Dead in Sin, Alive in Christ

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

DEAD TO SIN, ALIVE IN CHRIST

Eph 2:1-10

2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 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. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 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. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

NIV

We could not break this whole thought into tiny segments, but at the same time this whole truth has so much in it we may have to camp out here for a couple of days in order to cover everything which is said. There is no question that we were once dead in our transgressions and sins. It was the way we used to live. There are some who say they were raised in a Christian home and as long as they can remember they were Christians and therefore have a difficult time thinking they were dead in their sins. But the fact is no matter who anyone is or whatever background they come from simply because of being a descendant of Adam, they were born into this world dead in their sins. In addition, it does not matter how good they were as children, at some point in their lives they disobeyed their parents, lied to them, or sinned in some way, which is covered under the personal sin category. We are all sinners, and we are all saved by grace. If someone says they never sinned, they deceive themselves and call God a liar. We all followed the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Some of us followed him for a longer time than others, but we all did. What is even more difficult to understand is when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, being saved by grace, we should have left the ways of the world behind us. We cannot serve two masters, God, and the world, except the word, says God and money. The idea is the same, as at least in our current culture money is at the forefront. It seems there is more talk about money, savings, investments, retirement, and services that provide advice on money management then every before. How can we live in both worlds? How can we say we serve God and yet live by or concern ourselves with all those material concepts? When we were sinners we lived gratifying our graving and sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. We do wonder how some people who have yet to accept Jesus, sinners by that definition, seem to be such good people. It even appears some of them are nicer than some believers. How can that be, their sinners, who follow their sinful nature, living to gratify their graving and following their desires and thoughts. It makes us think as to how different we are supposed to live and wonder if we actually do live differently. Does our walk match our words? We will get to his great love later, maybe tomorrow, but today we have to remain focused on this change in our lives, from sinner to saint, from dead in sin to alive in Christ. If we are alive in Christ than our old nature is dead, and a dead man has no rights. A dead man cannot control us, it has no rule over us. So then the old nature is gone for good and we are alive, having a new nature, the nature of Christ Jesus. So then how can we manage to still abide by some of the rules of the prince of the air? It cannot be Jesus and, it has to be Jesus or. Then we will live in Christ, not in a dead man.