Dead in the Water!

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Ephesians 2:4-10 "But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good t things he planned for us long ago."

We talk about death in a lot of ways. When you deem a relationship to be without hope you say, "You are dead to me". Sometimes as we look at the condition of a church we says, "That church is dead". When someone or something is unable to function we say they are, "Dead in the water". Paul uses this concept when he says, "We were once dead in our trespasses." We were dead in the water! 

What does this mean? Though we were alive physically, we were spiritually dead. Paul sums up our condition in verse 3, 

 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

Bottom line is our human nature was bent toward doing what it wanted to instead of submitting to God's plan for our lives. Though we are made in God's image, that image was tarnished in the garden when Adam and Eve willfully disobeyed God's simple commandment to trust in Him alone for all of their needs. 

So that's the bad news. The good news is that God is rich in mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is getting what we don't deserve. Importantly why did God offer his mercy?

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much. Ephesians 2:3

What fueled God's mercy? Love! He loved us so much, he didn't want us to be stuck in our sins. He wanted to be in a relationship with us so much, He sent His Son to die for us on the cross. So while someone might focus on the judgmental aspect of God's character, clearly the overarching passion of our Father is His love for the crown of creation! You and me.

So what should be our response? First of all, we can't boast or take credit, because we did nothing to save ourselves. Nothing. 

And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 

Finally, being delivered from death was not the end of the story. God has a terrific purpose for each of us. Verse 10 says, "We are God's masterpiece created in advance to do good works!" We are God's work of art! We are each uniquely created for something special. We are saved from the devastating death sentence to serve God and to share his great love with the whole world!

You have been brought from death to life my friend. You were created for something special. It was planned for you even before you even born. You were brought from death to life.