Made Alive – Ephesians 2:1-10

Healthline.com describes confusion as “a symptom that makes you feel as if you can’t think clearly. You might feel disoriented and have a hard time focusing or making decisions. Confusion is also referred to as disorientation. In its extreme state, it’s referred to as delirium.” After the apostle Paul has prayed for continued enlightening of the hearts of his readers, he explains the “delirium” we all suffered from before God enlightened us.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, 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 coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not 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, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10, ESV)

There were three things that contributed to our dead state spiritually before God, making us incapable of moving toward God for rescue:

1) the world: Our community/culture reinforced the belief that we could get life on our own from our religion, our relationships and resources. We could get God to do what we needed if we kept His rules (as we understood them), could get the love we needed and craved from the people in our lives (and if those who were supposed to love us didn’t, we’d find someone who did), and we needed to get as much money as we could to give us security.

2) the devil: Satan, the prince of the power of the air, was successful in keeping us committed to these beliefs, using false teachers and direct demonic influence to move us away from the truth. Like a bird waiting to snatch the seed sown on the soil he constantly sought to steal the message of God’s word from us.

3) our own sinfulness: We wanted what we wanted when we wanted it and were willing to do whatever we could to get it even if it meant disobeying God. Our own hearts were fertile soil for Satan and the world to grow rebellion. We were dead and didn’t know it.

But God responded in love and grace to such an extent that He overcame our deadness by making us alive in Christ when He raised Jesus from the dead. He had predestined us to life and when Jesus was further exalted to heaven, because God placed us spiritually in Jesus, we too were given an exalted position before Him, forgiven and free from condemnation.

For our part, when we heard the message of life we believed it and gave up working for it (as if we ever had the ability to please God) and believing we deserved it. And God responded by giving us a gracious gift of life and salvation. This gift brought with it a new ability to do good works that God had prepared for us to walk in. The gift of salvation was evidenced by the new good works and was the engine and fuel for doing them. We are God’s masterpieces.

Discussion Questions

1. What is a time you have been greatly confused and why did it happen?
2. Before you came to Christ, how did you think about life and how to get life?
3. What makes you think God did something extraordinary to bring you out of your confusion about life and make you alive?
4. What does it mean to you that God wants to show you the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward you in the ages to come?
5. Is Paul saying it is inevitable that a believer will demonstrate good works?
6. You were created in Christ Jesus for good works, but what has God done practically to move you to good works?