Praize Blogs

We saw in chapter one that Paul was addressing born-again Christians.  He told us that as Christians, we are holy and without blame (sin) walking in love before Jesus.   Paul told us that after we heard the gospel of salvation, we believed on Jesus and were filled with the Holy Spirit.  God made Jesus the head of the church, which is His body.  Chapter two is a continuation of Paul’s thoughts.  Chapter one told us that we were saved and what we received from salvation.  Chapter two now tells us what we were saved from. 

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-7).

V.1- Being quickened by God is being restored, made whole, and made alive. We see this stated positively in Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” We have new life, the old man is dead, behold, all things are new, renewed, quickened, made whole.  (II Corinthians 5:17) Mr. Webster says that the spring earth is quickened by the rains. Lazarus’ body was quickened by Jesus, as were many others. So, it is us. Born again Christians are quickened to new strength, new life, new determination. It was God’s sacrifice of His Son on the altar of death and destruction that bought our freedom, our new life. We are now alive in Christ.  Praise the Holy Lord!

Psalm 71 is said to have been written by an anonymous author. But it is one that contains much wisdom and knowledge of Scripture. It is written on the subject of salvation. VV.19-21 is what fits our study tonight, but I suggest you read this Psalm carefully. It is a wonderful example of prayer.

The phrase, “...hath He quickened” is not in the original text, but is derived from the explanation in Ephesians 2:5. When we get there, we’ll see better what it means to be made alive.

“Dead in trespasses and sins,” is a bitter condemnation. We were so far off the mark that we were considered dead to God.  He could not look on us.  That’s why it’s the Spirit’s job to work on the hearts of man. Just as Jesus bore our transgressions, the Spirit tries to withdraw us from the lifestyle that separates us from God.  ” And when he (the Holy Spirit) is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” John 16:8). When we heed the Spirit’s nudging and accept Christ as personal Savior and Lord, we are reconciled to God. We made alive and connected to the source of what? Power!  We now have the power to overcome sin in our lives.

Why were we “dead in trespasses and sin?”  It’s because we walked after the flesh following the temptations of the devil.  We didn’t seek for righteousness and peace.  We were children only seeking after what pleased us.  It didn’t matter who it hurt as long as it felt good to us.  Isaiah 43:27 makes it clear. “Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.”  Our first father was Adam and we know he sinned.  And all our earthly fathers since him have sinned, and so did we.  

V.2- We must remember that Paul was talking to the people of his day. He was including the Jews in the sermon when he said, “...among whom also we all once conducted ourselves.” He was addressing their customs, religions, and way of life. (But it works for us too.) That's what “the course of this world” means." They were walking in sin. Another thing we have to remember is they were preaching the coming of the Messiah. Even though Jesus was there with them, they could not see or hear. That’s why the Bible is for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. They were living in yesterday, looking for tomorrow and missed today, where Jesus was, altogether. They missed the boat, figuratively speaking.

Our first walk was with evil. It was an agreement with the devils to work in sin. It wasn’t always a conscious decision.  It just came with being born. Even the nicest, sweetest people are in covenant with evil until they find the Lord.   

Let’s read I John 1:8-10.  “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”  This was written to Christians, but holds the right message for the lost. If we say we have no sin nature before we are saved, we are calling God a liar. So, we were a slithering member of the Brood of Vipers, a wall of the white-washed tombs, clean on the outside, fermenting evil inside. All of this we did for the prince of the power of the air, satan and his demons (Ephesians 6:12).

We were sons of disobedience. So, what did we have to do to become children of the kingdom? Let’s read the instructions to the lost in Colossians 3:5-7.   “Mortify (crush) therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection (homosexuality, bestiality and any perverted physical use of the body), evil concupiscence (lust), and covetousness (greed), which is idolatry (worship of anything that’s not God): For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.”

We need to put to death! Not just renounce the acts we once did, but kill them, bury them, crush them and never again revisit them. As sons of disobedience, we accomplished nothing. Maybe we made money, I know I did. Maybe we had nice things, but we did nothing of lasting value! We were only building a paper dream.  As soon as the winds of adversity blew, we lost everything. But with God, we are building on the solid foundation, the Rock, the Cornerstone.  This doesn’t assure us we will never suffer lost as Christians, but we have the Giver on our side and He always raises back up.

More studies at http://www.newbeginmin1.org/BIBLESTUDYOPENING.html