Friday, April 16, 2010

Dead Defined

Ephesians 2:1 KJV
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins
Following this verse the Word of God gives us a description of what it means to be dead in trespasses and sins;

Walking according to the course of this worldAnd further, according to the prince of the power of the air. The one who is dead in trespasses and sins is characterized by two things; he does what this world does. He goes with the flow, he follows the pattern of and is conformed to this world. He thinks like the world and is fixed to the direction this world is traveling. Although he may not know it and might even deny it, the Bible says this is the course of the prince of the power of the air, the devil.

A conversation in the lusts of the flesh
The word conversation means to busy oneself and it refers to our lifestyle. The lifestyle of the one who is dead in trespasses and sins is that he is driven by the lusts (forbidden longings) of his flesh and he (eventually) fulfills the desires (lusts) of both his flesh and his mind. He is slave to his worldly cravings.

By nature the children of wrathThe one who is dead in trespasses and sins is by nature fitted for wrath and destruction. His natural tendencies are towards wrath. He is angry at the world, the people around him and his own circumstances. He has little peace in his soul because he has no peace with God. His terrestrial inheritance is doom. Unless there is a supernatural intervention, his case is hopeless.

But that is just the point. The verse says "...you...were" because they no longer are. God had quickened and made them spiritually alive. A new birth had occurred and with it a new nature with an entirely new inheritance.

What grace!

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