LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for March 17
People without Christ are spiritually dead
___ Ephesians 2:1-10
___By Roy Cotton
___BGCT DFW/Metroplex Church Starting Center Consultant
___This series on "Ephesians: God's New People" began with the distinction between Christianity and all the worlds' religions. Other religions emphasize a works-based salvation, but Christianity is faith-based.
___Christians do not work in order to be saved. We work because we are saved. The Bible teaches us God is holy and mankind is sinful; God hates sin but loves the sinner.
___The first half of Ephesians deals with doctrine. The second chapter opens with the natural state of our fallen condition as a result of sin. The description shows mankind without God's provision of salvation. The chapter details God's response to sin with his free gift. It presents the expectations for those who have become his new creation. According to the LifeWay commentator, verses 1-10 will have the following topical outline: "Alive but dead," "Dead but alive" and "Alive and showing it."
___Alive but dead
___There is a popular fable about a scorpion and frog. As the story goes, the scorpion enticed the frog the take him across a lake to the other side. The frog was afraid of the scorpion because of its reputation to inflict a fatal sting. The scorpion convinced the frog he could be trusted, so the frog reluctantly let the scorpion climb on his back. Halfway across the lake, the inevitable happened. The scorpion stung the frog. While dying, the frog protested to the scorpion: "I trusted you, why did you sting me?" The dying scorpion's response was, "It is my nature."
___Sin is our fallen, human nature. The Apostle Paul declares we were dead in our "transgressions and sins" (v. 1). We were alive but dead (Romans 6:23).
___Sin in the Greek is "hamartia," which means "a miss." Sin is missing the mark or target. It is failure to be what we ought to be. We missed the mark we should have reached (Romans 3:23). The word for transgressions or trespasses is "paraptoma." It is "a slip or a fall."
___William Barclay describes sin and transgressions (trespasses) as: "Failure to hit the target, failure to hold to the road, failure to make life what it was capable of becoming." This description is true of all human beings. There are no degrees or levels of sin and sinners. Without Christ, we are all alive but dead in sin.
___It is our natural condition to follow "the ways of this world and ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient" (v. 2). Before coming to Christ, we live to gratify the desires and cravings of our sinful nature.
___Warren Wiersbe states the unsaved person is spiritually dead, disobedient, depraved and doomed. It does not matter about one's socio-economic status; without Christ, one is physically alive but spiritually dead. This is a hopeless state. What can be done?
___Dead but alive
___The Bible describes God's response. The contrast is drawn with the words: "But God" (v. 4). Our hope is in the fact that God did it! "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)" (vv. 4-5).
___Paul is so excited in his declaration about God's salvific work in Christ that there appears to be triple themes in this passage. God is rich in mercy. His love for us is great, but he had to appropriate it to us as a gift.
___Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Salvation is completely a gift from God. We can do nothing to merit it. It is not a reward for our goodness. There is no one good enough to be saved. There is no one beyond the reach of God's mercy and grace.
___John Newton, a notorious slave trader but later the composer of the most popular hymn in Christendom, "Amazing Grace," never ceased to marvel at the grace of God in Christ Jesus. During his last message in Olney, England, at age 82, he shouted, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!"
___Alive and showing it
___The text has shown our human condition without Christ and God's free gift in Christ. Do we have a responsibility if God has done it all? We do. We are "God's masterpiece" (New Living Translation). We have been re-created in Christ to show off what he has made new.
___When I was a child, my older brothers would save their allowances (and mine) to buy models. Now, I was not very excited about a box with hundreds of plastic or wooden pieces from which to assemble a car or an airplane. However, after all the hard work of putting it together, painting it and examining the finished product, there was a sense of pride in showing it to friends. Even I was happy that I had put in a limited investment.
___This is our responsibility as Christians. We are God's masterpiece. We ought to just show it!
___Questions for discussion
___ The Bible says grace is God's gift, but that we must be merciful. How do we show mercy to Christians and non-Christians?
___ What is the evidence of Christ's transforming work in your life? How do you show it?
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