The Believer's Resurrection from the Dead

So the apostle Paul, he is in prison. He's in jail as he writes 4 separate letters. We call them the prison epistles. Paul himself, he is in chains, but his heart is not.

in chains, his heart is unchained. his love for Christ and the church prevails even while he is in jail, in prison. His circumstances did not hinder his concern for the advancement of the gospel and the growth of the church. Paul maintained and he manifested a God-exalting gospel-centered approach to life and ministry.

One of Paul's prison letters was written to the believers at Ephesus, and I want you to go ahead and turn in your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter 2. We're gonna begin in verse 1. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul spends the 1st 3 chapters proclaiming gospel truth before ending the final 3 chapters applying gospel truth proclamation. Application.

He begins with the indicatives of the gospel before ending with the imperatives or the commands of the gospel. He wants his readers to understand and embrace the gospel, the good news of Christ, who he is and what he has done. He wants them to embrace the gospel so that they might then walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which they have been called, and we see that in chapter 4, verse 1. And so this is the broad outline of the book.

today I want us to drop in on chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. In chapter one, just a, a little more of a background, chapter one, Paul, he explodes with praise, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He explodes with praise as he unpacks gospel truth and then he prays that his readers would understand the gospel truths that he has proclaimed. Paul's prayer leads to a meditation at the end of chapter one on the power of God, God's power available to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And so this sets the stage for Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 7, where Paul's purpose is to fuel his readers with gospel truth in order to fire them up to live for Christ. Ephesians chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. 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 heir of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God Being rich in mercy. Because of his great love with which he has loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

In order that In the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Today's message is entitled The Believer's Resurrection from the Dead. Our passage can be divided into three main sections, reminders regarding the BC days of every believer, responses of God to our spiritually dead condition, and the reason God raised us from the dead. Reminders, responses, reason, and so let us begin with reminders regarding the BC days of every believer, and we will observe 6 reminders.

Let us begin with reminder number 1. Reminder number one The believer was once spiritually dead. We see this in verse 1A. And you were dead.

Paul is clear that all his believing readers were once dead, and this is not physical death. Paul's readers were physically alive to interact with his letter to them. Paul is reminding his readers that they were once spiritually dead. Remember in the Garden of Eden way back in Genesis.

chapter one, when God warned Adam. That the day he eats of the forbidden fruit, he would surely die. You can read all about this in 12, and 3. I would encourage you to do that, but as the story goes, the devil deceived Eve.

She ate the fruit. Then she gave the fruit to her husband, and he ate as well. The Lord fulfilled his promise on that day, and they died spiritually. Eventually they would die physically.

As a result, we are all born spiritually dead. The apostle Paul declares in Romans 5:12, therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world and through sin, death, and thus death came to all. Inasmuch as all sins. At the heart of Eve's deception was a wrong view of God, at the heart of every sin we ever commit is a wrong view of God.

We fail to see God clearly and as a result we yield to sin. We fail to see that God loves us. He cares deeply for us. He provides for us.

He ministers His word, his counsel to us. He sets his gaze upon us, and he wants what is best for us, and he is totally trustworthy. And because of our failure to view God rightly, we choose sin. How foolish is that.

Rather than submit to the Lord's better plan, we go our own way. We yield to our sinful desires, and like Adam and Eve, we suffer as a result. There is a way that seems right to man. But the end thereof is the way of death, Proverbs 14:12 and 1625.

The way of the transgressor is hard. Adam and Eve's spiritual death was marked by a sinful fear of the Lord. On the other side of their poor choice, their sin. Their violation of God.

They experienced a sinful fear of the Lord, guilt and shame because of their own sin, their own attempts to cover their own sin and shame, running and hiding from God, and this describes our own spiritual condition apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul states it simply, you were dead. Dead people do not, and they cannot respond to stimuli. you can place the most delicious dinner in front of a physically dead man, and he will not respond.

Likewise, the spiritually dead person in and of himself is unable to respond to spiritual food apart from the regenerating work of God, the Spirit. The spiritually dead person cannot respond in faith to the good news of the gospel as given through God's life-giving word unless the Lord does a miraculous work of regenerating him. He will not come to life. We're gonna say more about this later and so Paul's first reminder to his readers is that they were once spiritually dead.

