The Basics of Christianity (Eph 2:1-10)

 

#1 – Human Nature (Eph 2:1-3)

We start Part One with OUR SINFUL NATURE. Look with me at verses 1-3 and see what Paul describes:

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 flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

I’m using the words SINFUL NATURE intentionally because that’s what’s in the text. Verse 1 begins by talking about SIN. And near the end of verse 3 we see that this is our NATURE.

What is "sin"? Put simply, sin is disobeying God. When we disobey what God has said, we are sinning. This can mean doing what God has said not to do, or NOT doing what God has commanded us to do. So like a trespassing sign, we go beyond the boundary that God has set.

Sin is our nature. This means it comes naturally. It is an inherent characteristic. It is innate. We don’t need to be taught how to sin.

Sin infects everyone. Verse 3 says “we all once lived” this way. It says “like the rest of mankind.” 

Ok, so sin means to disobey God. And this is natural to all of us. So what? What’s the big deal? The big deal is that opening line. Paul says you were “dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.”

That verb “walk” refers to our way of life. You’ll even hear the phrase “The Christian Walk” to describe your life in Christ. Some Bible translations plainly say that this is how “you used to live.” Paul is describing the natural way that all humans live or walk.

Sin bring death. Paul says your sinful nature brought death. We were walking dead. We were living in death. Why is this the case? It’s because (he says in verse 1) this was death in our trespasses and sins.

This connection of sin and death goes back to Genesis, in the story of creation. The first mention of death is in Genesis 2:15-16, after God made Adam:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

We see an instruction from God that Adam was supposed to follow and a boundary he was commanded not to cross. And God said that if he ate the fruit he was sure to die.

This is the state of death that Paul is talking about. Not a physical death, but a state of death in relation to God. And he says that this is the condition of all mankind. Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned” and Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death”

Sin follows the course of this world. You did what the rest of the world was doing. You just went along. In the words of Romans 12:1, we were “conformed to the pattern of this world.” Like a dead fish in the water, we went whichever way the current would take us. Nowadays you could say that we let the algorithm decide the path of our life--what we would think about or do or desire.

Sin follow Satan. And that’s not all. Our Sinful Nature doesn’t just mean we followed “the world”. Paul says in Verse 2 that we were following “the prince of the power of the air.” This is a reference to Satan, who has power of this sinful world. We were followers of Satan because we followed this world.

It may seem like an odd title, but it’s not unusual to refer to Satan as a ruler with authority. When the devil tempted Jesus, it says in Luke 4:5-7: the devil took [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

The Pharisees called Satan “the prince of demons.” The Bible also describes the evil spiritual realm as “rulers and authorities” and “cosmic powers.” And 1 John 5:19 says that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”

So the reality is that when you live like the world, you are actually following Satan. This is what Satan wants. He’s not trying to turn people into Satan worshipers or murderers or criminals. He just wants you to do what you want.

That’s what verse 3 is describing. We “lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind.” In other words, anything you wanted, you got it. Anything you wanted to do, you did. The passions, the desires, the inclinations, the cravings, the thoughts, the sinful human nature all existed to serve yourself.

And again we can see a connection back to the Garden of Eden. The serpent didn’t tell Eve to worship the devil. He talked about the fruit and how it would open her eyes and make her like God. Genesis 3:6 says “the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.”

Sin brings wrath. So we all have this sinful nature that leads us to a state of death where we follow this world and Satan and our own desires. But it doesn’t end there. It makes us children of wrath. This condition is one of disobedience and rebellion against our holy Creator and we rightfully deserve the punishment, justice, and anger of God.

To sum all of this up, this condition leaves us in a state under the wrath of God for rejecting His ways.

Why do we need to be reminded of this?

One, it’s a warning to all of mankind that we are not “good with God.” This message is intended to be shocking and personal. We are telling a dying world that they are in danger. Yes, there is good news. But that only becomes good news because we know what we are saved from.

This is the default posture of mankind and the whole world toward God. And if you are not a Christian here today, this is where you stand before God.

And Two, this reminder keeps us humble. We weren’t particularly special or well behaved or good. Christians weren’t better than the world or smarter or more worthy. We preach to a world that is doing what we were doing. And if God can work in our lives he can work in anyone’s.

 And it’s only when we understand our need, that we can move to what’s next. This sober reality is a cause for concern and the logical question is the same that people asked Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?” How do I move from a state of death to life?  And so Paul gives us that answer.

#2 – God’s Nature (Eph 2:4-7)

In what is often described as the two most glorious words put together in the Bible, Paul says “But God.” Yes, our sinful nature brings death and wrath and there’s nothing we can do to change that. But there is good news.

The good news is not telling us what we can do. Instead he focuses on God’s nature. He tells us WHO GOD IS and WHAT GOD HAS DONE. So what is God's nature?

God is rich in mercy. Verse 4 says he is RICH in MERCY. There’s another Bible word. What is mercy? Mercy is compassion. It means withholding punishment that is deserved. In the same way that a judge can show clemency to pardon a sentence, the Bible says that God is RICH in MERCY. It’s in his nature to forgive.

God has great love. And there’s another description in verse 4. It says he has GREAT LOVE with which he loved us. Now, we throw around the word love a lot. And generally we love things that we enjoy. We love good food or good friends or close family. But don’t forget PART 1. We have a sinful nature leading to death and disobedience which means we deserve the wrath of God. But God chooses love. This is not God looking at humanity like a cute innocent puppy at a shelter that he falls in love with. This is God loving the ones who have rejected him over and over. This is God loving those who do not love him. He is loving the unlovable.

In the words of an old hymn:
My song is love unknown–
my Savior’s love to me;
love to the loveless shown,
that they might lovely be.

