Ephesians 2:1-7

It was a story about the romance of two desperate people whose political views and convictions drove them apart. The actors were Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand. The title song looked back on their relationship:
“Memories, light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories of the way we were.
Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we give to one another.
Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me would we? Could we?
Memories, may be beautiful and yet
What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.
So it’s the laughter we will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were.” (Hamlisch & Bergman)

In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul reminds us of the way we were when we were in disagreement with God. It is a picture that every believer should look at from time to time.

THE WAY WE WERE (Verses 1-3)
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following it desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”We were spiritually dead which means that we were alienated from God and the spiritual side of our nature toward him was unawakened and empty of true spiritual life. We were utterly helpless to correct this on our own. Just as a dead person cannot get up, we could not cast off our sin. The common word for sin in the New Testament explains sin as missing the mark, which is an inability to measure up to God’s standard. Isn’t it interesting that we who fear death so much have already been dead once? Yes, our body was alive, but our spirit – that part of us that is like God and enables us to relate to him was dead and had to be brought to life. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born again.

We were enslaved to Evil in three different ways. First, we lived in our transgressions and sins. This speaks of our spiritual enslavement that was a characteristic of our pre-Christian days. Evil had a grip on us. It is not so much that we debauched ourselves or did things that hurt other people. But we lived in a sphere where evil lives – apart from God. It is that terrible awayness from God that we could not get over. We could not get to him and in our natural state did not want to. Satan and his minions had access to our desires and thoughts and influenced us away from God. Second, we conformed to the standards of the world. It is so easy to see this in the lives of people today. We see conformity in ideas and lifestyle that is popular today and was not so a generation ago. The forces of evil are trying to remove God from our national life. It is so easy for our youth to get caught up in whatever is the current “in” thing. This often has more influence over the unregenerate heart than the home or the church. All you have to do is to read the opinions a current news magazine to see how the natural mind does not understand spiritual things. Third, Paul says we were ruled over by Satan. This is a powerful force placed against an unredeemed heart. The natural tendency is to give in to it. Our lives were shaped by this powerful influence over us. This is what we did before Christ – some to a greater extent than others.

We gratified our sinful nature as we desired to do so. Like our first parents, we desired that which was forbidden. It was easy to do for we had few restraints. This has to do with not just the flesh, but with the mind. It was easy to adopt thoughts and beliefs that were contrary to biblical revelation. Look at how many religions that this evil spiritual kingdom has fostered. Many use the name of Christ and change his deity and put a human founder in his place who had a “revelation” that interpreted the real revelation in a different way. Man has always wanted a religion that he makes with his own will and mind. Under Satan’s influence man is very good at it.

We were objects Of God’s wrath which is an uncomfortable thought. It is unthinkable for us now. But there was a time in our pre-Christian days when we were under the wrath and judgment of God. You see, God is hostile to all that is evil. Without this, he could not be totally righteous, pure, and loving. The other side of his nature is anger and wrath at sin. We were objects of this wrath not only for what we have done, but for what we were in our depraved nature.

One of George Orwell’s essays offers a graphic image of human lostness. Orwell describes a wasp that “was sucking jam on my plate and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him.” The wasp and people without Christ have much in common. Severed from their souls, but greedy and unaware, people continue to consume life’s sweetness. Only when it’s time to fly away will they grasp their dreadful condition.

THE WAY WE ARE NOW (Verses 4-7)
“But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

A story told by Paul Lee Tan illustrates the meaning of redemption. He said that when A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, “Son, where did you get those birds?” The boy replied, “I trapped them out in the field.” “What are you going to do with them?” “I’m going to play with them, and then I guess I’ll just feed them to an old cat we have at home.” When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, “Mister, you don’t want them, they’re just little old wild birds and can’t sing very well.” Gordon replied, “I’ll give you $2 for the cage and the birds.” “Okay, it’s a deal, but you’re making a bad bargain.” The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ’s coming to seek and to save the lost — paying for them with His own precious blood. “That boy told me the birds were not songsters,” said Gordon, “but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, ‘Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!” You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, “Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!” –(Our Daily Bread)

We are objects of divine mercy prompted by his great love for us. You see, God sees something very precious in us despite our sin of awayness from him. He focused his love on us like a laser and drew us to himself through his Holy Spirit. In mercy, he said, “You will be mine!” And we responded by our free will and he made it so. And now, every day, our lives are love and mercy filled.

We are made alive in Christ because he has resurrected us from the dead. You can feel some of the desire that God had to make us alive when you remember how you felt when someone you loved died and you wanted them alive again. When we came alive in Christ, everything changed for us.
In Christ We Have:
A love that can never be fathomed
A life that can never die
A righteousness that can never be tarnished
A peace that can never be understood
A rest that can never be disturbed
A joy that can never be diminished
A hope that can never be disappointed
A glory that can never be clouded
A light that can never be darkened
A purity that can never be defiled
A beauty that can never be marred
A wisdom that can never be baffled
Resources that can never be exhausted. (Source Unknown)

These attributes that are in Christ can be ours as we grow in our relationship to him.
One of the most satisfying things about being a pastor is to see individuals come alive by the touch of God in their lives. I love to see new worlds of understanding opened up by Bible Study, faith stimulated by prayer, involvement in the church by desire to be of service to our Lord, and outreach by witnessing to the faith to others. That is when you know that something eternal is happening. A person who does this has truly come alive in Christ. This is what being “quickened” means.

We are grace-filled because we are saved by grace. The verb tense that Paul uses here in saying that we were “saved by grace” means a past completed act, but is continuous and permanent in its results. This was wholly God’s pure and free favor showered upon us both then and now. This is how he can be so patient with our process of becoming what he eventually wants us to be.

We are positioned with Christ through his resurrection and are raised up with him and are to be seated with him in the heavenly realms in the coming ages. It is as we as the redeemed live lives of fulfillment before the unbelieving world that God is able to demonstrate his great kindness, which is available to all who will receive it. We are now getting at God’s motive in causing us to come alive. It is that he might show his incomparable riches of grace that he expressed in his kindness to us in bring us from both spiritual and physical death.

Our response to God’s grace to us is to serve him with a growing love. It is not a list of do’s and don’ts which is a form of legalism. The relationship of Christ to the church in the scriptures is likened to a marriage. He is the groom and we are the bride. This is a perfect marriage.

A husband and wife didn’t really love each other. The man was very demanding, so much so that he prepared a list of rules and regulations for his wife to follow. He insisted that she read them over every day and obey them to the letter. Among other things, his “do’s and don’ts” indicated such details as what time she had to get up in the morning, when his breakfast should be served, and how the housework should be done. After several long years, the husband died. As time passed, the woman fell in love with another man, one who dearly loved her. Soon they were married. This husband did everything he could to make his new wife happy, continually showering her with tokens of his appreciation. One day as he was cleaning house, she found tucked away in a drawer the list of commands her first husband had drawn up for her. As she looked it over, it dawned on her that even though her present husband hadn’t given her any kind of list, she was doing everything her first husband’s list required anyway. She realized she was so devoted to this man that her deepest desire was to please him out of love, not obligation.

Just as this marriage came alive with love, we come alive in Christ when we truly understand on an experiential level what he is doing in us. No one in him wants to be the way we were. Now, we want to be the way we are! Praise Be To His Name!