And this brings us to reminder number 2, the believer once lived contrary to God's design for him. The believer once lived contrary to God's design for him. We read that, that you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. The spiritually dead person lives a life marked by trespasses and sins.

The word trespass speaks of taking a false step, having a lapse in judgment, deviating from the truth. Non-believers, and this was true about us before Christ, failed to walk rightly. They do not walk in the way of the Lord. They make poor judgments.

Their choices in life flow not downstream from the gospel fountain. Rather than order their lives around Christ and the glory of God, they order their lives around self. They seek to establish their own kingdom over which they function as the king. they want things their own way, and they are those who deviate from the truth.

Christ is the truth and they deviate from him. The word sin refers to the idea of missing the mark and or doing that which is wrong. Sin includes failure to do what we are designed and called to do, as well as doing what we are not supposed to do. Paul reminds us of the fact that our lives were marked by trespasses and sins.

We failed to live according to divine design. We were made by and we were made for God. We were originally wired for relationship with the triune God of the universe. We were made to glorify God.

By reflecting his image in our relationships with one another. It's his desire, it's, it's his wish that the whole world, the whole earth be filled with his glory as we bear his image. He is glorified and that is pleasing to him, that, that was his original plan, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and let the glory of God be reflected across the landscape of humanity. As a result of the fall, we became dead.

In our trespasses and sin. And this failure to live according to God's design. It is, it was the pattern. Of our lives.

It was the pattern. Paul is reminding his believing readers and by way of extension, all of us that, that before coming to Christ, we were spiritually dead and we lived contrary to God's design for us. But we did live according to a pattern. We lived according to a design, and this brings us to a 3rd reminder regarding every believer's BC days.

Reminder number 3, the believer once lived according to the way of the world. According to the way of the world. He says you formerly walked according to the course of this world. Paul tells his believing readers that before coming to faith in Christ, they walked in the ways of the world.

They rejected the one true and triune God of the Bible. They rejected God's inerrant, authoritative and sufficient word. They did not want to listen to his word. They were not attentive to His word.

They, they sought to ignore the word of God and to reject the word of God. They rejected what is contained therein, in the word of God. They rejected the good news of the gospel revealed in God's word and how foolish is that. The spiritually dead person living in trespasses and sin is worldly-minded.

He fails to seek the things above. He fails to set his mind on heavenly realities as we read about in Colossians 3:1 through 4. Instead, he embraces a world system that stands in opposition to the God of the Bible and the gospel revealed therein. And such a system is governed.

By wickedness. This becomes clear as we arrive at a 4th reminder regarding the BC days of every believer. Reminder number 4, the believer once followed the way of the devil. The believer once followed the way of the devil.

As I'm thinking about this, the temptation of the heart is to say, well, that's not true. I wasn't following the way of the devil. I was not, following demonic patterns of life. I, I wasn't doing that, but listen to what he says.

In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. Then he says, according to the prince of the power of the air, you were walking according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. The prince of the power of the air refers to the devil. this passage reminds us not to be ignorant of the fact there is a devil and his demonic host, and he and they exert influence in this fallen world.

He, the devil, and his demons are at work, and they are leaving their mark on creatures created in the image of God. We are engaged in a spiritual battle. Chapter 6, Paul says, our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. Let us not be ignorant of this fact of a spiritual battle.

Later in Paul's letter, write again, our battle not against flesh and blood. But against the spiritual forces of wickedness, struggle or battle, it, it speaks of wrestling, fighting. Paul has just commanded in the context of Ephesians chapter 6, he's commanded his readers to put on the whole armor of God and to grab hold of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This is simply a way of saying we are to dress up in the gospel and arm ourselves with the word of God as we engage in this battle in war.

Paul highlights the fact there is a devil against whom we battle. He is the prince of the power of the air. In Ephesians 4:27, Paul commands, do not give the devil an opportunity. The context here includes laying aside anger, stealing, and unwholesome words.

See the connection. Anger, stealing, and unwholesome words are among the sins and trespasses that welcome the devil and are to be laid aside. When we yield to such sin, we open the door for the devil. Elsewhere in 1 Timothy 3:7, Paul refers to the devil's snare, the, the devil's trap.

He sets up his snares, he sets up his trap, and he wants us to walk into those traps, and he wants to hold us captive and destroy us. In 2 Timothy 2:26, Paul again refers to the snare of the devil as well as how nonbelievers are held captive by him to do his will. If you are not in Christ. Based upon what the word teaches, whether you believe it or not, whether you accept it or not, you are held captive by him to do his will.

