Dead Men Made Alive - Ephesians 2: 4-6

1:36And as they administered the insulin to the last comatose child, the first child began to wake up. And then one by one, each of the children began to wake up as the effects of the insulin began to take effect. And what was once a room full of death and gloom all of a sudden turned into a room full of joy and hope. It was an incredible moment. This article was describing it. And as significant of a moment as that was back in 1922, it really pales into comparison to what is described here in our text this morning in Ephesians chapter 2. Let me read you our text this morning, and I will read verses 1 through 10, actually.

2:28Although we're only going to study a few of those verses. Ephesians 2, verse 1, And you were dead in your trespasses in sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, too, we all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

3:06But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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 ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them.

4:02This passage is actually one long sentence in the Greek text. Paul seems to write in sentences that are much longer than we would allow in the English. But it's one long sentence, and it provides and describes the great salvation that God has provided to us in Christ. And last time we were together, which has been a couple weeks now, we looked at the first three verses. Together. There, Paul reminds us of our spiritual condition apart from Christ. That is who we were. Who we were. We were dead. Remember that? We were dead, spiritually separated from the life of God because of our sins. Dead men walking, we described it. And that described our very existence apart from God. It was a living death. And this deadness was made evident by the lifestyle that we lived. That's how we lived. We lived as dead men. And it corrupted every aspect of our lives. And we looked at how it corrupted our thinking. Our thinking was defined by the world. Our loyalty was devoted to the devil. We joined forces with the devil in exalting ourselves above God.

5:29And that pursuit of self, of course, dictated all of our actions. We were dictated by our fleshly desires. We indulged them. We made preparations so that we could have whatever we wanted. And, of course, all of that led to a future that was destined for God's wrath. That's what we looked at the last time that we were together in Ephesians. It was a tragic scene. We were dead, and we had no ability to do anything. About it. We couldn't cause ourselves to be born again. We couldn't breathe spiritual life into ourselves. We, apart from God, had no hope.

6:13And then, in verse 4, Paul writes two of the most beautiful words. And again, we ended with this last time. Two of some of the most beautiful words in Scripture. But God. We were dead, but God. And these are truly great words of hope because it changes everything. It changes everything. God alone is the only source of hope that we have. If God did not intervene, we would all still be in our hopeless condition of death, spiritual death. And so this is precisely Paul's message this morning: that God intervened. That's his message. And it's the gospel message. It's the message that we need to hear. We have hope because God intervened on our behalf. Now, the phrase, but God, it also indicates that there's a contrast being made. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. There's a contrast. Paul makes a contrast between who we were and how we lived with who God is and what he did. Who we were and how we lived compared with who God is. Is and how we lived. And that's going to be our outline this morning. And my prayer as we work through this text, and we're going to focus on verses 4 through 6, my prayer is that you and I will come to know more fully the merciful God that is described here, and that we would come to know how he has expressed his love towards us as undeserving sinners.

7:57So let's begin looking at first at who God is. Who is God? How does Paul describe him here? Notice the word, notice what it says. It says that he is being rich in mercy. Now, the word being speaks of his fundamental nature. This is how God exists. He exists as one who is rich in mercy. You may notice in verse 1, the same word is used of us, being dead. That's how we existed as dead people. We just described that. That's what characterized us. But God exists as one who is rich in mercy. He's merciful. Literally, he is abounding with or overflowing with mercy. Now, the word translated for mercy conveys the idea of a strong pity or sympathy towards something. You can speak of compassion. Compassion. And in the Old Testament, you might also See it translated as God's loving kindness. That's what mercy is. It's God's compassion and his kindness, and it overflows from his very nature. Exodus 34 says, God says this about himself. When he passes in front of Moses, he says, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, and who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.

9:35Psalm 145 says, The Lord is good to all. He is good to all, and his mercies are over all of his works. Mercy is at the core of who God is. It's his disposition, he's abundant in it. And he extends it towards all of his creation, particularly people. That's what the scriptures, we see in the scriptures, God displaying his mercy towards people. And let me give you two primary ways in which we see God extending mercy towards people. I believe these are going to help us understand the point that Paul is making here in Ephesians 2. First, God's mercy can be seen as the relief of misery, the relief of misery for those who are afflicted and suffering. You see, when God looks upon the affliction, Afflicted, his disposition is to show kindness to them and to comfort them and bring relief to their situation. And we see examples of this all throughout Scripture. We don't have enough time to go through all of them, but think of Israel. How many times was Israel finding themselves in a situation of distress? Most oftentimes because of their own sin, of course. But they found themselves in need of God's mercy. And so they would cry out to him. They would cry out to God, and in mercy, he would bring relief to their distress.

