Grace for Dead Men
Ephesians 2:1-10
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved."
(Ephesians 2:4-5)
Dead people don't save themselves or make themselves alive. Other than in the movies, dead people don't get up on their own and start walking around. That is essentially what Paul was saying to the Ephesian believers. He was communicating that before we were raised by God and given new life in Christ, we were spiritually dead in our transgressions.
Even the faith to believe the gospel is a gift from God. It is not something innate to our being. Paul later prays that we will comprehend the depth and breadth of the love of God and be filled with His fullness. This leads him to exclaim, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (3:21).
We were "dead men walking." But we who believe the gospel owe everything to God because our death was swallowed up by His death, making us truly alive.
INSIGHT
"In view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship"
(Romans 12:1)
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Jeremiah 33-34
Psalm 119:65-120
1 Corinthians 12
Ephesians 2:1-10
Made Alive in Christ
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[a] 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.
Footnotes:
a. Ephesians 2:3 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit
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