Introduction
Before I went on holiday we spent three Sundays studying Ephesians 1 which begins with Paul praising the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And Paul went on to mention some of those spiritual blessings which God the Father has poured out upon us in Christ Jesus. So, he chose us in Christ Jesus to be holy and blameless in his sight. And he predestined us for adoption through Christ so that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is now our Father too. And God has redeemed us. That is to say, he has delivered us through Christ from the penalty we deserve for all that we have done wrong. And he’s revealed to us the mystery of his will which is to bring all things together under Christ one day. Right now, the world is divided. Everywhere you look — and we’ve seen this during this past week in Belfast and in other places around the UK — there’s division and opposition and hostility. Because of sin, differences have become divisions. But God’s great plan is to bring all things together again under Christ. Everything will fit together perfectly under him so that there will be unity and peace and joy in the new heavens and earth where all who trusted in Christ will live with him for ever. And God has begun to bring all things together in the church, where we’re taught to love and serve one another.
And then God has chosen us in Christ to be his portion or his treasured possession, so that we can always count on him to look after us. And he has sealed us with his Spirit to make clear that we belong to him and that we’re under his protection. And the Holy Spirit is also the deposit, guaranteeing what is to come, which is eternal life in the presence of God.
So, Paul has been telling us about these spiritual blessings which God has poured out upon us through Christ.
And after telling us about these blessings, Paul told his readers that he’s been praying for them. And one of the things he prayed for was for them to come to know God’s incomparably great power which God uses for the benefit of those who believe. And in order to explain to them the greatness of God’s power, Paul referred them to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, when God the Father raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every title that can be given in this present age and also in the age to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him head over everything for the sake of the church. So, by his great power, God raised the Lord Jesus from the depths of the grave to the highest place in heaven to rule over all things for us.
And having written about Christ’s resurrection in chapter 1, Paul goes on to refer to our resurrection in chapter 2. But he’s not speaking in chapter 2 about our future, bodily resurrection from the dead. He’s speaking about our present, spiritual resurrection. I’ve said before that the New Testament refers to three resurrections. The first is Christ’s resurrection from the dead. So, after the Lord gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and shortcomings with his life, his dead body was laid in the tomb; and he remained under the power of death until the third day when God the Father raised him from the dead. And that was a physical or bodily resurrection, so that afterwards his disciples were able to see him and to touch him. That’s the Lord’s resurrection.
The second resurrection which we read about in the New Testament is one which every person who had died will experience one day. When Christ returns to earth in glory and with power, he will raise the dead. And so, the bodies of the dead will rise and be re-united with their souls. Those who did not believe in the Saviour in this life will be raised from the dead to be condemned and punished by God for all that they have done wrong in this life, but those who trusted in Christ for forgiveness will be raised to enjoy eternal life in body and soul in the presence of God for ever. And so, this resurrection is a physical one. It involves the body. And it will take place in the future when Christ returns.
But then, the New Testament also refers to a third resurrection, which takes place in the present, in this life. And it’s not a bodily resurrection. It’s a spiritual resurrection. It’s the resurrection which takes places whenever a person first believes in the Saviour. When someone first believes in the Saviour, and they’re united to Christ through faith, they’re raised up with Christ to begin a new kind of life. It’s a life of faith and obedience. And the break with our old life is so decisive and so radical that the only way to describe it is by calling it a resurrection. Our old life of unbelief and disobedience is over and we begin a new life with Christ.
And Paul refers to this present-day resurrection in today’s passage. He says in verse 5 that God made us alive with Christ. And in verse 6 he says that God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. So, God’s people have been raised with Christ to heaven and the life we live now here on earth is a kind of heavenly life, because we’ve been raised by faith to heaven and that’s where we really belong.
And Paul makes clear the difference this present resurrection makes in us in the way he begins and ends today’s passage. He begins by describing our life before we were raised with Christ. And he says that we were dead. We were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live. That’s how the NIV puts it in verse 1. However, a better translation is that we were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we once walked. And that’s important, because Paul ends today’s passage in verse 10 by referring to the good works which God has prepared for us to do. Again, that’s how the NIV puts it, but in fact Paul refers to the good works which God has prepared for us in which we now walk. So, once we walked in transgressions and sin; but now we walk in good works. Once our life was characterised by transgressions and sins; but now it’s characterised by good deeds. How do we account for the difference? Paul tells us in verses 4 and 5: because of God’s love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. So, God raised us from spiritual death to a new, spiritual life in Christ.
So, that’s what today’s passage is about. I’m going to divide it into three parts: verses 1 to 3; verses 4 to 7; and verses 8 to 10. The first part is about our old life in death; the second part is about God making us alive in Christ; and the third part highlights God’s grace and the difference it produces in us.
