MADE ALIVE IN CHRIST
Ephesians 2: 1-10
Key Verse: 2:4-5
“4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
In the previous Sunday message delivered by David Brogi, we learned about the spiritual blessings God had bestowed upon us. We learned that: 1) we were first redeemed through the Blood of Christ, 2) God had already predestined us to be adopted as his children to co-heir with Christ into the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus put on Lay-Away for us in accordance to his will and pleasure, and 3) God made us holy and blameless again in his sight through Jesus Christ….. Amen!! Hopefully, we will learn today 1) Who we are without Christ, 2) Who we are now, with Christ and 3) we are God’s workmanship. I thank God that we have been transformed from being dead to God to being alive in Christ through our faith and the Blood of Christ. I also thank God that we can live for God’s glory through having purpose in our lives as his workmanship.
Part 1: Who we were without Christ. (1-3)
Who were we without our savior Christ, Jesus? Who was I? Who were you? Let’s begin with Verse 1. Lets read this verse together, shall we: “1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,…..” “As for you…..”
When I saw that specific portion of the verse, it was as if Paul was addressing me personally even though he was writing this letter to the Ephesian church members. I can almost imagine seeing Paul, a bald man wearing a white robe and sandals saying: “As for you Lawson, you Lawson were dead in your transgressions and sins, “ Even though Paul was writing this letter to the Ephesian Church members, God intended this letter to be addressed to everyone in the world, past, present, and future. We are ALL dead in our transgressions and sins. Being dead in our sins and transgressions means we are dead spiritually.
Sin and transgressions are two different words. They have different meanings. Sin means to violate a moral rule that prohibited opposition to, or considered wrong in a religious context. To sin is to want control of one's destiny instead of the will of God.
Transgression means the violation of God’s Laws- the Ten Commandments- through disobedience.
As we sinned, we are separated from God, cut off from God’s image of glory. We are cut off like a flower is from its stem (God being our life source); we wither and die shortly afterward and are sometimes discarded as worthless trash. It was our choice, through our own free will, that we sinned against God, not by God’s choice or by Satan’s. In other words, it was we who turned our backs towards God first, and in doing so, we become worthless to God. We had lost our purpose in life for his glory.
When we sin or transgress, we disobey God; we break the law. The laws I speak of are the ones handed down to us by God, the Father himself. Sin is lawlessness…..as we see in 1 John 3:4: “4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.….” We are not perfect; we sin by nature and because of this, we fall short of God’s Glory. This means we fall short of God’s standards of righteousness, because we do not obey his laws and commands. Roman’s Chapter 2, verse 13 says: “13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” Also, being sinful in nature, we become disobedient to God in secret.
Adam was cast out of God’s presence; hence, he broke the relationship with God due to his sin. Cain was driven from his land for killing his brother Able, which was also a sin against God. As a result of his sin, Cain became a restless wanderer for breaking his relationship with God. God had turned his back on Adam and Cain because of their disobedience to him.
As humans, we sin by nature.
1. We follow the course of this world: We are easily led astray, having a high tendency to follow the ways of the world through temptation rather than living for God. The ways of the world are pleasures of this world, such as money, power, popularity, and lust. We love the world by nature. We tend to follow the course of the world, following its trends because we love the world.
2. We follow Satan, the ruler of the air: We walk in sin through continuously striving to gratify the cravings of our sinful nature, entertaining our temptations stemmed from greed. Therefore, we bring ourselves to Satan, the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Satan deceives us by lying to us, misleading us, and planting doubt in our hearts and minds. When we doubt God and instead entertain our temptations to sin, we turn our backs to God, forming the separation between him and ourselves. It’s as if Satan was taking the Blessing that God bestowed upon us right out of our hands. When our blessings are gone, we turn to and come to Satan because we feel there is no one else to turn to, as God has turned his back on us for sinning against him. In doing so, we become wicked and sin more in secret. We eventually become God’s enemies and subjects to God’s wrath as Sodom and Gomorrah was. Romans Chapter 2 verse 8 says: “8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. “ We had no relationship with God anymore, because the connection between us and God was broken when we sinned. Recall that because Adam was exiled out of the Garden of Eden because of his disobedience to God, we became under the influence of this original sin. We feel cursed because we know we are subject to death and we know we cannot hide from his wrath. We cannot hide from God because God knows all.
