Dead Men Walking (Ephesians 2:1-10, pt. 1)
In chapter 1 of Ephesians Paul elaborates on God’s sovereign and glorious activity in the world and in the work of Salvation. It is one of the most magnificent passages in Scripture, serving to raise our affections for who God is and what he has done out of love for his creation. Believers are stamped and sealed with the Holy Spirit as a promise for what is to come, and Paul, like a spiritual father, prays for the Ephesians that they would be filled with all the fullness of Jesus as individuals and as the church. In Ephesians 2, however, he comes at things from a different angle. Rather than focusing on God, he diverts his gaze back to the Ephesians–after thinking about all that God has done, he considers what they had done. And not just them, but all of us as well.
So what were the Ephesians like before God worked on their behalf? What were we like–or, for some of us, what are we like? How does the Bible describe our condition? In this message, we’ll consider how the Bible talks about what we were, and then ask the question “why does Paul take the time to remind the Ephesians what they used to be like? If they aren’t that way any longer, why bring it all up again?” Finally, we’ll consider what that means for us today.
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