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Read Ephesians 2:1-7  

Without Christ in our lives, we are dead to God.  (1)

*Illustration:  The pain of shunning.  A family member who is dead to the family.  Anger, counseled away, hurt abounds for all the family even extended.

• The cause of this death is due to our transgressions and sins.

• Transgressions- false steps or consistent stumbling.

• Sins- guilt from wrongdoing or a missing of the mark.

• Combination of the two suggests absolute failure to be in God’s favor.

Spiritually dead people look a lot alike. (2-3)

• They follow the same patterns values and behaviors that prevail in society. (2a)

• They follow the same deceptive leader—but they are most often clueless they have a leader. (2b)

• Self-gratification is of highest value.

• Personal thoughts and desires trump authority, especially divine.

Without Jesus we ARE deserving of God’s wrath!  But God…!

The love of God is what changes the narrative. (4)

• God is rich in mercy.
  • We deserved his wrath, and it is withheld from those who are his.
  • His mercy comes in abundance. Calvin

• Love for us, despite us, motivated him to the most complete end.

God made alive those who could not respond as dead people.  (5)

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

• Spiritually dead people cannot do anything for themselves to become right with God.
  
  
• We don’t get clean to come to Jesus, because that is impossible for someone who is spiritually dead. We come to Jesus to get clean and be made alive.

Jesus explained it this way—John 3:3 “…Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  

• Jesus dying for us and saving us from the wrath due us because of our sins is truly an act of grace.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We are made alive to God by the single redemptive act of Jesus Christ.  (6-7)

• Christ died. To pay ransom for those who were dead.
  
  
• Christ came back to life. He gives life to those he redeems. (6a)
  
  
• He sits at the right hand of God. We are invited to sit with him on the seat of the first born.  (6b)
  
  
• We anticipate seeing the riches of his grace! (7)

I am grateful to declare we have a God who is rich in mercy and grace!