Verses 1 to 3
And so, Paul begins by telling his readers that they were dead in their transgressions and sins in which they once walked. When he says they were dead, he’s not saying, ‘It’s as if you were dead’. He’s not speaking metaphorically. He’s not using picture language. The Bible often uses metaphors or pictures. It says that the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is not really a shepherd, but he’s like a shepherd in the way he looks after us. And it says God is a rock. God is not really a rock, but he’s like a rock in that he does not change. The Bible uses metaphors or pictures to tell us things about God and our salvation. But Paul is not using a metaphor here. He’s not using picture language. He’s not saying it’s as if we were dead. He’s saying we were dead. We really were dead.
Of course, we weren’t physically dead, but we were spiritually dead and unable by ourselves to respond in any way to God. A person who is physically dead can’t do anything and doesn’t feel anything. Not that you would want to, but if you stuck a pin in a dead body, the body would not react. The dead person would not flinch or cry out. The body would not even bleed, because the heart had stopped. And before God raised us to new life in Christ, we were spiritually dead and unable to respond to God and his word. We were unable to feel anything spiritual. Before God raised us to new life in Christ, we might hear God’s word, but it did not affect us. It did not grip us. It did not interest us. And that’s because we were spiritually dead.
And think about what happens to a dead body over time. What happens to it? It begins to decay, doesn’t it? Or think about a piece of meat. If you don’t cook it and eat it, but leave it, it too will decay over time. It will rot. And when we’re spiritually dead, we decay, don’t we? A kind of moral rottenness takes over us. And Paul describes this moral rottenness with the words ‘transgressions and sins in which you once walked’. Our life before God raised us with Christ was a life which was characterised by transgressions and sins. It was a life of disobedience. Because we were spiritually dead, this moral rottenness took over us so that our life was a life of transgressions and sins.
Now, some of us, if not many of us, were fortunate to grow up with Christian parents so that we were brought to church from the time we were born; and we may never have known a time when we did not believe in the Saviour. We — in a sense — grew up believing. And so, this moral rottenness which Paul is referring to did not have time to develop in us. Yes, when we were born, we were spiritually dead like everyone else. But early in our life, God enabled us to believe and he raised us with Christ so that this moral rottenness never got a hold on us. But others, who came to faith later in life, know what Paul is talking about, because some of you can think back to your life before you believed and you know the things you did because of this moral rottenness which had taken hold of you because you were spiritually dead.
And Paul goes on to mention three other manifestations of this moral rottenness and decay which takes hold of us because of our spiritual deadness. He refers to the ways of this world; and he refers to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, who is the devil; and he refers to the cravings of our sinful nature.
When he refers to the world, he’s thinking of all of humanity in rebellion against God. Now, when God raises us with Christ to live a new life, he gives us his Spirit to transform us so that we’re able to walk in the ways of the Lord more and more. But before God raised us, when we were spiritually dead, we naturally went along with the world. We naturally conformed to the people around us and we followed them in their rebellion and sin against God.
And so, we were led astray by an unbelieving world. And we were led astray by the devil, that evil spirit who is at work in those who are disobedient. Those who don’t believe in Christ like to think that they are free: they’re free to do what they want. But they’re not free and we weren’t free before God raised us. We weren’t free, because we went along with the world; and the devil also led us astray. Instead of being free, we were under their wicked influence. And then there’s our sinful nature. By nature we are sinfully inclined to disobey God. Our natural heart is a house of horrors, full of all kinds of sinful thoughts and desires and inclinations and attitudes. And our sinful nature was always with us, controlling what we said and did and thought and making us do what was evil in God’s sight.
So, before God raised us, we were spiritually dead. And because we were spiritually dead, this moral rottenness and decay took over us; and the world, the devil and our sinful nature led us astray from all that is good and right. Fortunately, God normally restrains sinners so that the moral rottenness never takes over completely. That’s why people who don’t believe are still capable of doing good. Nevertheless, this is due to God’s restraining power; he prevents them from being as bad as they might otherwise be. And Paul completes his description of the way we were by telling us at the end of verse 3 that we were by nature objects of God’s wrath. In other words, what we deserved was God’s wrath and curse. We deserved God’s wrath and curse, because by nature, or by birth, we’re sinners. And because we’re sinners by nature, or by birth, then sinning came naturally to us.
Verses 4 to 7
That’s what we were by nature. We were spiritually dead, subject to moral rottenness and decay which manifests itself in a life of transgressions and sins, and we went along with an unbelieving world, and we were led astray by satan, and we were subject to the sinful desires of our sinful nature.
But then, how wonderful! How wonderful! Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead.
I was talking to someone recently who was talking about all the things they did for someone in their family. And as this person described all the things she did, she kind of realised just how much she had done. And she had done an almost crazy amount of things. And she wondered if she was daft for doing so much for this other person. But then, she went on to say that, of course, we’ll do anything for our family. We’ll do anything for our family, because we love them. When we’re moved to pity a stranger in need, we’ll do something for him. We’ll give him some money or a sandwich or we’ll buy him new clothes. We’ll do something for a stranger in need. But we’ll do much, much, much more for a member of our family, won’t we? We’ll do much, much, much more for a member of our family, because we love them. And before the creation of the world, God set his love on his people. And because he set his love on his people, then there’s nothing he won’t do for us now. And though we do not deserve it, nevertheless, because he loved us, he was willing to rescue us from our spiritual deadness by raising us with Christ to live a new life.