11:09The Psalms also pick up on this concept. Many times we read of the psalmist in times of trouble, and they cry out, they appeal to God's mercy. For example, Psalm 86, it reads like this: Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy. Preserve my soul. Verse 3, be gracious to me, O Lord, for I cry to you all day long. And verse 5, for you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive, and abundant in loving kindness, abundant in mercy to all who call upon you.

11:50And then, of course, you come over to the New Testament and we see the same thing: God extending his mercy. And God's mercy is on full display in the light. And the ministry of Christ. And as you go through the Gospels, you see Jesus spending much of his time with who? With the afflicted, with those who are in misery, the needy, people that are desperately sick, afflicted by diseases, tormented by demons. And time and again, as Jesus passes by them, they cry out to him for mercy. Jesus, have mercy on me, is often what we hear. And so they beg Christ to have mercy and bring relief to their misery. That's what mercy is. There's a second aspect that I think we see in Scripture, and that is God's mercy can be seen as the restraint of his wrath. So it's the relief of his mercy, but it's also the restraining of his wrath towards those who are guilty and deserving.

12:58Turn with me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. I think this is a good example that really shows both aspects that we've been talking about of God's mercy. Psalm 103 is a Psalm of David, and he is praising the Lord for His mercy. And I won't read all of it, but the first seven verses, really, he is recounting all the benefits of God's mercy. And he's blessing the Lord for it. And he reminds us that God, in his mercy, pardons our iniquities. He heals our diseases. Verse 4: He redeems our life from the pit and crowns us with loving kindness and compassion.

13:47Verse 6: The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. See, that's the first aspect. He relieves us from our distress. And in verse 8 is a summary statement. He says, The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, abounding in mercy. And in verse 9, he goes on, he says, But he will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger back forever. He's not going to hold back his anger forever.

14:24But for now, he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness or his mercy towards those who fear him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. For just as a father has had compassion on his children, so too the Lord has compassion or mercy on those who fear him.

14:59So you see, See, it's not only a relief of our misery in our affliction, but it is a restraining of God's wrath. He's holding back his anger. And so, back in Ephesians chapter 2, I think both of these are in view here. Paul is making the point that we were miserable sinners. That's verses 1 through 3. We were miserable sinners, and we deserved God's wrath. But God is rich in mercy. He is the father of mercies. He is the God of all comfort, as it says in 2 Corinthians 1, who comforts us in our afflictions.

15:39And he is also patient. His patience is extended to us because he doesn't wish any of us to perish, but all to come to repentance. So in mercy, he restrains the wrath that we deserve. He restrains it so that we might be saved. That is how Paul describes who God is. He is a God being rich in, he's overwhelming, he's overflowing with mercy. He's characterized by it. Now, notice the next phrase in our text. Not only is he characterized by mercy, but he is motivated by love. It says, because of his great love with which he loved us. That's how he describes God. He is motivated by his love. Love. Now, the words, you'll notice the word because of, it speaks to something of a reason, like the reason by which someone does something. It speaks to the motivation behind an action. And let me first point out that our salvation is not motivated and was not motivated by the spiritual condition in which God finds us. You see that?

17:00God was not up late one night watching TV and didn't happen to see one of those local SPCA commercials. You know, you know the ones I'm talking about? The ones where they flash those images of the abused animals in an attempt to stir up our emotions, to manipulate our emotions so that we might adopt them. God wasn't up watching those. He didn't see a bunch of images of us as pitiful sinners, and then that's what motivated him to act. That's not what happened. Yes, God is merciful. Yes, he is full of compassion. Yes, he is grieved when he looks at us in our sinful condition. But that is not ultimately what caused him to act in our salvation.

17:48It was not the motivation. Rather, it was his character. It was who God is that motivated him. It was his great love. Isn't that what it says? It was because of his great love. With which he loved us. Now, let me draw out a few things here that we see in this phrase. First, it is his love. It's his love. Did you know that love originates from God? That is true, isn't it? It's true because God is love.

