Ephesians 2:1-7 – From Death to Life

Nicky Cruz was one of nineteen children born in Puerto Rico to parents who practiced witchcraft. As a child, he was regularly beaten and he attempted suicide at age nine. His mother declared him to be the “son of Satan.” At 15 years old, his parents made him move to New York City, where he soon became the enforcer for a violent gang called the Mau Maus.

His life was filled with violence and alcohol. His best friend, Manny, was killed by stabbing and died in his arms. Nicky was arrested many times.

But God had a plan for Him. Through David Wilkerson’s preaching and love, Nicky was touched.

Nicky describes says he was admitted to the Holy Ghost hospital. Lying there, Jesus walked to his side, opens Nicky’s chest, takes out his heart and puts it to his lips to kiss it. The Lord then placed the transformed heart back into his chest and raises him up as a brand new creation.”

He left behind his life of hate and became a follower of Jesus. He is currently 86 and is still preaching the good news of the gospel, telling others how they can cross from death to life like he did.

Today we continue our study of Ephesians in chapter 2. The theme for today’s message is From Death to Life.

Ephesians 2:1-7 – And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, 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— 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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

I. Our Old Position

A. Dead in sins (1)

What does it mean to be dead in trespasses and sins?

We need to go back to the beginning, the first time the word “death” appears in history.

Genesis 2:16-17 – And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Adam and Eve did not physically die the day they ate the fruit, although that process started that day and they eventually died. But their relationship with God fundamentally changed.

When God came to visit them next, they hid.

Their position had changed. Their minds were corrupted. Their innocence was dead. Their relationship with God was broken. Their sin had created a separation between them and God.

Physical death is separation of body and the soul. Spiritual death is separation between a person and God because He is holy and we are not.

So what does it mean to be dead in sins?

• Separation from God
• Spiritually dead / lifeless – A spiritually dead person has no spiritual life within himself. Just as a physically dead corpse cannot make itself become alive, so a spiritually dead person cannot make herself spiritually alive. She needs life from an outside source.
o You cannot gain spiritual life through good works or even religion. We have nothing good in and of ourselves.
 Romans 3:10-12 – None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.”
o As Adam and Eve needed the breath of life from God to live, so we need spiritual life from God.
 John 1:4 – In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
o Ours is not a smoldering or weak candle. It is a candle without a flame. We need Him to light us. God doesn’t just fan the flames of our heart. He provides the fire.

B. A sinful lifestyle (2-3)

There is the positional aspect of being “dead in sins,” which is separation from God. There is also the behavioral aspect.

Paul says “in which you once walked.” It wasn’t something theoretical. The spiritually dead engage in a sinful lifestyle. It doesn’t mean that unbelievers are at all moments as evil as they can possibly be, like Hitler.

It means that those without Christ live according to their nature. Their fleshly nature is at odds with God’s holiness. We are born that way. You don’t have to teach a child to lie or be selfish. They do it naturally.

Look at what Paul says about the lifestyle of the spiritually dead.

• Followed the course of this world – Those without Christ follow the crowds. They are like sheep without a shepherd following other sheep. You can see that in how things like homosexual marriage were accepted. Twenty years ago this was almost universally rejected. It became popular in Hollywood and the media started pushing it. Soon it became the “trendy” thing and many people jumped on board. Why the change of mind? Most were just following the world. They wanted to fit in. If the group accepts it, they do too. We are to be followers of Jesus and not followers of this world. My dad often said that if most people were doing it, it probably wasn’t the right thing!
• Lived in the passions of our flesh – Those without Christ make decisions based on what feels good and makes them happy, not what pleases God. They toss out objective truth, righteousness, and God’s standard and replace it with relativism.
o Gypsy-Rose Blanchard (yes, that is her real name) on her divorce – “Life is too short to be sad or feel trapped by anything in your life… I think everyone should follow their heart if they know what they want in life and they know what’s going to make them happy.”
o Like her, most people make decisions based on what makes them feel good.
• Carried out the desires of the body and the mind –Those without Christ live for themselves. They spend their time how they want. They eat whatever they want. They sleep with whoever they want. They seek to live their lives independent of God and answer to themselves. This is a reason why many people reject God. They don’t want to submit to God’s will; they want to follow their own desires. Do you submit your desires to God?
• Were by nature children of wrath

The one who is separated from God is condemned.

John 3:18 – Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

C. A Satanic Master – Our Old Lord (2-3)

Ephesians 2:2 – Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Paul does not candy-coat his words. He clearly says that the Ephesians followed the “prince of the power of the air.” That is Satan.

