Ephesians 2.1-10 (1)
Pray Psalm 18.1-3.
I will love You, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
Sing Psalm 18.1-3.
(St. Columba: How Sweet and Awesome)
I love You, LORD, my Strength, my Rock, my Savior and my Fort;
my God, my ever-shelt’ring Rock, You shield my trembling heart.
My Stronghold, LORD, my Saving Horn, I call to You with praise!
From those who Your salvation scorn You save us all our days.
Read Ephesians 2.1, 2; meditate on verse 1.
What does he mean, “dead”? In what sense? What was that like?
Preparation
1. What was our condition when Jesus saved us?
2. Whom were we serving at that time?
Meditation
Dead people do not seek. Dead people are impervious to happy spiritual music, games, or events. Dead people care nothing about spiritual things. They’re dead. Just like we were at one time.
Dead, Paul explains, in trespasses and sins. To be in sin is to be dead. Not “as good as” dead. Dead. Having no true life, breath, heartbeat, consciousness, or capacity. And all of us “once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air”. We were like zombies, spiritual zombies, except that we had never lived before. We were born dead.
People who are dead in their trespasses and sins live under a tyranny, governed by a king who daily leads them to heap more death upon themselves, to blind and bury them in unrighteousness in the hope they will never see the light (Rom. 1.18-32). Remember when you served that tyrant?
Dead people are to be neither pitied nor forgotten. They are to be loved. God loves them, loves them so much that He gave Jesus for their salvation. And all those He has chosen will be saved, will be adopted, will be accepted into His household and Body. Just as we have been.
From the grip of sin, Paul cried out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He knew the answer, and so do we: “I thank God—through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
All those spiritual blessings? We needed every one of them to break the hold of sin and Satan and so that we could rise from the dead into newness and trueness of life in Jesus Christ. See Him exalted in glory! Give Him all thanks and praise!
Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“And all those He has chosen will be saved, will be adopted, will be accepted into His household and Body” and will be alive!
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…” (Eph. 2.1).
“I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart” (Ps. 119.32).
Alive through Him.
We, the alive in Christ-ones, have been called to follow His Law.
We are the ones He gives the strength to obey and love Him.
We are the ones from whom obedience is required.
Not the world, not those poor dead ones who we find so easy to judge.
But we, the Church, are the ones called, made alive, to follow Him daily.
To take up our cross and accept His strength to carry it.
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD:
I will put My law in their minds,
and write it on their hearts;
and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people.
No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31.33, 34). Alive in Him.
“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
He has made alive together with Him,
having forgiven you all trespasses,
having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.
And He has taken it out of the way,
having nailed it to the cross.
Having disarmed principalities and power,
He made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2.23-15).
Alive by Him.
And God, our Savior, says regarding us (as the prodigal’s father said),
…for this My son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.
And God began to be merry (Lk. 15.24).
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance…likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents…It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found” (Lk. 15.7, 10, 32).
“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3.17).
Alive by, through, and for His good pleasure—His mercy, forgiveness, and love.
From dead to alive. Amazing grace.
Reflection
1. What difference has being alive in Christ made in your life? Do you thank Him daily for this?
2. How would you explain to a new believer what it means to be alive in Christ?
3. What should our attitude be toward those who are yet dead in their trespasses and sins? How should we minister to them?
A state of sin is a state of conformity to this world. Wicked men are slaves to Satan. Satan is the author of that proud, carnal disposition which there is in ungodly men; he rules in the hearts of men. From Scripture it is clear, that whether men have been most prone to sensual or to spiritual wickedness, all men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Ephesians 2.1
Pray Psalm 18.43-50.
Thank God for delivering you from the tyranny of Satan into the transforming grace of Jesus. Pray to know more of the newness and trueness of life in Jesus today.
Sing Psalm 18.43-50.
(St. Theodulph: All Glory, Laud, and Honor)
Lord Jesus Christ exalted, above all earthly strife!
You rule all lands and nations, the Lord and King of life!
They flock to You who never did seek out Your glorious face,
obedient to Your mandate, renewed within Your grace.
You live, our Rock, our Savior, exalted by our God!
Upon Your foes with vengeance Your holy feet have trod.
Delivered from Your enemies and lifted high above,
we rescued and redeemed us by Your eternal love.
Let nations rise and praise You, and give You thanks, O LORD!
Deliv’rance, grace, and favor You grant us by Your Word.
Bestow Your lovingkindness upon us as before,
and bless and keep Your people henceforth and evermore.
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: In our ReVision series on “The Kingdom Economy” we finish our discussion of commerce and begin looking at “grace economics”. This week our Read Moore podcast finishes the book, Such a Great Salvation. In our Crosfigell series on Brendan of Clonfert, the saint reaches Iceland and wishes he hadn’t. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
