Bad News, Best News / Ephesians 2:1-7
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· 2 viewsGod’s grace is only appreciated when it is displayed above the background of our spiritual deadness before Jesus. Learn of your true condition: are you spiritually dead or alive?
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Diamonds against a black cloth - a diamond against the glass in pretty. A diamond against a black cloth is stunning.
If you don’t see God’s grace above the black cloth of spiritual death, you will not fully appreciate his stunning mercy.
Tonight I have good news and bad news. Let’s begin with the…
Bad News: Without God, we are spiritually dead.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked,
Paul gives no room for middle ground. You are either dead or alive.
But if we were spiritually dead, how are we walking? The death he is talking about a a spiritual death. When we trespass, we willfully disobey God’s path. When we sin, we fail to meet his standard of perfection. “Before God we are both rebels and failures.” (Stott) These trespasses and sins cause us to be separated from God, the only source of spiritual life.
You can be morally alive, mentally alive, physically alive, but spiritually dead.
A corpse - when we try to cover up our sin with good works, its like putting make up on a corpse. We don’t need good advice, rules to keep, or more knowledge. Before Christ, we need spiritual resurrection.
following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Naturally, teens think that Christians are old and stuffy. While spiritual rebels are bold - charting their own course. This passage reveals that the opposite is true. If you are disobedient to God’s path, you are just like the world. You’re a follower. You go with the flow of the deceiver who makes evil look bright and goodness seem boring.
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind
Before Christ, sin is not an action you accidentally do a few times a week. Sin is your lifestyle. Your bodies impulses, tempting thoughts, a twisted passions are your guiding compass. And this is true of us all. No one was born a Christian. Instead, because of our rebellion, we are children of wrath. Take not of the phrase, the rest of mankind. The religious and the atheists. The cool and the outcasts. The put-together and the poor. The old and the young. All need rescue. All need salvation from the justice of God’s wrath against evil.
“Once walked means it should be different for those who are made alive by Jesus Christ. A dead man feels comfortable in his coffin; but if he were to be made alive again, he would instantly feel suffocated and uncomfortable. There would be a strong urge to escape the coffin and leave it behind. In the same way, when we were spiritually dead we felt comfortable in trespasses and sins; but having come to new life we feel we must escape that coffin and leave it behind.” (Guzik)
How can you leave your spiritual coffin behind?
Best News: With God, we become spiritually alive.
4 But God,
The good news begins with God. Without him, we’re spiritually hopeless - dead. With him, there is hope.
Naturally, we would think that God enters the scene to bring judgement. Instead, look at how he responds to the children of disobedience.
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
He did not love us because we were spiritually lovely. He loved us because of the deep goodness of his own character. He is wealthy in mercy. How rich? He loved you when you were spiritually dead. On your worst day, at your lowest moment, he looked at you and love was in his heart. You are saved by grace. That is why salvation is called a gift, not a reward.
When you trust in Jesus to save you, he gives you second life spiritually just like he rose from the dead physically. When you are in Christ, you freely receive the benefits he purchased when he died for you, check it out…
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
After Jesus was raised from the dead, he ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Spiritually, you are seated with christ in the heavenly places. But you may be thinking, how does this work? I sure don’t feel “heavenly” when I have to wake up early to go to school.
Airplane - have you ever flown thousands of feet above the air to travel to a different city in one day? Not through your own power! But if you are in an airplane, you can.
Though you did not die on a cross 2000 years ago, rise from the dead, and fly into heaven if you are in Christ:
Your old-self is dead.
Your new-life is alive.
Your spiritual position is secure in heaven.
Think about where you were - spiritually dead on your way to hell. To where you are now - spiritually alive on your way to heaven. It will take eternity to thank God for his grace…
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
There will be diamonds in heaven, but metaphorically, the brightest ones will be me and you. We will be the display of Jesus’ grace.
Revelation 21:18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel… and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
Why is gold and diamonds transparent like glass? Because the most colorful, bright, and beautiful spectacle in heaven will be the Son of God who died so that we - the spiritually dead - might live.