Death to Life

Opening Story

“while we were dead in our tresspasses”

But before that...

Ephesians 2:5

Read the Text

Three points

1. You were dead

This is about you at your worst, not your best. Imagine the worst version of yourself, the self without God. The addict, the junkie, the adulterer, the murderer. That is you. Dead. In your awful. Your sin, your transgressions, your tresspasses. The consistent end for all your moral failings. You were dead. And this isn’t just you who is new to God, or to you who doesn’t know God.

To the saints!!

This is to you, the saint. The church-goer. The faithful tither, the long-time member. It’s to you, who volunteers. It’s to me who preaches, and leads on staff. I was dead. You were dead. We were dead. At our worst.

Get Honest

We are sinners. We always like to think of ourselves in our best form. Dressed up, smelling nice, on a roll where we are doing well with Jesus. But God knows us at our worst. He sees us at our worst. He loves us at our worst. Get honest, be real. Stop trying to hide your sin from God. you were dead. Buried in the box with your worst decisions. They don’t go away. They ripple out into eternity. Waveforms that never met resistence. The bell that can’t be unrung, they ring continually. And they are always there with you.

More than bad deicsions

What’s worse it’s not just bad decisions. It’s a corrupt character. We are ugly on the inside. Jesus clarifies that. It isn’t jsut about the act of taking someone’s life. It’s the very thought or desire that exists that is the true problem. And that is who you are. and that is what you have with you. Dead. In. Your Tresspasses

2. But God

The turn happens with But God

Wait, you say, that’s in verse 4. Verse 5 doesn’t say But God. Actually, it does. It’s in the grammer. Simple sentence, Subject, Verb, Object. What is the verb in verse 5? “Made Alive Together With” That is the verb. We cannot even express it simply in English, there is no single word that translates. In fact, it is a word that only Paul uses and he only uses it twice, we have no other record of this word. Thankfully, it is a compound word and we know the parts. And it translates as Made Alive Togheter with. Crazy cool! But verbs need subjects. Otherwise there is confusion. The subject of this verb is God. God did it. God made this happen.

But God, while we were dead Made us ALive togther with CHrist!

Made you alive together with

Simple. Concise. Literal. Means God did something that made you alive. Gave you life, and he did it togehter with Christ. That is God made you both and Christ alive together. The Father, acted and through the resurrection of Jesus, we were tied up in that with Jesus. We had brought our tresspasses, all of our failures, our wrost selves. That’s what we brought. God brought Jesus, and he made us and Jesus alive together.

Get this, on Easter Sunday we celebrate not just Jesus return from the dead, but in so doing, we celebrate our coming back from the dead as well

Trinitarian passage (sidenote)

Really cool trinitarian passage, btw. Trinity, One being, God, Three person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So God, the being, in the person of the Father, made the fully man part of Christ who was dead alive, and because Christ was also fully God, that same power and in that same act, we as Christians are now brought back to life as well.

3. By Grace

By Grace you have been saved, not by ourselves, Paul’s remidner that this is not about our work, it is about God’s work in us. Grace is a free gift. Grace is something that we do not deserve. Grace is Paul’s shorthand for the good news about Jesus, found in verses like John 3:16 all rolled up into a single word. Grace is what comes from God and gives us new life in Jesus.

Past Tense

Made ALive, Have Been Saved, Seated, Raised, etc. Just a little more grammar, but look at the verb tenses. All past tense, completed action, not ongoing, not present, not to happen someday. This has already happened. It is done, it is finished, there is no more to do. God did it and it is not in any way based upon our actions. There is no conditions, or maybes. This is finished, solid ground. Not a plan waiting to take place in the future, but already enacted on, carried out, and conisdered completed. This is why Jesus could say on the cross, PAid in Full, It is FInished. There was nothing else to do, no more work needed touching up. Done.

Paul is writing this way intentioanlly. This is just setup work. This is the foundation work for what he writes later in Ephesians. This is the background. It is incredible!

Grace

Grace alone. Is what makes this happen. Paul’s interjection here is just a reminder that the Grace of God is what makes this truth appliciable to you and me. How do I know if I am a saint? Grace! How do I become a saint? Grace! How do I live now that I am a saint? Grace!!!

By grace you have been saved. We are no longer dead, we are rasied to life. We can now be the bese version of ourselves.

Implications

1. Do nothing

Listen, hear, trust.

There are comamnds throughout NT, but they are all undergirded by this truth.

You can do nothing, God has already done it, taken care of it

You are IN Christ.

2. Rest Easy

Spiritual anxiety is a condition of the heart that wonders whether or not God is real. It asks whether or not I am really saved. Can a good God really forgive me again for sinning the thousandth time?

Spiritual anixety is caused by a failure to take this truth the heart: By Grace you have been saved.

Take it to heart. Listen to the Word, Trust in the spirit of God.

3. Confess and Believe

This message today was written to the saints. Paul is not talking about perfect holy people, he is talking about Christians. Those who have put their faith in Jesus. He writes in Romans 10:9 confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Two simple steps.

Believe. This is internal. You need to trust in the word of God. Trust the message that you are saved by a free gift of God’s grace. Believe it, make a decision to listen and to trust.

Confess. This is external. This is making that internal decision known and public. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You need to indentify with Jesus and His followers. You need to tell the world that you are going to make Jesus Your boss. Lots of ways to do that, next steps booth, come forward to the altar to pray, meet with Ashley, Shawn or myself this week, tell your friend who brought you, I am sure they would be thrilled. Then get baptized, join a community of faith .