The difference between being in transgressions and being in Christ

THURSDAY, MARCH 8
Ephesians 2:1–10

How God sees us in Christ Jesus, seated with Him in the heavenly realms

The context of this passage is God’s kingdom purpose that is being revealed (the mystery of His will) to bring everything together under Christ’s lordship, Eph. 1:9–10. This “unity of all things” happens through the surrender of will and receiving of grace, by individuals.

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…

“Trespasses” are lapses, “sins” are shortcomings.

“Dead” is without authentic spiritual life, where the most vital, spirit part of the human personality is not operating. In this state we can’t of ourselves meet God’s requirements, or engineer a way of having fellowship with Him.

The Jews are no better off — all inherit the sinful human nature and start off in independence and disobedience.

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.

Before God’s intervention, everyone who is born is physically alive but spiritually dead and alienated from God the life-giver. There is a contrast of opposites “between being in transgressions and sins” and being “in Christ”, Eph. 2:5–7 below.

3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

“All of us” — Paul, as a Jew, doesn’t exclude himself. Possessing the law is no protection from the desires and thoughts of the flesh. We all like to seek a religious framework in which we avert judgment by doing ‘good’ things — it’s the way we are wired. Once we submit to Jesus Christ as Lord as well as Saviour, a transformation takes place and we see things with new understanding, vv. 4–5 below.

As in the great treatise explaining salvation by Christ, Romans chapter 1 through 8, the apostle does not turn to the grace of God, verses 4–8, until he has made very clear humanity’s inherently sinful nature and desperate need of a way out. See also Colossians 1:21–22.

4 But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy… 4 “But” points to God, in His perfection, having wrath for man’s misdeeds and unholiness. Only God, in His perfection, can hold together this righteous wrath with “great love” and being “rich in mercy”. Only God can reconcile our independence and transgression, with His desire for us. The Gospel is all about reconciliation, led by God Himself.

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…

The “As for you… but because” long sentence resolves here, a linguistic emphasis. The “blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly place” statement of the introduction to the letter, Eph. 1:3 not moves from general to three particular things God has done “in Christ” for every believer:

• From spiritually dead to new life in Christ
• Salvation, the unearned gift of God’s grace
• A citizenship of heaven, backed by heavenly authority, positionally “raised up… and seated… with [Christ]”.

The choice to accept this, remember this, live in this, is ours alone.

For further study: the ‘look higher, live higher’ exhortation is also expressed in Colossians 3:1–3.

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.

“Might show” — endyknymai means ‘display’ or ‘demonstrate’, Amplified Bible, or ‘point to us as examples’, NLT. The church is God’s exhibition to the world of His grace and love, and also His kingdom purpose, planned from long ago to be relevant long ahead.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –

9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Paul emphasises greatly (as he does elsewhere) that we owe our salvation entirely to the undeserved, unearned favour of God. It is His doing; the only part mankind plays is in the words “by faith” i.e. believing, trusting and receiving what God has done in Jesus. It is this in very small part that we find such great resistance of the flesh. The human nature always looks for something that has the feeling of action and reward. The great danger of an elaborate religious framework is that it supports and even feeds this desire for ‘works’ and provides what seems to be an alternative to responding to God’s love in faith.

For further study: vv.1–3 “all have sinned” and suffer sin’s consequences, Romans 3:22–23.

vv.8–10 Salvation can never be achieved through works, Rom. 3:20, 28; 4:1–5; Gal. 2:16; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5.

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Christians prove their faith by the fruit of their lives in good character, nature, and in doing good — never the other way round. Paul emphasises this so much, because it is such a widely held fallacy that our good deeds give us credit in heaven. The only credit acceptable is on Jesus Christ’s account, not ours.

For further study, James 2:14–26.

Application

These few verses are some of the richest we can find, in terms of explaining the grace of God and how it works out in our lives. This is God’s initiative in reconciliation, a concept so simple and at the same time so profound, that we find it hard to grasp. And perhaps it is not possible to grasp, without allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us at a deep level, to break down the pride and resistance in us, and bring us to the point of gratefully looking up, to raise our faith to be enabled to live higher, the theme of all these Bible readings.

Of course, this mind-blowing explanation of how God has treated us, has huge implications for the way we set out to treat others.

The actions and attitudes of others deserve our wrath, just as we deserve God’s wrath. How does He see us? His handiwork, being shaped and polished. How does He treat us? Gently, as His handiwork requires. Do we see others as God’s handiwork? And how do we treat them, when they cut in on us, or worse? Living by the truth is challenging, but the alternative is living by falsehood, and it’s a hard act to sustain.

For reflection or as a discussion starter

Think for a moment about your relationship with God, your stance against the schemes and deceptions of Satan, and your relationships of all kinds with other people. What practical difference does it make to be in Christ Jesus and seated with Him in the heavenly realms?

Originally published at The Living Word.