Ephesians 2:1,2 - You were dead in your sins

2:1

The riches and glory of the gospel all stems from Christ. The first chapter emphasised what God has done, and all this is centred on Christ. The focus now shifts to us. The starting point is that we were “dead in our trespasses and sins”. Realising this is the only point from which we can hope to appreciate the gospel. If we think we are basically good then Christ has nothing to say to us. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day refused to face up to their own sinfulness, therefore they failed to appreciate who Christ was, and saw Him only as a threat.

2:2

“In which you once walked”. Our sinfulness was not just an academically or theologically correct way to refer to us, but it was our “lived experience”.  We followed the “course of this world”. We lived according to the world’s ways. We think we were not really bad, but we lived without God, our number one aim was ourselves. We loved ourselves.  We followed the “prince of the power of the air”. In short we were devil worshippers! No, we didn’t get dressed up in ridiculous garb and dance around a fire, or indulge in orgies. But we followed “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”. The world is working against God. To see this we need only consider where our society has gone and is going. It no longer knows the difference between male and female, sex is a commodity, rather than a gift from God. Society demands the right to kill life in the womb.