"Resurrection life" means to live in the Body of Christ (2)

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 air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. We were by nature children of wrath.  But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. (From Ephesians 2:1-7)

Remember your past prison – Spiritual Death?

John Stott says about this passage, "Paul first plumbs into the depths of pessimism about mankind, and then rises to the heights of optimism about God. It is this combination of pessimism and optimism, of despair and faith, which constitutes the refreshing realism of the Bible. For what Paul does in this passage is to paint a vivid contrast between what humankind is by nature and what we can become by grace."

It is this contrast between the spiritual death of humankind and the deliverance of God, which will cause us to rejoice about the privilege to live the Body Life – the true life found in the Church of Christ.

Paul takes us into the depths of human sin and wickedness, before he shows us to rise to the heights of God's deliverance and pardon.

Our past state is defined as being disobedient. It says “you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air”. We once were sons and daughters of disobedience. Spiritual death and disobedience characterised our lives before we came to live in Christ. We walked according to the directions of ungodly society before we came nearer to Christ, to live in him.  

We are also described as doomed. In verse 3 it says we “were by nature children of wrath.”  Those who do not receive Jesus Christ are objects of God's wrath. They are condemned.

Why reflect on this? That we may rejoice with enthusiasm about the Body Life given to us in Jesus. That we may praise God with all our heart for the resurrection life, when we understand that it delivered us from our sins and from the wrath of God  - and made us a people who are alive through the Spirit: sanctified, forgiven and saved.

Praise God for the grace of knowing that we now are part of Christ’s Body – one of those people who are alive in him.

Though the cell doors of spiritual death are locked tightly, there is One who has a key.  And his name is Jesus.