And in our passage, Paul links the prince of the power of the air with the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Sons of disobedience, that's anyone and everyone outside of Christ. At the very least, non-believers live under the influence of the devil and this describes us, you and me. In our BC days.

We were trapped, ensnared by the devil, held captive by the devil, submitting to the devil under the influence of the devil. this is not to say that we were as bad as we could have been. Satan only cares that we are his. We were born the devil's children, and he seeks to keep it that way.

Satan makes use of all types of children. He will happily use the prostitute promoting pimp as well as the self-righteous religious radical. Whether you look bad or good on the outside, I doubt the devil cares. His only concern is to preserve his children and keep them from Christ.

We may have been guilty of vile and gross sin, or we, we may have behaved as the good old American boy. Either way, apart from Christ, we were children of the devil following. His Christ rejecting ways. Let us now turn to a 5th reminder regarding the BC days of every believer.

Number 5, the believer once lived in the lust of the flesh. We see this in verse 3. Among whom we too, among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. I love the fact that Paul includes himself along with his ministry companions, as well as every believer in this description.

He does not hold himself aloof. He includes himself as a son of disobedience as he goes on to say, we too all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh. Paul's gospel humility undergirds his ministry and serves him well in his relationships with his fellow believer. Paul here has nothing to hide.

He acknowledges his own wretched background and here uses it as an opportunity to build relationship and encourage his fellow believer. We too. We too All of us all formerly lived in the lust. Of the flesh But Paul's depraved background included adherents.

To the highest religious standard. We know this from his other prison epistle where to the Philippians in chapter 3 verse 5, he describes his BC days circumcised. The 8th day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found to be blameless. And yet Paul looks back on those BC days and concludes that he lived in the lust of the flesh.

Some of us were addicted to sex and drugs during our BC days. Others of us were very religious and sought to live by the religious standard we embraced. But apart from Christ, whether raunchy or religious, we all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh and indulging the desires of the flesh and mind. Our conduct, manner of life, pattern of living was governed by the lust of the flesh.

We were given over to evil desire, evil longing, evil craving. This lust was rooted in and flowed from within our own flesh. Paul goes, On to say that we were indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, we were fulfilling and yielding completely to the desires, the wishes, the cravings of the flesh and mind. Speak about depravity.

We did what our fallen flesh and mangled minds wanted us to do. We failed to honor the Lord with our behavior and our thoughts. We did not live a God-exalting gospel-centered Bible saturated life. We were under a demonic spell as we lived as sons of disobedience.

And those who are in Christ are able to look back on their lives and affirm these negative descriptions to be true. The genuine believer views the video of his life and he affirms the fact he was spiritually dead. He lived contrary to God's design for him, lived in a worldly manner, followed the way of the devil, and lived in the lust of his own flesh. And this leads us to a 6th reminder regarding the BC days of every believer.

Reminder number 6. The believer was once a child of wrath. Ephesians 2:3B and we too were by nature children of wrath. Even as the rest.

We did not begin life. As a child of God. There are some who say we are all God's children, but that is not the case. Scripture teaches we were borns to Satan, children of the devil.

We lived in the domain of darkness and we were citizens of Satan's kingdom. Our pastor says we were by nature children of wrath. The word wrath is or gay, and it speaks of wrath, anger, and punishment. Some translations read objects of wrath.

Either way, the wrath, wrath once hovered over and was ready to be poured out upon us. Later in Ephesians 5:5-6, Paul writes, for this with certainty. That no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

And this helps make clear that the wrath Paul describes is the wrath of God, and God's wrath comes upon the sons of disobedience, all of those who are outside of Christ. Now I want to make clear that I do not think God to be fundamentally A god of wrath. I do not think that at the core of God's being is wrath, anger, and indignation. I cannot imagine that in eternity passed before creation and time that our triune God was filled with wrath.

He had the potential for wrath, but there was no expression of wrath. what makes sense to me is that in eternity past our triune God radiated and manifested love, joy and peace. John tells us God is love. Scripture tells us that in the presence of God there is fullness of joy at his right hand, pleasure is forevermore.

