Death Isn’t Done
Death only means life is coming.
There is hope in death.
A beginning coming from an ending.
What are some characteristics of dead things?
Cold
Still
Silent
Unfeeling
Motionless
Useless
Empty
Void
Forgotten
Buried
Decaying
What does it feel like to be dead?
It feels like nothing.
Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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— 3 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.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Let’s break this down verse-by-verse…
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
And. You. Were. Dead.
That's it. Dead is dead.
The end. Over. Done-zo.
We can look at death in two ways here:
#1 - The state of death is referring to our spiritual state without God.
Your spirit, the most important part of you, was dead to God, the most important Being in existence.
#2 - Death is not just a state of being, it’s a legal sentence.
The payment for sin is death. Death is the legal punishment for all of sin — the world’s sin, your sin, my sin.
Because we have a just, righteous God, sin cannot remain — but it is costly to remove.
We were all dead. In our sins. In our mistakes. In our disobedience.
2 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—
We've all followed the world, followed the powers of this world.
We've walked that path—we weren't passive, we were participants. We lived in them. We were moving forward in them.
Living life in our own power, following the ways of the world, and blind to God’s prompting.
It’s like walking around in a black and white world without sounds or smells — you know there is more but you can’t find it.
“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”
Ephesians 5:8
The course of this world is darkness. And we not only walked it, we were it. We were darkness.
We contributed to the darkness ourselves and may not have noticed...
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12
These are things we can't always see or touch or hear.
It may not look like darkness to you at first.
You may find yourself so far down a path that you don't even realize is darkness until you're stuck in it.
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,
We've all followed what we want. What feels good. What sounds good. What looks good.
When, against your better judgment, you just have to have something.
Your flesh demands it. It's almost hard to explain.
Your impulses dictate your actions.
For me, on a lighter note, it's Freddy's french fries...when I think about them, I've got to have them. It's like an actual problem that I can't say "no" to.
More seriously, it's the moments when I'm running my mouth like a faucet and it's not until after the words are out that I feel bad. There wasn't a conscious decision not to say what I said—my natural tendency is to go off. It's almost unavoidable.
Maybe for you it's:
snapping at your spouse or kids
drinking that extra glass of wine
eating the whole pizza
staying out too late
going too far with your boyfriend
going too far on the internet
watching that show that you know sends you into a spiral
gossiping with your best friend because she's a "safe place"
death-scrolling instead of working or sleeping
What impulses drive you without you even noticing?
It’s like going through the motions, living by what feels good, but with a deep, aching emptiness when you lay your head down at night.
No solutions, no forward movement, no hope.
It gets worse before it gets better…
3b and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Because of the fall, we were, by nature, cursed.
Cursed to experience God's wrath.
Cursed to walk in darkness.
Cursed to be isolated from love.
Cursed to be left to ourselves.
Cursed to be separate from God.
Here's where it gets better…
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us…
BUT GOD. It could also be read as “And God."
Because sometimes it's both/and. But/And. Two things can be true at the same time.
There is death and life. We hold both.
There is good and bad. We hold both.
There is joy and sorrow. We hold both.
There is peace and chaos. We hold both.
There will always be a tension—it matters how we hold that tension.
There is an awful human condition and there's a gracious, merciful God.
But, is also an interruption. A turn...
You were dead. But God.
You were useless. But God.
You were cold. But God.
You were empty. But God.
You were darkness. But God.
You were forgotten. But God.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
"being"
-- He is. Not because of our sin, but He already is.
-- He exists as...
-- He can't be other than...
-- Regardless of our condition, He will always be what He is.
"rich in mercy"
-- more than enough, overflowing, inexhaustible
"because of the great love"
-- The great love, not His great love
-- Because He is the great love, He doesn't just possess great love, He embodies it.
"with which He loved us"
-- He didn't have to drum up love for us.
-- He didn't have to force Himself.
-- Great love was already Him. It is already Him.
You know how we talk about there being no effort on our part to get God to love us? There was also no effort on His part. The love was already there.
You know those people you have to work to love? It's where the phrase "labor of love" comes from. God doesn't have to do that.
It isn't work for God to love you.
He had every right and ability to completely destroy us in our rejection of Him. The OT is full of prophecies and even some fulfillments of prophecies of God's righteous judgment against people.
Instead He made it possible for us to be right.