And though this moral rottenness and decay was taking over us, it did not put God off us. Why does a mother clean up the mess her child has left behind? It’s because the mother loves her child. And because our Heavenly Father loves us, he wasn’t put off by our moral rottenness and decay. He was still prepared to come to our aid and to rescue us by raising us with Christ to live a new life.
We don’t deserve to receive this new life. We don’t deserve it, because there was nothing good in us. And since we were spiritually dead, there was nothing we could do to earn it or deserve it. And so, as Paul says at the end of verse 5, it is by grace you have been saved. Paul says you have been saved. God has saved us from his wrath and curse, which we deserve for all that we have done wrong in this life. And Paul says that he has saved us because of his grace. That is, it’s because of his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. What we deserve is his wrath and curse. But instead of receiving what we deserve, we receive what we don’t deserve, which is salvation from God’s wrath and curse and a new life in Christ.
And God is able to give us what we do not deserve, because of Christ, who took the blame for us when he suffered and died on the cross, paying for our sins with with his life. And since he lived a perfect life of obedience as one of us, and since he was raised from the dead to live for ever, he’s now able to share his perfect goodness with all who believe in him. And through faith in him, we are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life. And one day, our bodies will be raised as well; and we will live in body and soul with Christ our Saviour for ever and for ever; and in his face we will see the glory of God.
Paul says in verse 5 that God made us alive with Christ. He’s referring to the time when we first believed and we were raised from spiritual death to live this new life in Christ. Because of our spiritual deadness and our moral rottenness and decay, our old life was a life of unbelief and disobedience. But our new life in Christ is a life of faith and obedience. We haven’t yet been made perfect. And so, we’ll still disobey God from time to time and we’ll still fall short of doing his will. But, since we’ve been made alive with Christ, God enables us to do his will more and more here on earth.
Paul goes on to say in verse 6 that God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. And so, right now, in this life, though we are living on the earth, we belong by faith in heaven with Christ our Saviour, who is seated there. Just as some people have a duel citizenship, so that, for instance, they’re citizens of the UK and the USA at the same time, so we are citizens here below, but we’re also citizens of heaven above. We live as pilgrims here, because we know that our true home is in heaven with Christ our Saviour.
And one of the outcomes of this is the display of the incomparable riches of God’s grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. The fact that sinners like us now belong in heaven with Christ is a testimony to God’s love and grace and mercy, because what we deserve is to be sent away from God’s presence to be condemned and punished for ever. But because of his love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even though we were once dead in our transgressions and sins and liable to his wrath and curse.
Verses 8 to 10
And Paul repeats himself in verse 8 just to hammer home the truth that it is by grace we have been saved. It is by grace; and it is through faith. We have been saved from God’s wrath and curse through faith in Jesus Christ the Saviour who did everything necessary to make peace for us with God and to win for us the right to eternal life in God’s presence.
And Paul says that this is not from ourselves. What is not from ourselves? Being saved by grace through faith is not from ourselves. Since we were spiritually dead, then we were unable to do anything to contribute to our salvation. But God has done it all for us: he has united us through faith to the Saviour and he has saved us from his wrath and curse.
And since it all comes from God, and not from us, since it’s all by grace and through faith in Christ, then none of it is by works. None of it is due to what we have done. We don’t contribute anything to our salvation. We haven’t done anything to earn it or deserve it. How could we have contributed to our salvation when we were dead? And so, none of us is able to boast about ourselves. And instead, all the glory and honour and praise goes to God.
And now we come to the final verse of the passage, where Paul says we are God’s workmanship. He means we are God’s creation, his new creation. Making us alive with Christ, raising us with Christ, giving us new life in Christ means that we are now part of God’s new creation. When Christ comes again in the future, our bodies will be raised from the dead and they will be made new and we will live with God for ever in the new heavens and earth. That’s what will happen in the future. But right now, in this life, God has made us new by giving us this new life in Christ. And he has made us new so that we will no longer walk in transgressions and sins, but in good works.
Now remember: we are saved by grace, and not by our works. So, we are saved because of God’s kindness to us in Christ and not because of anything we ever do. But having been saved through faith in Christ, and having been raised from spiritual death to a new life in Christ, we’re to live for Christ, seeking to honour him in all we do and say and doing all things for his glory. And later on in his letter, Paul will explain what that means and how we’re to serve God at home and in the workplace. But let me finish by saying that one theologian (H. Bavinck) has written that ‘The best Christian is also the best human.’ Let me repeat that: ‘The best Christian is also the best human.’ The best Christian is the best human because God is at work in us by his Spirit to renew us more and more in his image and to enable us to be and do what we are always meant to be and to do, which is to be a human who loves God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and who does his will in our daily lives. And so, now that we’ve been made alive with Christ, may God enable us to be the best humans we can possibly be and to live a life full of good deeds for his glory.
Sermons and Stuff 