We read about the peace of God and the God of peace in Philippians chapter 4, and there are other attributes of God given to us in the scripture. He is declared, many times to be holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. He is set apart and in His holiness he is perfect, pure, and pristine. These and other attributes are true of God from before time began.

But what are we to make of God's wrath? Theologians refer to anger and indignation. what are we to make of these descriptions from where does the wrath of God originate and when did God's wrath begin? To answer the first question, I would say that God's wrath flows from His holiness.

God is fundamentally holy. He is holy and set apart in all of his attributes. He is holy and therefore he must respond in wrath whenever his holiness is violated. In other words, it is sin that arouses God's wrath and indignation.

When Lucifer sinned in seeking to usurp the place of God, God's wrath was aroused. when Adam sinned by eating of the forbidden fruit, God's wrath was aroused, and every single sin ever committed against God serves as a reason for his wrath and indignation to be aroused. speaking of God's wrath, I would agree with the words of Thomas Aquinas amongst others, and he says this, He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger, is immoral. God would not be God, nor would he be worthy of worship if in His holiness he failed in responding to sin and evil with wrath.

Paul highlights the wrath of God in 2 Thessalonians 1:7 where he declares, the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. And so We see that Paul reminds his readers of their BC days. We are reminded that we who are now in Christ once were spiritually dead, living contrary to God's design for us, worldly, walking in the way of the devil and his demons given over to the lust of the flesh.

We were sons of disobedience under the wrath of God.

How sobering is that? What a reminder. Paul highlights the spiritual condition of our BC days in his effort to make God and the gospel taste sweet. These reminders of what we once were helps us to appreciate God's responses to our spiritually dead condition, and we discover at least 6 responses of God, 6 responses of God.

To our spiritually dead condition. Let's look at response number one now. God was merciful. Toward us.

Verse 4 says, but God. But What a wonderful contrasting conjunction. But God, being rich in mercy, Paul begins with this contrasting conjunction and what he goes on to say serves as a stark contrast. He has addressed the darkness.

He went, he went, he will now lead us into the light, the bad news now The good news, our sin, now the savior, we were lost, but now we are found. We were dead and now we are alive and such good news comes from outside of us. It comes from God. Our text directs us to the mercy of God.

We have learned already that our God is a God of wrath, but he is also a God full of mercy. The word is Helios and it communicates the idea of, of pity, mercy and compassion. It speaks of kindness and goodwill toward the miserable and afflicted. Are you miserable?

Do you feel afflicted? Guess what? God is full of mercy and he wants to extend his mercy to you. He wants to come alongside and he wants to help.

That is what mercy does. Mercy can be understood as the act of treating people in distress with compassion, especially when it is possible to punish or harm them. Sinners deserve punishment, but instead through Christ, they, we get mercy. we are told also that our God is rich.

In mercy, our God is not lacking in mercy. He, he is wealthy. His account is full beyond measure. He abounds in mercy.

He has plenty of mercy to go around. If you need mercy, God has it for you. God took note of our spiritually dead condition and he responded with mercy. He has chosen to withhold from us the punishment we deserve.

But it is not just that God withholds from us the punishment we deserve. He, he goes way further. He bestows upon us a love that we do not deserve, and this brings us to a second response of God to our spiritually dead condition. Response number 2, God was loving.

Towards us. Ephesians 2:4B, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us. I love Paul's use of superlatives. He has told us God is rich in mercy.

Now he refers to the great love of God. In Ephesians 1:4, we learned that in love, God predestined us to adoption as sons. In Ephesians 3:8, Paul speaks of the unfathomable riches of Christ and such riches would include the love of Christ. It is unfathomable.

Later in Paul's prayer for the Ephesians in 3:17-19, he prays for his readers to be rooted and grounded in love. He is referring to the love of Christ for them, filling them and flowing through them. Paul then prays for his readers to be able to comprehend what is the breadth. And the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ, to experientially know and experience the love, the immense immeasurable love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

There is no way that we can fully comprehend the love of Christ, but we are loved by him. And so Paul views the immensity of God's love manifested to us through Christ and describes it as unfathomable. Immense Paul knows where he is heading in this letter. He knows where he's headed and, and he will exhort his readers in chapter 4 verse 1 to walk in a manner worthy of their calling.