18:21It defines who He is. 1 John 4, 7 and 8 says this: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And the one who does not love does not know God because God is love. That's who God is. He is love, and it originates from Him. That's the kind of love that motivated God to act. It was His love. Second, His love is great. It says it's His great love. And the word great is often used in the Gospels to describe the multitudes, the great multitudes that would come to Christ in His ministry here on earth. And it's a slightly different word than the word rich, which we saw earlier, that meant overflowing. But it still speaks of the great capacity of God's love. You see, God's love is vast, it is unmeasurable, it is great. In fact, it is so great. That in Ephesians chapter 3, just a page over, in verse 17, Paul describes it like this: describes love where he prays that we would understand and comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. That's the kind of love. That's how great God's love is. It surpasses knowledge. It's so great you can't even comprehend all of it. You can't, when you're trying to think about how much God is love, you can't even wrap our minds around it.

20:12And thirdly, and most perhaps most importantly, it's the love with which He loved us. God has chosen to extend His great love to us. To us. 1 John 4:10, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. And what kind of love did God love us with? Well, the love which He loved us is a self-giving love. It's a self-giving love. The word used here is agape. If you've been in church long, you may have heard that term, agape love. It is the giving of oneself on behalf for the benefit of another, the giving of oneself. John 3:16, for God's love. So loved the world that he gave. He gave us his Son. In Galatians 2.20, Paul speaks of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

21:13God gave himself for our benefit. It's a self-giving love. And it is also a self-sacrificing love. Love makes sacrifices. That's what love is. And God has made the greatest sacrifice you could possibly be made. John 15, 13, greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends. You know that verse probably all too well. And of course, God went even further than that. He laid down his life not just for his friends, but for his enemies.

21:55We were his enemy, were we not? God loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions. When we were God's enemy, God loved us with his great, self-sacrificing love. And friends, there is no greater love than God's self-giving, self-sacrificing love. There's no greater expression than that. And that's the kind of love that motivated him to act. It's God's great love that's the basis of our salvation. Again, it's being contrasted here. We were motivated by what? We were motivated by our selfish desires. We loved ourselves, and so we pursued ourselves. But God was motivated by His great and sacrificial love for us. You see the contrast?

22:52So that is who God is. He is a God characterized by mercy, and He is a God motivated by love. Now, we must ask: How is that mercy and love expressed? Well, you may have heard in other places that love is a verb, right? Love is a verb. And there are three of them given here that describe what God did. There are three actions or three expressions of God's merciful love found in our text this morning.

23:32And let me remind you or take you back to grammar school a little bit, just for a moment. I won't leave you there because I didn't care for grammar too much in school. But every verb has to have what? A subject. Every verb has to have a subject. And so you may remember that from grammar school, right? But all of these verbs are connected to a subject, and they are found at the beginning of verse 4. That subject is God. God is the one who performed these actions. He is the one who did them. And notice also that these are all past tense. He performed all of these things in the past.

24:15They point to an action that has already taken place in the past, but they do have implications for us in the present. So let's work through them with the time that we have left together. The first one that we see is that God made us alive. He made us alive together with Christ. That's the first one. What does every spiritually dead person need? They need life. They need spiritual life. And that is exactly what God did. He gave them spiritual life. We were dead, but God made us spiritually alive.

24:58What does it mean to be spiritually alive? Well, simply put, spiritual life is the opposite of spiritual death. That makes sense, right? We saw that in chapter 1. Spiritual death was a separation. You remember that? Spiritual death was a separation from God, from the source of life. And that separation left us completely incapacitated, complete inability to respond to the things of God. That was spiritual death. Therefore, if spiritual death is a separation from God, spiritual life is a connection with God. It's a uniting with God.

25:42You may recall last week we had a major water leak up here at the church. I think they announced it. We were trying to get all that fixed. We had several people that thankfully came up here and helped us get it fixed. But you know what we found when we finally dug down far enough and we found the leak? Do you know what we found down there? We found that a secondary line that serviced those buildings over there had been separated from the main line, from the main water line. And that separation, of course, rendered all the fixtures over there that produce, that give us water inoperable. You could turn those faucets on as much as you want, and there was no water coming out. Why was that? Because it had been separated from the main source of water. And, of course, it needed to be reconnected. So, of course, once that happened, when we pulled, I don't know if Links, there's Linston, we pulled Langston up out of the hole by his feet.