I cannot and will not argue with Paul’s point that I was dead in my sins and transgressions, because I know I was a horrible sinner without God, and I came to realize this as I got to know the only Holy One through Bible Study and Prayer. The main reason I denied him and rejected him in my past is because I sought the ways of this world and the pleasures of this world to entertain my own greed and lust.
When I was a young, dumb sailor, I was without God and Christ in my life; therefore, I was easily lead astray by my temptation for alcohol. Yes, I use to drink like a fish. My dad used to say to me: “When I was a young, dumb sailor, I drank enough alcohol in my Naval Career to float a battle ship.” I then said: “We submariners were always submersed in alcohol.” All kidding aside, I had found what I thought was happiness at the bottom of a bottle of Yukon Jack or a bottle of Jägermeister. But it wasn’t really happiness; it only made me forget my troubles. Finding my happiness at the bottom of a bottle typically means I drank until I became very chemically impaired (very drunk). In my drunken state, I had forgotten my troubles until I returned to the state of being sober; then, my troubles returned and sometimes escalated into problems that were much worse than before I got drunk- sometimes even beyond my control. Yes, I was a sheep that could easily become led astray to look for greener pastures. God and Christ in my life became the ultimate answer I was looking for. This is a true purpose to live- living for the glory of God. As I started to get to know God and Jesus, I slowly realized that ALL I had done in the past was wicked- wicked in God’s eyes.
Part 2: Who we are now. (4-9)
We were destined to be under the power of Satan and wrath of God. Where’s our hope?
What was the wonderful thing God did for us? And who are we now? God who loved us brought us to salvation, sending us a Savior, putting Christ in our lives. This is our hope. Jesus saved us through being the one who died for our sins. Romans chapter 5 verse 6 says: “Christ died for the ungodly.” The ungodly is us before we had God and Christ in our lives. In dying for our sins, Jesus freed us. Yes, because of Jesus we are FREE from our sins; therefore, we are free from the chains that bind us to slavery for Satan.
Let’s read verses 4 and 5 together, shall we: ”4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved…..” When we were dead in our sins, God who loved us and always incomparably rich in mercy “made us alive with Christ”. It is said also in Romans chapter 6 verse 11: “ 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” We left one state to enter another. We undergo transformation /conversion when God and Christ enter our lives. Before, we died in sin. Now, we live with Christ and in Christ. We were lost but now we are found. We converted from being enemies of God to being his friends. We changed from being children of Satan to children of God. We transformed from being sinners to Saints. It was God’s love that repelled from putting his wrath on us which was righteously his. He punished us much less than our sins deserved, and it is by his grace that we do not get what we do deserve. We were once objects of God’s wrath- now we are objects of his glory. We, once again, are raised to his standards of righteousness. Because of Christ Jesus, we are saved. We were dead to God but made alive again in Christ, as it is said in 1 John 5, verses 11-12: 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” We have victory in Christ rather than being defeated by sin.
We alone cannot save ourselves under the laws of God. We are easily caught because we cannot hide from God. God knows ALL. We are only saved through our faith in God’s grace. God provides us his wonderful grace free of charge. We just have to ask for it, and it’ll be freely given to us.
Having God and Christ totally turned my life around, instead of alcohol ruling my life and leading to my own demise. Recently, I had just come to learn that my sea daddy- someone whom I looked up to and loved very dearly when I was that young, dumb sailor- had committed suicide through carbon monoxide asphyxiation in his own garage, under his own drunken stupor. Yes, the sin of idolizing alcohol brought him to his own demise. Also, some of the last words from his mouth were: “I’m just a drunk.” My guess is at that point in his life, he really thought he never had purpose, even to live. I really miss my friend Randy. I earnestly pray that God will forgive him. Without God’s grace, I probably would have headed down that very same path.