God has called them out by the gospel of Jesus Christ to walk in a worthy manner, and Paul knows that the gospel is the fuel for the worthy walk. We see this in Ephesians 5:2 also where we are commanded, Ephesians 5:2 walk. In love. Just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, our walk is to be informed.

By the love, the immeasurable, immense love of Christ. And then back here in 24, Paul primes the pump by referring to his great love with which he has loved us. Let us never lose sight. Of God's love for us.

And of course, God's love is most directly demonstrated at the foot of the cross where the Lord Jesus Suffering, excruciating agony and pain physically, emotionally, and eventually spiritually bled His blood for us that we would be completely forgiven, redeemed, ransomed, washed, and declared righteous in the sight of God through faith in Christ alone. Before moving to the third response of God to our dead spiritual condition, I want to give a nod here to the doctrine of the Trinity.

No understanding of love will ever be complete apart from the Trinity, the belief that there is one God eternally existing in three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and we do well to understand the love of God within the context of. The Trinity, the Holy Trinity.

Each member of the Trinity overflows with unfathomable, immense, and infinite love for each other. We could never imagine a God of love apart from the love triangle of the Trinity, and our understanding of God's love for us must be informed by the fact that God's love for us is no less than the love each member of the Trinity has for the other. The love of the Father for his Son is the same love he has for us. The love of the Son for us is the same love the Father has for him.

He tells us that I have loved you with the love of the Father, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, and in the verses we have looked at, we see we are loved by God the Father, we are loved by God the Son, and in Ephesians 2:18, we are told. That through Christ we have access in one spirit unto the Father. You see, the Holy Spirit also plays a role in bringing us into the love triangle of the Trinity. We are loved by God.

Our God was and he continues to be loving toward us. What can separate us from the love of Christ, the apostle Paul declares. And this brings us to a 3rd response of God to our spiritually dead condition. Response number 3.

God gave life to us. We read in verse 5 when we were dead. When we were dead in our transgressions. God Made us alive together with Christ.

I trust That as we look at the kernel of this passage, that your heart is filled to know when you were dead, God made you alive. Paul brings us back to his initial statement, we were dead, verse one, and when we were dead in our transgression and said God did for us what we could never do for ourselves, God made us alive. Again, as I said, this is the kernel of the verse, God made us alive. We were spiritually dead and in desperate need to be raised to life, and that is exactly what God has done for us.

There is no room for self-congratulations. We did not raise ourselves from spiritual death to life. We could not. Our salvation demanded nothing less than a miraculous work of God.

Our resurrection from the dead is a miracle of staggering proportions. We could not perform this miracle, but what we could not do, God did. Every believer in Christ is a miracle from God. Our resurrection from the dead could not have happened apart from Christ.

Christ played a part in raising us from the dead. God made us alive together with Christ. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, we who were dead have been brought to life. He is the way, the truth and the life.

It is through Christ we have life, abundant life, eternal life, and so God responded to our spiritually dead condition by giving life to us, and this dovetails perfectly with a 4th response of God to our spiritually dead condition. Response number 4, God saved us. By His grace. Our text tells us in verse 5B, by grace you have been saved.

And this declaration is further developed a few verses later in verses 8 through 9 where Paul says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast. We have been saved by the grace of God. Grace is God's undeserved and unmerited favor. God did not save us because of any merit of our own.

We had nothing to offer except our sinful, miserable, broken selves. we did not earn salvation. we did not deserve for God to save us, yet we have been saved by the grace of God and look closely at the wording. By grace, you have been saved.

We have already been saved. When Jesus was dying on the cross. Some of his last words while hanging. It is finished.

Jesus, what is finished? The work that was necessary to secure salvation. For those who are dead in transgression and sin. The work necessary to save these ruined sinners has been completed at the cross.

I did the work. I completed the work. It is finished. Our salvation is in Christ alone and his finished work alone, and we but put our hope and our trust and our faith in Him alone and through faith in Him we are saved again.

Look closely at the word that we have already been saved. Our salvation here is something that took place in the past and it is something that happened to us. It is God who did the saving work in our lives and what did he save us from? That we could come up with many answers, but some of the answers would include He saved us from death, from judgment, eternal punishment, eternity in the lake of fire.

He saved us from living in the domain of the devil. He transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. He has rescued us. And again consider the commentary in verses 8 through 9.

