PAUL'S AMAZING TEACHINGS | EPHESIANS 2:1-2

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3178

PAUL'S AMAZING TEACHINGS

EPHESIANS 2:1-2

Paul makes a startling statement in Ephesians 2:1-2

“And you were DEAD in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1–2).

We were all dead in our trespasses and sins, but we can be made alive through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Peter 1:2; Ephesians 2:13). We were literally like zombies ( dead men walking! ).

In this letter to the Ephesian church, Paul writes of the great gift God has given the members through His Son (2 Corinthians 9:15). Because of Jesus, they are not merely bad people made good, but dead people made alive.

For "dead" people do not need medicine for healing anymore, nor any more money or more education. They only need the gospel of the resurrected life in Christ...to be born-again as it were.

This new spiritual life goes to work, transforming us from lifeless, sin-filled corpses to vibrant, living children of God (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:5; John 1:12).

Abba Father, when we respond to the Holy Spirit’s calling (John 6:44), we repent of our sin and exercise faith in the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:3). Then You will forgive our sin, crediting us with the righteousness of Jesus ( 2 Corinthians 5:21), and sending the Holy Spirit to live inside us. 

Formerly, we were dead spiritually and had no way to make ourselves alive. Just as a corpse cannot do anything to help himself, so we cannot save ourselves or make a move to cleanse our sins. We cannot even produce the desire to obey You. We were dead because of our sin. Dead people need a life-giver. John 1:4 says of Jesus, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

Every human being in the world exists in one of two categories: spiritually dead or spiritually alive. Religion cannot make a dead man live. Good works, effort, and tradition may look like life to other dead people, but they have no spiritual power to transform from the inside out. Jesus Christ paid the highest price to redeem us from the clutches of Satan. Sin destroys; surrender brings life. 

The gospel is thus the good news. We were once all dead in our trespasses and sins, but we can be made alive through the blood of Jesus Christ with the gift of eternal life to come and the spiritual life of a present-day believer who walks daily with his Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, as led by the Holy Spirit who as God's Ruach ( wind/ breath ) can take on, overcome and dispel Satan "the prince of the power of the air".