26:47It's quite a sight. We pulled him up out of his feet after he had reconnected, and we went to turn on the water, and guess what happened? We had water. And so we got to have services in the 4th of July and all that. But isn't that essentially? What Paul is describing here in a spiritual sense? I think it relates. Our sins have separated us from the main source of spiritual life. But God made us alive. He connected us to that source through Christ. He connected us together with Christ. That is what it means to be spiritually alive. It is being united with Christ. He alone is our connection point to spiritual life. Apart from him, we were dead. With God, with Christ, united to him, we are made alive. Now, theologians often refer to this as regeneration. Maybe you've heard that term. To be made alive is to be regenerated. Martin Lloyd-Jones defines it this way: Regeneration is when God, by His mighty action, puts a new disposition, a new nature into our soul. That's what it means to be made alive, a new nature. This, of course, resonates with what Paul describes just a few chapters later in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22. He says, This, in reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self, the old nature, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new self, the new nature, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. You see, when we are made alive, when we are made spiritually alive, we are given a new nature. The old, corrupt nature, the one that was corrupt by sin and characterized by sinful desires, is done away with, and a new nature, characterized by new desires, desires of righteousness and holiness, is in its place.

29:05Jesus also describes this as the new birth. You remember his interaction with Nicodemus in John chapter 3? You remember what he said to him about the new birth? He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. For that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So do not be amazed when I tell you, you must be born again.

29:37Jesus said you must be spiritually reborn. And that new birth originates from above. It's not by blood, not by your parents. That's not where you get spiritual life. That's not where you're reborn. It's not by the will of the flesh. We can't just decide to rebirth ourselves, to give us spiritual life. It's not by the will of man, but by God. It's from above. That's what Jesus said. And so all of these analogies, a new birth, a new nature, being made alive, that's what's being described here in Ephesians chapter 2. It's the first thing that God did in our salvation. He made us alive together with Christ. He regenerated us. And so I ask you this morning, are you alive? Are you spiritually alive? Are you connected to Christ? Have you been connected to God through Christ? You can be. That's the message that Paul is giving us. God is a merciful and loving God, and he can give you spiritual life through Christ. He can regenerate you.

30:53Well, there's a second action that we have here in the text. Not only did God regenerate us, but he resurrected us. He raised us up in him. That's the second thing. He raised us up. Now, remember, in chapter 2, we have been talking about spiritual realities. Verses 1 through 3, it was spiritual death. Verses 4 and 5 speak of spiritual life. Therefore, it only makes sense to view verse 6 in the same way. So we're speaking of a spiritual resurrection.

31:30Spiritual resurrection. Now, remember also that Paul is pointing backwards to a specific event in the past. Specifically, he is referring to the physical resurrection of Christ that he previously mentioned at the end of chapter 1. It's been quite a while since we've been there, but in chapter 1, Paul prayed that we would understand the surpassing greatness of God's power towards those who believe. And the specific example that he gives of that power is the resurrection of Christ. And so, in some way, Paul is connecting what happened in the physical resurrection of Christ when he was raised to what God did in our spiritual resurrection when we were raised. Let me see if I can unpack that a little bit for us. What happens when someone is physically resurrected? I think that will help us as we look at what happened when Jesus was resurrected. It will tell us something of what is happening in our spiritual resurrection. Turn back to Luke chapter 24. Luke 24.

32:58Starting in verse 1. It says, But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothes. And as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, he is risen. Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, he is risen. The first observation that I want to make is that those who have been resurrected do not stay in the grave. They don't stay in the grave. The grave is only for those who are dead. The grave is the realm of death. It's where death exists in the grave. And so when a person is resurrected, they are raised up and they come out of that realm of death. That's what we see with Jesus. He was not there. He was a living one. He was not among the dead any longer. He came out of the grave. He had been raised up.

