The Walking Dead - Spiritual Zombies!

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV) ¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in 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— ³among 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. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Paul is making clear here the dire position that man is in before salvation.  Though Hollywood may be thrilled with the ideas of Zombies, spiritually the idea of the living dead is not amusing.   Before salvation man is “dead” in his trespasses and sins.   A trespass is a willful breaking of God’s law, and a sin is “missing the mark of God’s holiness.”  The spirit that works in all who continue to walk in disobedience to Christ leads them to follow their own fleshly desires.  These actions are the trespasses and sins that result from following Satan, the prince of the power of the air.  This life of disobedience puts us under the wrath of God.  John 3:36 says, (ESV) “³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”   Under God’s wrath as children of obedience is the position of every person until God works in their life to make them alive.  

Dead men don’t do anything.  They just lie there.  The same is true spiritually; a dead man cannot place faith in Christ, but when God in His great mercy imparts life, regenerates a person, He places that person in Christ Jesus.  “For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God.”  This gift of faith that allows us to believe in the risen Son comes only by the grace of God.  There is nothing in us as a “child of disobedience” that either earns of deserves this gift of salvation. Therefore, we have nothing about which to boast, simply a gracious God to be thankful to in that he “made us alive” giving us the faith that we might believe.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton    FW # 54