Do More Gooder
Saved by Grace • Sermon • Submitted
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Are We Good or Bad?
Are We Good or Bad?
Neither, We Are Dead!
Neither, We Are Dead!
And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
We were dead in our transgressions and sin. That word dead has the idea of a dead corpse. Paul is using it here to make a contrast to a bigger point. What’s that bigger point? It’s revealed in the next verse:
in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience,
Notice that he ties being dead to being dominated. We were dead in such a way that we were dominated by the world, Satan and even ourselves. Take a look at verse 3:
among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest …
If we tie all these pieces together, we get us being dead in such a way that we are dominated by our flesh, the world, and Satan. Paul then therefore is making a point from the end of Ephesians 1: 22-23
And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and he gave him to the church as head over all things.Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Then he begins chapter 2 with And. He’s moving on to another point, but not by disregarding the point he just made. He still to keep in mind that God has subjected all things under Christ’s feet. It’s almost as if Paul is drawing a correlation between that which is subjected under Christ’s feet and us at one point being subjected to these other things. However, God made us alive:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!—and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.
Even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved! I just image that there was a hearty “amen” when these words were read. We were dead, but now we are alive due to God’s mercy. This echoes Titus 3:5
he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Praise the Lord we have been saved. We were dominated by our sins, but we have been made alive in Christ and are therefore obligated to follow Him. Look at the rest of this passage:
For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.
Christ is our head as we saw in chapter 1. We were dead in our sins and dominated by our flesh, the world and Satan, but have been made alive by God’s mercy and grace. We are therefore obligated to live for Him and this is a good thing. Let’s therefore “Do More Gooder” for God and live for Him as His workmanship.