The Bible repeatedly describes God’s love toward us:

• John 3:16 = God so loved the world
• Rom 5:8 = God shows his love for us ... while we were still sinners
• 1 John 3:1 = See what kind of love the Father has given to us,
• 1 Jn 4:9-10 = the love of God was made manifest among us ... this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us ...
• 1 Jn 4:19 = We love because he first loved us

God is rich in grace. So we see that God has mercy and God has love toward us. And we get another description of WHO GOD IS in verse 7. It says that God shows “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

We get another basic church word; we get GRACE. What is grace? This is not the same as mercy. Mercy is when you DONT GET what you deserve. Grace goes beyond that. Grace mean you GET what you do not deserve. It’s extra. It’s a gift. It’s a kindness. We see a picture of this in Jesus’s famous parable of the prodigal son. This disobedient and rebellious son has squandered his dad’s property and now comes to his senses. So he heads home:

Luke 15:20-24 = And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’

If this were only forgiveness or compassion, then it means letting him back in the house. But grace and kindness go beyond that. He gets a robe and a ring and shoes and a feast. Now you can see why we can sing “Amazing Grace... that saved a wretch like me”

This is who God is. And it goes beyond how he feels toward us. Paul describes what HE HAS DONE for us.

Look back at verse 5. “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] 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 heaven places in Christ Jesus.”

God made us alive. God did not leave us in this state of death. He made us alive! He raised us up. He seated us with him. God’s love and mercy and kindness produced an action. Verse 5 ends with the phrase “you have been saved.”

If you’ve been around church for a while, there’s another word you’ll hear. We have been SAVED. Saved from what? Saved from the state of death. Saved from the power of sin. Saved from the power of this world. Saved from the domain of Satan. Saved from the sinful passions of my flesh. And ultimately, saved from the wrath of God. We get to be seated in heaven!

So we see our sinful nature, deserving hell. And we see God’s nature, extending grace and mercy. So the necessary question is: How do I get that? How can I be saved? How am I brought to life?

#3 – Nature of Salvation (Eph 2:6-10)

Salvation is in Jesus. The first description of Salvation is that SALVATION IS IN JESUS CHRIST. How does one get Salvation? How are you saved? The answer is because of Jesus. This is what we see repeated in the passage. Verse 5 says God made us alive together with Christ. Verse 6, God raised us up with Christ. We are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse 10 says we are “created in Christ Jesus”

The reason we can be saved in Christ is because Jesus did what we could not do. Jesus did what Adam & Eve did not do. Jesus faithfully obeyed God, he overcame temptation, he took the wrath of God in our place, he defeated death, and he took his seat in heaven. We are alive with Christ. We are raised with Him. And we are seated with Him. This is the demonstration of God’s love toward us.In the words of 2 Corinthians 5:21 = “[God] made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”

So we are saved because of Jesus, but how is that transferred to us? Because not everyone has been raised to life.

Salvation is through faith. So here’s the second description: Salvation is THROUGH FAITH.This is what we see in verse 8. “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”

So let’s define another word we hear repeatedly in the Bible. What is faith? A basic definition for biblical faith is to believe in and trust what the Bible says. Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This means you are placing your full confidence in something that you can’t see and or can’t prove.

The most common analogy of faith is choosing to sit in a chair. You can approach a chair you’ve never seen before and still trust that it will hold you. This isn’t just believing that it will hold you. Faith means actually sitting in the chair.

Salvation through faith in Jesus doesn’t come simply by knowing more facts about Jesus. The Bible says that even the demons believe. Saving faith means turning completely to Jesus to be saved. You trust him as the only one who will bring salvation and believe that he saves and forgives and raises up everyone who comes to him.

The biblical word for this is repentance. This means turning away from our sin. We refuse to believe the lie that we know what’s best and we believe that Jesus is the only way.

This is the decision that every Christian has made. This is the decision that the Bible calls you to make.

• Jesus said in John 6:37 = “whoever comes to me I will never cast out”.
• 1 John 1:9 says “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
• Jesus says in Matthew 11:28 = “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you REST”

This idea of REST points to the next description of salvation.

Salvation is not earned. The second half of verse 8 says “this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast”

Some people struggle with salvation in Jesus because they don’t think they can do it. “What if I mess up? What if I don’t do enough? I don’t think I’m good enough. I’ve done a lot of bad things.” The response is YOU’RE RIGHT. You CAN’T DO IT!

Salvation is through faith in Jesus, so it’s not about us. We don’t get the credit. Remember, we were dead in our sins. We lived for our own desire. God is the one doing all the work. He made us alive. We didn’t fix it, we didn’t raise ourselves up, we didn’t earn it, we didn’t save ourselves.

The joy of salvation always points back to God. When we tell others about Jesus, it’s not to make ourselves look good or to get more people into our church or to make people look more like us.

And lastly, what now? After I turn away from my sin and to trust in Jesus, what do I do? The response is in verse 10. It says, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Salvation changes your walk. Back in verse 2 we saw that we once walked in our sins. But now we walk in good works. Again, this word WALK is about how you live your life. You have been raised from death to life. You have been born again. You have a new master for your life.

Paul goes back to this word WALK over and over again:

• Eph 4:1 = walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called
• Eph 5:2 = walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us
• Eph 5:8 = now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
• Eph 5:15 = Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise
• Col 1:10 = walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God

Remember, these good works follow salvation. They don’t earn it. But once you understand your sinful nature and what God has done for you in Christ, then devote yourself to good works. Walk in the way that God has prepared. And do so, not forgetting the basics of how you got here. We’d love to walk with you in this. Do not walk alone.