It is by grace we have been saved through faith. Faith is a belief and trust in God and the gospel through which we are saved, the good news of who Christ is and what he has done for us, that is the gospel through which we are saved. Paul tells us that even the faith we have is not of yourselves. By grace you're saved through faith and that the faith that you have is not of yourselves, it is a gift from God.

If you have faith, that faith came to you. As a gift from God. And, and this makes sense, since it is God who made us alive to begin with. Our salvation along with the faith necessary to be saved is a gift from God.

Our passage teaches us that our good works have nothing to do with our justification before God. We are not saved because of our good work. Finished trying to be good enough to earn the right to be safe. There's nothing that we can do in and of ourselves.

We have nothing to offer but our sin. But through faith in Him who died for our sins we have salvation. By grace you are saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift from God. We are saved because of the good works of Christ.

He did what we failed to do. He lived. A perfect life. He was actively obedient, perfectly in heart, in word, in deed.

He did everything right. He is the perfect one. We need to cease striving for perfection because we will never be perfect, but we look to him and then he, the perfect one, clothes us in his own perfection. He clothes us in our own righteousness.

He lived the perfect life and satisfied God's wrath against sin by dying on Calvary's cross in our place for us, receiving wrath in our place, and then he was raised up from the dead and he ascended to the right hand of the Father. And he takes our wretched rags and then gives to us his own righteousness and he dresses us up in his perfection. And so where is the boasting? Where is the boasting?

We have nothing to boast about in and of ourselves. Our boasting is in Christ alone. Our praise goes out to Christ alone. Christ alone is the one we worship and exalt and glorify.

Indeed, God has saved us by His grace and so let us now turn. To a 5th response of God to our spiritually dead condition. Response number 5, God raised us up. We read and he raised us up with him.

God has raised us up with Christ. The King James uses the word quickened. Martin Lloyd Jones in commenting on this says that Paul is referring to regeneration and nothing else. He goes on to say, you, he has regenerated.

He has given you new life. You have been born again. You have been created and you, you have become partakers of the divine nature. The heir is tense communicates a completed action.

We have been raised up. Paul does not say you will be raised up, though this is true. Paul here describes something that has already taken place. This resurrection is not physical, it is spiritual.

We have been raised up from spiritual death to spiritual life. In Paul's prayer back in chapter one, he refers to the surpassing greatness of his power to us who believe and then it says that such power is in accord with the working of the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ His Son when he raised him, his son from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenlies. Our Lord has been raised bodily from the dead, and the power that raised Christ from the dead is the power that is at work in us, empowering us to experience being spiritually raised from the dead.

One day we too will be raised bodily from the dead, but for now let us lay hold of the fact that God has raised us up spiritually with Christ.

We have been raised from spiritual death. And herein is an irony, I think, in being raised spiritually from the dead, our old man. Our old manner of life has died. We now identify with Christ.

I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me as if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The heart of stone has been replaced with a heart of flesh. There is a new law at work in the members of our bodies.

I am now governed by the law of the spirit of life. We are no longer under the condemnation of the law, but we are now under the grace of God in Christ. All this and more is implied by the fact we have been raised up with Christ. But that is not all.

We have also ascended, raised from the dead and ascended, and this brings us to response number 6. God seated us in the heavenly places in Christ. We see this in verse 6, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This text makes it clear that our Lord was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven.

This is a historical fact, and he is now seated as I speak and as you listen, Christ is seated on his throne at the right hand of the Father. Ephesians 1:20 tells us the Father raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand. Colossians 3:1, a parallel passage states, since then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and then in verse 3 we read, for you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

The one who is life, the one who gives life, holds us in Himself, and we in Him have life, and we have been raised up and we have ascended spiritually to be in Christ with Christ at the Father's right hand.

Ephesians 2:6 tells us God has raised us up with Christ, seated us with Himself in the heavenlies. We are kingdom citizens, and we have been given a new residence. Our address has changed. We are not waiting for this to happen.

It has been accomplished already. We have been spiritually raised and, and now we are seated with Him in the heavenlies, and the day is coming when we will be physically raised as well. We are in the heavenlies. Martin Lloyd Jones encourages us to think in terms of the place where God especially manifests His presence and glory, the place in which the Lord Jesus Christ in His glorified body now dwells.

We no longer belong to this world, nor are we submitted to the Prince of the. Power of the air. We belong to Christ and we live as his subjects no longer in the domain of darkness. We have been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son, no longer spiritually dead, we have been made spiritually alive through faith in Christ.

