FROM RAGS TO RICHES

Paul refers to the Christians as saints, which is an amazing description for this group of people in Ephesus, who had been involved in all kinds of evil practices. We can read more about their background from Acts 19:18ff. Some of them might have been priests of the goddess and temple prostitutes and so on. But Paul is able to call them “saints.” Why is this? We will leave chapter 1 for a while and look at the opening verses of chapter 2 (and then chapter 3 next week), to see what God had done among this people. |||||
THEY WERE DEAD IN THE DARKNESS OF THEIR SIN (And you were dead in the trespasses and sins). How can you describe living people as dead? Unless we understand this, we cannot understand who a true Christian is. In Gen 2:15, we see that God clearly told Adam that the day he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would SURELY die. But, as we read in Gen 3:4, Satan the liar said to Eve, “You will NOT surely die.” What happened to Adam and Eve that day? The moment they took the forbidden fruit, their fellowship with God was broken. That very day they died spiritually. They were driven out from the presence of God. God did not tell them that if they ate of the fruit, they would become sick. He said they would surely DIE. That sweet fellowship and oneness with God was broken. We see that brokenness and sin in the world. Even the hearts of unbelievers are sad because of this. The reason for the depths of sin in the world and hatred for God is because unregenerate people are spiritually dead. Rom 5:12 (Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned), Psalm 51:5 (Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.) Men and women are born sinners. Our babies are not little saints but little sinners. Rom 3:10-12 says: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” |||||
THEY WERE DECEIVED, DESPICABLE, DISOBEDIENT SINNERS (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, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind) This is the outcome of being dead in trespasses and sin. These verses, in describing the people in Ephesus who are now holy people, says that they used to carry out the sinful desires of the body and the mind. Spiritual death had a devastating effect on humanity. People stopped loving God but they loved the world and pursued their sinful desires and lusts. Gen 6:5-6, Jer 17:9, Psalm 53:1-3. So too, these people in Ephesus who Paul calls saints were at one time wicked. We Christians must not forget that we too were like that. When we see unbelievers, we must remember that but for the grace of God, there go I. And when we speak to them, we must remember that we are talking to a dead person, and we need to remember that only God can bring them to life, so we must pray much for them. |||||
THEY WERE DESTINED TO A DIVINE DAMNATION AND SEPARATION FROM A HOLY GOD (and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind) John 3:18 says: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. How did these people in Ephesus who had been dead now become saints? They used to be dead but are dead no longer, they no longer walk and follow the course of the world. They no longer love what they once loved. They no longer hate what they once hated. They have changed. What brought them to this state? If we ended our reading at Eph 2:3, we won’t know. But we must read verse 4. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us.” Great change does not come when people become religious. It does not come when we want to convert. Great change comes when God comes to us and changes our hearts. But God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ. We are saved by grace. |||||
Where are you in all this? Are you still chapter 2 in the early verses? Or are you in chapter 1 where God can call you “holy” and can call you a “saint”. Have you been pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? From filthy rags to Jesus’ righteousness. Jesus covered us with His righteousness. The Holy Spirit can then describe us as a saint, as a holy person who has been made pure and clean, a new creation. Because God in His electing grace came to us. Because He chose us before the foundation of the world to save us. Now God wants us to go to others in the world and share the gospel. We cannot save anyone. But His gospel is the power of God for salvation.