the child will continue to do it without any reservation. As that child grows up without any discipline, when they are an adult they will be a menace to society.

Sin kills the will.

The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians Death in Life (Ephesians 2:1–3 Contd)

At first, people engage in some forbidden pleasure because they want to; in the end, they engage in it because they cannot help it. Once a thing becomes a habit, it is not far from being a necessity. When someone has allowed some habit, some indulgence, some forbidden practice to take control, that person becomes its slave. As the old saying has it, ‘Sow an act and reap a habit; sow a habit and reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny.’

There is a certain murderous power in sin. It kills innocence; sin may be forgiven, but its effect remains. As the early Christian theologian Origen had it, ‘The scars remain.’ Sin kills ideals; people begin to do without a qualm the thing which once they regarded with horror. Sin kills the will; it takes such a hold that people cannot break free.

Evidence Of Death

There are 6 evidence that Paul mentions of people living in death:

Living in a way of the world of the present age.

Living a live under the control of Satan.

Living a life of disobedience.

Living a life controlled by desire.

Living a life of our own design. (the flesh)

Living a life worthy of God’s wrath.

Present Age

To live a life in this present age is to live a life without forgiveness, love, and service. The world demands revenge for those that offend us. A person that seeks to get even with someone rather than forgive them is living in death. A person that chooses to hate someone because they are different than you is living in death. We should love all people. I am not saying that we should love sin people are living in, but we love the people and hate the sin. A person that has an expectation to be served rather than serve is living in death. This is an entitlement attitude. This is the way of the world.

Control of Satan

This simply means that you are not living for the Lord. A person can only be living for one Lord. If Jesus is not your Lord then Satan is! How do you know? It is by what you do. If you live under the lordship of Satan you will end up at destruction. Which leads to the next point.

13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matt. 7:13-14

Which leads to the next point.

Disobedience

The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians The Marks of the Christless Life (Ephesians 2:1–3 Contd)

It is a life characterized by disobedience. God has many ways of revealing his will to men and women. He does so by conscience, the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking within us; he does so by giving to us the wisdom and the commandments of his book; he does so through the advice of good and godly individuals. But those who live Christless lives take their own way of things, even when they know what God’s way is.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3

Desire

This means to live for the wrong and forbidden. It is similar to the Epicurean people Paul addressed at Athens. This is a life lived by unquenchable desire. You do what you want to do, but are never content. This is why many rich and famous people are never truly satisfied in life. An unsatisfied life is a life of death.

Flesh

Living for the flesh is similar to desire because you seek to gratify only that which is desirable to the flesh. Galatians gives us a list of the flesh:

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal. 5:19-21

Wrath of God

The wrath of God remains on a person that is dead in their sins and trespasses. This is because the only thing that can satisfy the wrath of God is eternal death in the lake of fire.

So what are we to do since sin produces death in all of us?

God Gives Eternal Life Through Jesus Christ

1. God raised us up in Christ. Just as he raised Jesus from the dead, so He quickens our dead soul to life!

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become [b]united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [c]in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old [d]self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be [e]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for the one who has died is [f]freed from sin. Rom. 6:4-7

2. We are saved by grace! It is only by the grace of God that we are forgiven of our sins through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we repent of our sins and make Jesus Lord of our lives we are saved. We cannot save ourselves through good works. We must place our faith in the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

9 [f]that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, [g]resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, [h]resulting in salvation. 11  Rom 10:9-10

3. We walk in good works. God has delivered us from the authority of Satan and placed us under the authority of Christ. When we walk in Him we walk in good works and produce eternal fruit.

5 I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him [f]bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so [g]prove to be My disciples. John 15:5-8