Lesson 52 Warring Against the Flesh: Raised with Christ
Questions 3, 4, and 5
The dead life is the life of disobedience to God. Not only do we approve of and partake of those things God says in His Word are sinful and off-limits, but primarily, we did not believe in Jesus and the gospel. “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me” (John 16:8-9 ESV).
Question 3. What does Ephesians 2:2 say is the energy source for all who are dead in sins and living in disobedience?
The “prince of the power of the air” is “the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” The devil is energizing unbelievers to disobey.
When we were dead, we were also depraved. Depravity is the condition of living in sinful passions, gratifying the cravings of our flesh.
Even now, as Christians, the devil and our flesh work together in an attempt to cause us to turn away from the living God, to live to please ourselves and to live and look like an unbeliever.
When, as believers, we do not remain in Jesus, the devil can plant a thought in our minds, and we will be too weak to resist Him. He will put a pornographic image in our minds, and it will lead us to gratify our flesh. He will remind us of an adulterous relationship we had, or of some illicit pleasure from our past, and we will instantly be remembering the sinful fun and maybe setting out towards doing it again.
All of this is devilish depravity and sinful disobedience. It comes straight from Satan who is seeking to destroy our marriages or even our lives, through the lies he, as the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), has implanted into the culture around us. This is a life of deception and fraud, depravity and corruption, and it all leads to death.
So this is how God’s Word describes us in our unregenerate state:
Dead
Disobedient
Devilish
Depraved
Question 5. What does Ephesians 2:3 say is the state of all who are dead in sins and trespasses?