To introduce this lesson, let me ask you to picture Jesus’ dead body in his dark tomb. His corpse has laid in this dark tomb for three days and three nights: no heartbeat and no pulse, no breath in His lungs nor life in His body.
Then, all of a sudden, Jesus’ heart begins to beat, breath fills His lungs, and life returns to the body of Jesus Christ. He miraculously comes to life, is risen from the dead, breaks out of the tomb, ascends into heaven to live forever!
If you can see this in your mind’s eye, then you understand what it takes for you and me to get free from lust and sexual impurity. It takes the same power that rose Jesus from the dead to break us out of our tombs of sin and rebellion.
Let’s notice how the Bible teaches this to us:
Ephesians 2:1-6 ESV And you were dead in the trespasses and sins (2) in 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— (3) among 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. (4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Ephesians 2:1-3 describe our condition while in sin and unbelief. It says we were dead, and then it describes our actions when we were dead in sins: we were disobedient, following the devil and depraved. That is how a spiritually dead person lives. It’s how we all were at one time apart from Christ.
Now the hard truth is that anytime we are not abiding in Christ, even short times that we begin to live in the flesh rather than walk in the Spirit, we can resemble our former dead selves.
No Christian is dead spiritually, but we can sure look like it. Remember, our flesh is not redeemed (Romans 8:23). The flesh is that part of every believer that is faithless, still in rebellion.
Question 1. What does Ephesians 2:1 call us when we are in unbelief?
At the beginning of our spiritual walk, the Bible was a dead book to us; we had no interest in it. We thought it was the most foolish thing to go to church where people stand around singing and then hear some guy talk about a very dull subject that had no meaning in our lives. We were dead to God, separated from Him who is the Life-Source of all people.
When we choose not to abide in Christ but instead live in the flesh, we are living as though we are spiritually dead. We are not spiritually dead, but no one would know it by all appearances.
Question 2. According to Ephesians 2, what is this dead life characterized by? (Found at the end of verse 2).