34:29Not only Do they come out of the grave, but they also leave the grave clothes behind. Turn now to John's account, John chapter 20. John's record of the resurrection has always been an interesting one to me because of what he seems to focus on. In John chapter 20, I'm going to begin in verse 3. Mary had already come and seen the empty tomb and came back and told the disciples. And pick it up in verse 3 of chapter 20. It says, So Peter and the other disciple, that's John, went forth and they were going to the tomb.

35:16And the two were running together, and the disciple, the other disciple, ran ahead faster than Peter, and he came to the tomb first. And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there. And he also saw the facecloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand. The scripture that he must rise again from the dead. And so it's interesting that John focuses on the linens that were left behind. You see that? He mentions it several times. Jesus, when he was resurrected, he came out of the grave and he left everything that was associated with death behind in the tomb. He didn't need the burial wrappings anymore, and so he left them behind. The burial wrappings were for dead people, and he was no longer dead. He had been resurrected. So back to Ephesians chapter 2. How does all this relate to us, to our raising up, to being raised up? Well, God did not make us alive together so that we could stay in the grave, so that we could keep living there. No, he raised us up in Christ out of our own spiritual deadness, out of that realm of death in which we existed. That's where he raised us up out of. And he raised us up so that we might leave behind all the things that were associated with that former life of death. We are to leave behind the world's way of thinking. We are to leave behind those selfish desires that drove every single one of our actions. Leave them behind because those Are for dead people. Those are for the spiritually dead. And if you're here this morning and you have been raised up with Christ, you have the power to live as those who have been raised from the dead.

37:44Romans 6 tells us that we don't have to let sin reign in our bodies any longer. Do you realize that? We don't have to obey the lusts of our flesh. Rather, we can present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness to God. That's what it means to be raised up with Christ. He's raised us up out of our deadness and we can leave that former life of sin behind.

38:17Well, lastly, he not only regenerated us and resurrected us, but he also recognized us as fellow heirs with Christ. That's the third thing that God did. He says he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Literally, he caused us to sit down together with Christ. To sit down together with Christ. Where is Christ seated? Well, he's at the right hand of the Father. That's what it says in Hebrews 1:3. It says that when Jesus had made purification of sins, he sat down at the side of the sins of the sins The right hand of the majesty on high.

39:04When Jesus endured the cross, when he conquered the grave, he opened the door to eternal life, and then he sat down on his throne. God seated him on his throne in a place of great honor, supreme honor and authority. That's where Christ is seated. And this was the Father's expression of supreme love towards his son. When he set him on his throne and he set him apart from all others, you remember what it said in chapter 1? He was seated far above all rule, all authority, all power, all dominion, every name that is named, both now and in the age to come. There will never be anyone or anything that will outrank the Lord Jesus Christ because God has exalted him as king of kings and lord of lords, and he has been seated rightfully on his throne.

40:08And guess what? We were seated with him. We were made to share in that expression of love that God had for the Son. Did you know that? And so when he made us alive, he raised us up and he seated us. He caused us to share in all. That had been given to Christ. Let me conclude with this. It's found in John 17. It drives this point home. John 17 is, of course, Jesus' high priestly prayer.

40:47And he's praying for his disciples before he is crucified and resurrected and ascended up into heaven. He prays this prayer. And in John 17, verse 22, he says this. He says, The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity. Listen to this, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me.

41:33That the world may know that you sent me and that you loved me and loved them even as you loved me. Isn't that a wonderful, wonderful thing? That summarizes our salvation in Christ. Listen, he, we were dead, but God made us alive. He made us alive, he resurrected us, he raised us up, and he seated us with him. All as an expression of God's merciful love towards undeserving sinners. Again, it's hard to wrap your mind around it, but God's love is so great that it is the same love that He loved His own Son. We share in that love.

42:20And friends, that should encourage our hearts. That is a message of great hope. And so the question that we leave here today is: Are you connected to Christ? Or are you separated from God by your sin? Well, that is the message we have in Ephesians chapter 2. It goes on, we'll look at this the next time we are together, Lord willing, where the rest of the passage, verses 7 through 10, talks about why God did this. Why in the world did He express His love towards undeserving sinners? We'll look at that next time. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we again thank you for your word. We thank you that even though we were dead in our sins, you were motivated by your own love and you expressed it towards us. And you saved us from our sins. You provided a way for us to have spiritual life. And for that, we are eternally. Grateful.

43:33Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.