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses…
This whole verse is the central idea of Paul's entire theology.
"even when we were dead"
-- i.e. useless
-- We didn't take the first breath or the first step.
-- We were dead, and in our death we were enemies...
"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
Romans 5:10 ESV
Death for an enemy, offered without us asking. Available to all of us, and we don't have to even act like we want it for it to be presented to us. Unheard of.
5b made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
"made us alive"
-- An act of God Himself
-- New life, not your old life—this is a new work.
Jesus said it Himself...
“Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3
A new birth, a new life. And not just you on your own...
"together"
-- Or "with"
-- We weren't made alive on our own, by ourselves—but with Christ.
-- God's work through Christ invites us in to be with Jesus.
Your life is intertwined with Christ's life. It's not just your life anymore.
This is an act of grace. It's not just a quality or trait of God to be gracious, to give us what we don't deserve, but His grace is an action that causes deep change in us. It brings us from death to life.
And only through or with Jesus.
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…
More "with"s...
We are made alive with Christ.
We are resurrected with Christ.
We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
We walked out of the tomb with him.
We will be glorified with him.
We are living new life with him.
Everything Jesus has, you have.
Think about that:
A new life
A clean record
An empty slate
A right-standing with God
and not only that...
Proximity to God
This is so hard for us to actually comprehend.
Because when we look in the mirror we don't see Jesus. We don't even see an "okay" version of ourselves.
We are so far from seeing all that we are in Christ. And all that we have.
God does not see what you see when you look at you.
God sees righteousness, holiness, goodness.
Why did He do all of this for us?
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
All of this was to show the world His endless grace toward us. It's a massive ad-campaign to the world. His love and mercy are on display through this act of grace.
What could be more loving? What could be more kind?
Would you do it? Would you die for someone so miserable?
You might think of yourself as servant-hearted and kind, that you would maybe lay your life down for your friends.
What about the person who hates you? What about the person who ruined your life?
But what about the person who hurt your child? What about the person who hurt your friend?
Would you die for them out of love and kindness? Not out of your own desire to look good or play the martyr?
...
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We have two choices: pay for our sin ourselves, or accept the free gift of life that God provided through His Son’s payment for sin.
Paying for the sin ourselves looks like living life dead and spending eternity in hell and utter separation from God and everything good.
Accepting Jesus’ death as our own looks like true life, real life, free life, abundant life and eternal life.
It’s living this life to know Him and the next life beside Him.
Luckily if we choose the second option, we don't have to muster up the right feelings or do the right thing enough times.
Our acceptance of the gift is all that's required. That's it.
Remember how you were dead? Useless? Couldn't do anything? It couldn't be your own doing.
But even when we were dead from our own doing, our own choices, our own inability to reach God, He came down and snatched us up out of the grave — by His choice, His mercy, His goodness.
Why?
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
He created you. He made you. He established you.
He had a purpose for you before you messed up, while you were messing up, and when you mess up in the future.
He didn't create us to just leave us on our own.
You can expect God to care for and about his creation. His plan for your good and your work and your path were worth dying for.
And He didn't just create you for work like how we imagine effort, hard labor, production.
"workmanship" in the greek is: poiēma. What does that sound like to you? Poem.
We aren't just the work of God, we are the artwork of God.
Like a poem has a purpose, delivers a message, but stirs hearts and inspires wonder—we are the work of the master Poet.
...
What do we do with this today?
We all need a “but God” moment. We need an interruption from God — an intervention.
We all have something that feels dead in our lives:
A dream
A family
A relationship
A future
A friendship
A job
A bank account
Your health
Your motivation
Your relationship with God
We need Him to come into our mess and interject, to interrupt, to flip the script, to turn the page.
Despite our choices, our attitudes, our sin, our inability to help ourselves, we need God to interrupt. And the best part is, I know He can. Why?
Because in the middle of literal death, He interrupted and brought life.
And it had to be God. Only God can resurrect. Only He has proven that. Only He has power over death.
And it's what He does. His specialty is resurrection. His plan is death to life—always has been and always will be.
In the middle of my suffering and inability to pull myself out, I know God is coming. Because if He can raise me from the literal dead, He can walk me through this life.
…
I want you to replace these verses with your name in it.
"but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved ______, even when ______ was dead, made ______ alive together with Christ—by grace ______ has been saved."