We have a sensitivity to the things of God. We experience conviction over sin. That is in part what it means to be alive when you sin and you feel bad for the sins that you commit. The dead person has no sense of that conviction, but the person who is alive, the spirit of God who indwells them, is grieved and causes them to feel the conviction that they need to feel so that they would be motivated not to sin and even by the gospel itself to be motivated to live to the glory of God.

We experience conviction. And though we sin, we no longer sin happily. There is a struggle as Paul describes in Romans chapter 7. we sense that the Holy Spirit who indwells us is grieved when we sin and fail to live as those who have been seated in the heavenlies.

we know we can never be condemned, but we who have been raised and are now seated with Christ in the heavenlies do experience the gracious conviction of the Spirits. No condemnation, but there is conviction and praise God for that. All this is the work of God. This is God's response to our spiritually dead condition.

Our God is a merciful and loving God who has given us life, eternal life. He has saved us by His grace and He has raised us up and he has seated us with Himself in Christ. Our passage reminds us of our BC days along with God's response to our spiritually dead condition and so let us now briefly, very briefly consider the reason. Why did God do these things for us?

Why did God respond to us in mercy and love? why did God give to us eternal life and why did he raise us up and seat us in the heavenlies? Why? And this brings us to the reason God raised us from the dead, and we find the reason stated plainly in verse 7.

In order that, or so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us. In Christ Jesus. Our God loves to show off. And every member of the Trinity is active in showing off God.

God is passionate about showing forth the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness towards us. Towards us who were by nature haters and enemies of God, dead in transgression and sin, the vile and the wretched, he loves to show off his surpassing, the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness towards us. OK, we're gonna land this thing here in a moment, guys. My family recently went to San Francisco.

We got a late start on a Monday and at 12:30 a.m. 12:30 in the morning, MapQuest directed us through the heart of the Tenderloin District on our way to the hotel. And for those of you who don't know, the Tenderloin district in Frisco, is the Frisco version of Skid Row in Los Angeles. The streets We're filthy Trash Everywhere.

Hundreds, perhaps over 1000 people, maybe more, wandering about literally like zombies. It was like a scene from a zombie movie. Many were strung out on drugs. Their clothes were ragged and dirty, filthy.

And my daughter, in fact, spotted a man who was sleeping. Inside of a trash can. It felt natural for me in my heart to distance myself from those folks. In such a wretched condition.

But if I am thinking clearly. I am that dirty, ragged, wretched, foul man sleeping. In the trash can And what better way for the Lord to show forth the riches of His grace and kindness than to take a man. Like me or someone like you.

And to meet us at the trash heap, grab hold of our hand, wake us up from our slumber, raise us from spiritual death, clean and beautify us from the inside out, and then set and then seat us with Him in a heavenly place far beyond anything words can describe. God raised us from spiritual death and he gave life to us that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us. In Christ Jesus. Us is plural.

It is us all. We will not only be more fully blown away by God's grace to us, God's grace to me, we, I will be blown away when we, when I one day fully observe God's magnificent grace displayed in and through our my brethren in Christ on that day. We will bow before the nail-scarred feet of Jesus and praise and worship Him, the lamb slain. we will exalt and magnify and glorify Him throughout all eternity because of the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly Host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I know there is no way that I could have done justice to what this text says you have done for us. I entrust this passage to you. I pray, Lord, for you by your Spirit to help us to just chew upon what we have heard and you would further minister it to our souls, and you would help us, Lord, to realize what we were and how you responded.

And the reason you did so. That Lord, at the end of the day, you would be exalted to the praise of the glory of your grace. To the praise of the glory of your grace. To the praise of the glory of your grace, O Father and Son.

And Holy Spirit. I pray, Father God, that if anyone here has yet to be raised from spiritual death. That even now, Lord, they would sense you speaking to their heart. And that Lord, you would grab hold of them and by your grace you would draw them to yourself, that you would grant the gift of faith, that you would regenerate them, that you would cause them to see like they have never seen before with clarity what you have done for them and that they would put their trust in Christ and in Christ alone for their own salvation.

Oh Lord, have mercy. And Lord, show forth your grace. We pray these things in the name of Jesus, and all of God's people said, Amen.