Let’s read verse 6 together, shall we: “6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…” The word “seated” implies that we were already chosen by God to be seated with Christ. Yes, in the past tense. Our seat next to Jesus is already reserved and guaranteed. Jesus had already paid for our seat next him in full through his death on the cross. Even though we still sin, through our faith in Jesus we are saved because he paid the price for our atonement with God. Jesus had finished undoing what we started way before we even started it; taking away the sins from the world as we bring them in. Because Jesus paid in full, we can never catch up to him with our sins, meaning no matter how much we sin, it has ALL been paid. However, we must realize that we are sinners, ask for forgiveness, repent, and then make every effort to live up to God’s standards of righteousness. We must make a whole-hearted, sincere effort not to sin, even though we are weak and prone to sin by nature anyway.
Why did God do this wonderful thing for us? Let’s read verse 7 together, shall we: “7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” As it is said in the book of John, chapter 3, verse 16: 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God did this for future Christians, those who believe in God and Jesus. But ultimately, he did it for us because he loved us so.
Let’s read verses 8 and 9 together, shall we: “8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.” Who are we boasting or bragging to in the Heavenly Kigdom once we are there? Everyone up there has the same gift. Anyway, this is not something we worked for or earned; it’s not a right. We sure can’t earn this ourselves; it is a privilege. It’s a privilege from God, and we should not take it for granted but treat it as if it were by his grace. Through faith alone we receive such a wonderful gift. And we should not boast or brag. We should be humble and rely only on God, not being too proud in the indulgence of our self-accomplishments. I am also guilty of being proud from time to time. And by doing so, I tend to become proud and forget God, thinking that ALL I have done was my own doing, when in fact, it was all by the grace of God only. I need to learn to be humble and accept God’s grace as a gift, not relying on myself, because in doing so, I could be setting myself up for failure.
Part 3: We are God’s workmanship. (10)
What can we do to please God? Let’s read verse 10 together, shall we: “10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We are God’s workmanship, meaning we are his masterpiece creations. We are his crowning achievements, trophies of his delight, and his greatest of glory. Verse 10 is also saying that we were created to have purpose in life. We were created for his mission, to do his work- good work. God didn’t save us so we could keep on sinning. He saved us to co-work with him in his salvation work. We were originally set out to be stewards of his creation, to co-work with him in the Garden of Eden. Co-working with God establishes, builds, and maintains our relationship with him. He wanted us to be his co-worker in the Garden of Eden, but we sinned. In doing so, we became objects of God’s wrath and were thrown out of the Garden of Eden; therefore, losing the privilege of life purpose he made for us. Working in the garden, we only had to work to fulfill God’s mission. But through his wrath we were cursed and now have to work hard to survive. Our purpose for God became purpose to survive, which we can’t do alone. When we were exiled from the garden, we were cut off from God to die in our sins, with no one to protect us from the hands of Satan. But in Christ we are saved. We have gained restoration once again in God’s image, giving us purpose in life through Christ. Perhaps being created in his image means that if the Creator does salvation work, so shall the created; therefore, the created co-works with the Creator. We can’t come to God when we sin. But by the grace of God, our relationship with him is restored, and now we can come to him. Like the parable of the Lost Son, when we recognize our sin, ask for forgiveness, and repent, our relationship with the Father will be restored. Therefore, we can come back to the Father under his acceptance. We should make every effort in serving God to show our acceptance that he is our Sovereign God, to co-work with him, establishing, building, and maintaining the relationship with him that we once had, and to be objects of his glory as he wants us to be.
Growing stronger in Christ has slowly opened my eyes to his mission for me. I have to admit, I haven’t been pro-active enough lately to serve his mission, but I pray that one day I can be greatly inspired to herd lost sheep back to the flock in the True Green Pasture- The Kingdom of Heaven.
When God said through Apostle Paul, “in advance,” he meant that we were already chosen by him for the mission to do good works before the creation of the world. Being already chosen! Wow! What an honor!! We were already chosen before time began to be co-heirs with Christ for his glory in his salvation work, by faith in Christ. This is not just for our own salvation, but in saving the world. Amen!
We are dead without God because we are sinners and lawbreakers according to God, because we fall short in living to his standards. We are sinners because we follow the ways of the world. In doing so, we reject God to turn to Satan to become objects of his wrath.
But it is by God’s grace alone that we are freed from our own transgressions and sins and we have the gift of purpose for our lives. We are once again restored in his image through Christ. We are restored in Christ because God is rich in mercy. We should show our gratitude toward God by serving his purpose for us. And doing the work he set us out to do will turn us from objects of his wrath to objects of his glory.