You cannot have two masters. You are either spiritually dead and under Satan’s lordship or spiritually alive under Christ’s Lordship.

1 John 3:8 – Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

If I went and told a person on the street, “You are a follower of Satan” they would likely be very offended. They might say, “I don’t worship Satan!”

But Satan is very smart. He builds up loyal followers in many ways. There are some Satanists who outright worship him. But far more follow him unaware. Satan uses the world system, education, media, human culture, and also demonic forces to influence people. Most are influenced to follow him without ever realizing it.

• Hedonism – the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good
• Atheism – there is no God and man is top, evolution
• Relativism – There is no moral standard or objective truth
• Secularism – Excludes God from daily life
• Humanism – Man is the most important and the measure of all things
• Darwinism
• Universalism – All paths lead to God so don’t worry about it.

Agnosticism, postmodernism, pluralism, legalism, feminism racism (which was also supported by Darwinism), transgenderism, syncretism … and much more

These days many people talk about influencers. Satan is the master influencer. He attracts one person through being very religious, albeit dead religion while he attracts another person through materialism and worldly pleasures.

He is prince of the power of the air. Air is everywhere. Our enemy and his minions are not relegated to some shady dark alley. They are all over the place. Wickedness is rampant.

What should we do about it?

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 – For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Fight. Fight his lies in your own mind and in your families, community, and fellowship. If you are alive in Christ, you are not under him anymore, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be influenced. Be careful.

Review: Our Old Position (Dead in sins, sinful lifestyle, wicked master).

Paul was writing to the Ephesians believers. He was telling them that they were like that, but not anymore. The same as true for us.

YOU were. It is not just others who were like that. You were like that. I was like that. I was dead in trespasses and sins. You followed this world. I followed the prince of the power of the air. You lived in the passions of his flesh. I carried out the desires of her body and mind. We all did these things. Think about your life prior to coming to Christ. Can you see yourself in Ephesians 2:1-3?

This truth also reminds us to be compassionate and never look down on those who haven’t yet come to Christ. We all come out of the same muck.

You WERE. It is past tense. You WERE like that. But by God’s grace, not anymore. That is not the end of the story. Amen!

The next word is one of the most powerful words in Scripture…But.

II. But God (4)

Ephesians 2:4 – But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us..

But God. God saw us, helpless, estranged, pursuing our own selfish desires. Then He acted.

Two theological truths about God.

Transcendent – This means that God is above and beyond the world. He is different from us. He is separate from us. He exists even before and outside of the universe He created.

But He is not only transcendent. He is also..

Immanent – This means that God is intimately involved in the world. He didn’t create us and then leave us to ourselves. He is not like the person who puts a message in a bottle and throws it on the sea and then has nothing more to do with it.

God could have done that. He is not obligated to save us. Our sin. Our responsibility.

But God…

He saw and He acted. He is immanent. His mercy and love motivated Him.

A. God takes the initiative to reach out to us

Luke 19:10 – For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Jesus took the initiative to seek and save us.

John Newton grew up with a Christian mother and heard the gospel, but he rejected it and eventually became a captain of a slave trading ship. He did the most despicable things to slaves. But God reached out in his lost state and saved him. He wrote these words in his famous hymn Amazing Grace, “I once was lost, but now I am found.” Not he found the way, but he was found by God. He then became an abolitionist.

Ask your neighbor: How did Jesus reach out and save you? (Answer in 2-3 sentences)

Likely through a person, perhaps through an answered prayer or even a miracle. But what is sure, He did reach out to you. That was mercy. It is not because you deserved it.

Why is Paul saying these things to the Ephesian church? I believe He wants them to realize two simple things.

1. They are not great.

2. God is.

This should fill us with a sense of humility. The point is not that we always dwell on our sin, walking around all the time with a talking about how sinful and worthless we are.

Humility is thinking of God’s greatness more. The more you appreciate God, the more humble you will be. Awe for Him will fill your mind and push out selfish thoughts of yourself.

Your salvation is not due to you. Did Lazarus take credit for his resurrection? A dead person gets no credit. He had no power or ability to resurrect himself. He couldn’t just decide one day he wanted to get up and walk out of the tomb. Jesus initiated it and it was by His power.

At the same time, Lazarus did respond. He obeyed Jesus’ call. That is our part. We are to humbly respond to Him by obeying His call to “Follow Me.”

It is like an adoption process; God initiates, we respond – Contrast adopting a newborn with a person of age. The teen can choose to reject the adoption.

Why did He do this?

