But God

The past few days I've had the song "But God" by the Village Church Worship Band stuck in my head.  My mentor showed it to me a week ago and I've found it fits in well with the scripture I've been memorizing of late, which just happens to be Ephesians.  Specifically Ephesians 2, which is in fact the inspiration for the song.  I'm fairly familiar with this piece of scripture as I went through Ephesians a few months ago in a bible study I lead, and put simply this is possibly the clearest and most lucid presentation of the gospel in all of scripture.

            However this time reading and meditating on this piece has stirred up new thoughts on the words of the Apostle Paul. I know it is probably surprising that I could see something I hadn't seen before in a inexhaustible book, but somehow it happened (Bazinga).  This go around the part that has really clicked in my mind has been the beginning of verse 4 with these two little words, But God (Ephesians 2:4).  Sometimes translated as And God (Ephesians 2:4) with the Greek word δε (de) being either adversative, meaning "but" and presenting an idea contrary or in opposition to the previous topic, or as being continuative and meaning "and" thus carrying on the natural progression of the idea.  I think that while the two translations appear to convey different ideas, both fit together smoothly to express Paul's point in his presentation of the gospel.

            On the side of "but" we have who Paul had previously discussed, the sinful, wicked, children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) juxtaposed with God, who we know to be righteous and holy.  Therefore this translation makes clear sense in that while we were sinful God, through his riches of mercy, grace and love, which manifested themselves in Christ, God made a way for us to be reconciled to Him.  That although we were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked (Ephesians 2:1), God loved us and sought after us to bring us to the complete opposite end of the spiritual spectrum, that is to be brought to the perfection God.  For by grace you have been saved... (Ephesians 2:8).

            On the other hand, for let us remember that this word has two hands, there is also the continuative meaning of the word.  Upon looking at this meaning I am brought back a chapter to Ephesians 1, where we learn that God chose us before the foundation of the world and predestined us for adoption as sons through Christ (Ephesians 1:3-4).  Thus God as He chose us before there was even a beginning, knew that we would live in the passions of our flesh (Ephesians 2:3) that is contrary to the expressed will of God. That is knowing that we would fall short of his glory like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:3), God made a way for us to know Him, that we might be saved through faith... the gift of God (Ephesians 2:9).  With this knowledge we put together that the natural order of events for God was that although we would turn to our own wicked ways, He being rich in mercy would grab hold of our hearts and transform them to see his goodness and glory.  To boldly proclaim that Christ is Lord, that he lived, died on the cross for our sins and that God rose Him on the third day, to the praise of His glorious grace (Ephesians 1:6).

            In the end we see what we see in all of scripture: the gospel.  It is seen through different themes and stories but here it appears clear to us, that we were lost and without God, and while His nature was contrary to ours, and His actions contrary to what we rightly deserved, He carried out His plan in Christ, that flowed perfectly into our lives to save us from our sins and justify us before God.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved... -Ephesians 2:4-5



Ephesians 2:1-3

The Walking Dead

Over the next few weeks, one of the (recently graduated) high school seniors that I mentor will be joining me in a project to exegetically break down the second chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. I'm eager for you all to read Chase's writing. He has been given a special gift in communication. I can't wait to see how he refines it as we go through the chapter. You'll hear from Chase next time, but today, I'm going to focus in on Ephesians 2:1-3.

Paul writes:  "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 body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." (ESV)

Although these verses talk about death, they should be viewed as extremely comforting to the believer. Notice that Paul is writing to his audience in the past tense. He refers to a previous life. The believer is no longer dead in their sin. They no longer follow the prince of the power of the air. They no longer are enslaved to the passions of the flesh. They are no longer children of wrath! But, if this is a past time of life, and we no longer are subject to the hold of sin; if we are no longer dead, why would Paul even bother to bring it up? The idea of being dead in our sins has huge implications on the story of the gospel.

When sin entered into the world, all of humanity, all creation was fractured. Instantly, there was separation between God and man. Man was no longer able to have a perfect relationship with the Lord, because man was no longer holy. In Genesis 2:3, Eve responds to the serpent's temptation to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by stating that they were told they would "surely die" from eating the fruit. While this isn't exactly what God said to them when he established this command, I do believe there is truth to what Eve has said. In pursuing the desire to be as knowledgeable as God, Adam and Eve experienced a terrible death. Not physically, obviously, because they continued to breathe and move and live. However, their death was absolutely spiritual, and that is definitely worse.

Have you ever seen a movie during which one of the characters attempts to have a conversation with a dead person? Usually this will happen right after the person has died, and often their loved one is holding their body and will tell them how much they love them. There's one thing we can always be certain will happen when the living try to talk to the dead: the dead won't respond. They can't respond to sound, smell, sight, touch, etc. If someone has died, they are no longer able to move around or to laugh or to react to anything. It is obviously not a good state to be in.

Spiritually, this is who we all were before Christ. Because "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), we know that our sinfulness causes our death. Now, we do not begin our lives spiritually alive, and then become dead once we sin. No, we are dead from conception. David writes in Psalm 51 that "in sin [his] mother conceived" him. We are still physically alive, but we are like the walking dead. We cannot react to the things of spirituality. We are unable to do anything on our own to repair the fracture in our relationship with God. He must save; He must rescue us.

These first three verses of Ephesians chapter two sum up how we all once lived. There are no exceptions to the death that sin brings. Each word is essential to the next verses, because we must first understand sin and our death-like spiritual state before we can ever begin to talk about the rest of the Gospel.

Fortunately, there is good news! Chase will be looking at the life that we now have as believers after we've been justified by the blood of Christ.