Dead Made Alive: Ephesians 2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

Dead. Not sick. Not weak. Not struggling. Dead.

The diagnosis is total. Before Christ, we weren't people who needed improvement. We were corpses who needed resurrection.

Dead in transgressions and sins. The cause of death: our rebellion, our failures, our turning from God. Sin killed us. We died by our own hand.

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.

Dead, but still walking. Dead, but still following. We followed the ways of this world—the system of values opposed to God, the culture of rebellion dressed in normalcy.

And the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Satan. The spirit at work in the disobedient. We were not autonomous rebels—we were led, influenced, directed by a power we didn't recognize.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.

All of us. Jews included. Religious people included. Paul himself included. All of us lived this way at one time.

Gratifying the cravings of our flesh. Doing what came naturally. Following the impulses. Satisfying the desires.

We were not victims only—we were willing participants. We wanted what the flesh wanted. We thought what the flesh thought.

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

By nature. Not just by choice. Our nature itself was fallen. We were born bent. Twisted from the womb. Deserving of wrath not only for what we did but for what we were.

Like the rest. No exceptions. No elite class of good people. Like the rest of humanity—under wrath.

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.

But. The turning word. The hinge of history. Everything before was death; everything after is life.

Because of his great love. Motivation exposed. Not our deserving but his loving. Great love—mega love, extravagant love, unfathomable love.

God, who is rich in mercy. Rich. Wealthy in mercy. Overflowing with mercy. The opposite of stingy, calculating, reluctant.

Made us alive with Christ. The resurrection applied. What happened to Christ in the tomb happened to us in conversion. Made alive. Animated. Resurrected.

Even when we were dead. The timing matters. Not when we cleaned up. Not when we showed potential. When we were dead. Grace meets us at our worst.

It is by grace you have been saved. Parenthetical but essential. Grace—unmerited favor. Saved—rescued, delivered, made safe. By grace. Not by anything else. Grace.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

Raised up with Christ. Past tense. Already accomplished. We are risen people living in a fallen world.

Seated with him. Not standing, not kneeling, not prostrate. Seated. The posture of rest, of completed work, of arrival. We are seated in the heavenly realms because Christ is seated there and we are in him.

In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

The purpose stretches into eternity. In the coming ages—the endless ages to come—God will display us. Show us. Exhibit the riches of his grace through what he did for us.

We are the showcase. The trophy case of grace. Forever, the redeemed will display what God's kindness can do.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

The formula crystallized. Grace. Through faith. Not from yourselves.

Grace is the source. Faith is the channel. But even faith is not from us—it too is gift. We contribute nothing. Not the grace, not the faith, not the salvation. Gift. All of it.

Not by works, so that no one can boast.

Not by works. The alternative excluded. Works cannot save. Works cannot contribute. Works cannot add to grace.

So that no one can boast. The purpose of grace-alone: no boasting. Heaven will have no strutting saints claiming credit. Only humbled sinners praising grace.

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are God's handiwork. Poiema—poem, masterpiece, work of art. We are not self-made. We are God-made. His craftsmanship. His creation.

Created in Christ Jesus. New creation. The same God who spoke the universe into being has re-created us in Christ.

To do good works. Not saved by works, but saved for works. Works are the purpose, not the cause. The result, not the requirement.

Which God prepared in advance. Even the works are his. Prepared before we walked in them. The path laid out, the deeds designed, the opportunities arranged.

We were dead. God made us alive.

We were under wrath. God showed us mercy.

We deserved nothing. God gave us everything.

By grace. Through faith. Not by works.

So that no one can boast.

Except in him.