It is because of His great love toward us. Let that thought encourage your hearts today. The awesome, holy, Creator of the universe loves you. You are loved.

Applications –

First, meditate on what Jesus has done for you and glorify Him for that.

Second, we should reach out with mercy and love to others as He did.

III. Our new position 5-7 –

Ephesians 2:5-7 -Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Much of the book of Ephesians to this point has been Paul telling the believers of their rich spiritual blessings. We see that here too.

The first and best spiritual blessings is…

A. Made us alive

Without life you are not conscious of and cannot enjoy any of the other blessings.

What does it mean to be alive?

• No longer separated from God
• Recipients of eternal life
• Meaning and purpose – You can do what you were created to do
• Free to live for and please God. Romans 8:7 -Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
• Free of the chains of sin
• Our eyes are opened to actually SEE for the first time. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

He made us alive. You didn’t do that. He did that. Without the breath of life, Adam was a pile of dirt. With God’s breath, he was a living being.

Without the Holy Spirit’s spiritual breath of life in our hearts, we are dead people walking around without direction, without understanding, without purpose, without hope, without sight, without a future, without God.

Titus 3:5 – He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual life is by His power.

B. Grace

“by grace you have been saved”

Paul just inserts this right in the middle of a sentence. He doesn’t want us to miss it.

Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward sinners like you and me. Grace is God making us alive when we were dead. Grace is God blessing us with all of these blessings instead of striking us down with lightning because of the wickedness of our sin.

Another possible title for this message could be “Don’t be entitled.”

Most of us live better than the emperors of old. We have air conditioners! We have cars and planes. We have food of all varieties delivered to our door.

Everything we have is not because of our rights to it, but because of God’s grace.

Far better than the physical blessings we have are the spiritual blessings. Life! You are alive because of Jesus! You can be forgiven because of Jesus! You, yes you, with all of your secret sins and shameful deeds, are loved by Jesus! It is not because of how good you are. It is not because of how often you go to church or how many pages of the Bible you have read. It is grace. Grace is what gives you hope for an eternity in perfect paradise with Jesus in heaven instead of eternity in hell. Jesus does that.

C. With Him

“raised up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places.

One of the most amazing aspects of God’s grace is that He then accepts us into His very presence. He removes all of our sin and clothes us with His own righteousness so that we can be with Him.

While hell is the absence of God (people there got what they wished for all along) heaven is the presence of God.

How much do you want to be with Him?

D. Seated us in heavenly places

God didn’t just make us alive. His blessings did not end at love and grace. Here we see that He raises our spiritual position. We have a place of honor with Him in heaven.

In verse 2, we saw that before salvation we were part of Satan’s kingdom.

But now we are part of a new kingdom.

We have a seat at His celestial table so to speak. We have a royal position. One day in heaven we will celebrate at the Great Banquet, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Our rightful place is by His side and He is by the side of the father. Prior to that day, our seat is reserved. We still have a place in His kingdom and we are part of His administering and furthering that kingdom on earth.

E. Promise of More to Come

Ephesians 2:7 – So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Whatever you have seen of His grace already, and it is a lot, it still doesn’t compare to what He will show us in the future. He is wealthy without compare and He is not stingy.

Remember that when you are considering the passing pleasures of sin. Would you give up immeasurable riches of blessings for the sake of a few minutes or a few years of sinful pleasures? That is a terrible trade indeed.

Application #1 –

Have you responded to God’s offer of mercy? Short gospel and salvation call. If you are still separated from Him, don’t walk away today still dead in your sins. Receive His mercy and grace. Accept His offer to make you alive.

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

You don’t have to stay on the “death” side. Will you choose life or death?

Application #2 – In today’s passage we have seen what life is like on our own without God. Death. Sin. Under Satan’s dominion and influence. But God. God intervened. He didn’t leave you there. Think about where you would be and what you would be without “But God” intervening in your life and showing mercy to you.

What response should we have to the one who has raised us from the dead?

Humility – Absolutely. How can we be prideful when everything good within us is from God?
Thanksgiving – I hope we thank God for the gift of salvation every day.
Awe / Praise – Praise for God should fill our hearts. We are nothing without Him.

Pray – As we close, I want you to talk to God. Tell Him how you feel. Tell Him your response to the fact He has brought you from death to life.

Discussion Questions (Pick one in your group to discuss and you can do both if you have time)

• Why is it important to understand the seriousness of our condition without Christ?
• Which of the five aspects of our new position in Christ (made us alive, grace, with him, seated in heavenly places, promise of more to come) spoke to you and how ?