As You Were

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Eph 2:1-3)

I've been mulling over this passage of late, as it happened to be in my daily reading.

I noted, first, that the chapter begins with "And". I suspect we might miss this since it's the beginning of a chapter, but it is clearly linked to something before it, a continuation of a previous thought. What thought? Well, Paul was just talking about his prayer for them. He wanted God to give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation regarding the nature of Christ so they would know the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of His power (Eph 1:17-19). Paul deviates momentarily from there, although not really a deviation, exulting in Christ, His resurrection, His rule, His dominion, and His Church, "the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (Eph 1:20-23). "And". That's where it comes in. "You need to know Christ who is beyond all and ..." And what? "And you were dead." What a contrast! What a division! What a distance! This "body of Christ" starts out "dead in sin." Nice! That's our beginnings. That makes the "But God" of Ephesians 2:4 absolutely immense!

So, we saw in the first chapter what Christ is. What are we? Where do we come from, this "body of Christ"? Dead. Walking in the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air. Living in the passion of our flesh. Satisfying our own desires. Oh, this isn't good. This isn't good at all. And don't go mitigating it. Don't tell me we were "mostly dead" as seems to be the favorite view among many. "Well," they tell me, "we weren't dead dead, so it can't mean that." So, they conclude, it means we weren't dead. "Oh," they'll agree, "it means we were spiritually dead", but from all indications that means nothing at all. We have all the spiritual capabilities we need. And that's not dead. No, it says "dead". And, odd as it may sound, it only gets worse from there. Humans are very real "dead men walking". Walking in sin. Ruled by Satan. Consumed by our own passions. I don't think anyone could suggest this isn't so, given our world today, where "I feel like it" is the only rule of reality and anyone who suggests denying "I feel like it" is a hater. This is the pool from which God makes "the body of Christ". Talk about a huge gap!

I've always been interested in that last phrase, though. He says we "were by nature children of wrath, like the rest." What does that mean? Well, it's not small. Whatever "children of wrath" means, it is a problem of nature. We weren't "children of wrath" by work, by practice, by effort, by education, by environment, by culture, by anything else. We were children of wrath by nature. It is by lineal descent, part of our genus. It is part of that which constitutes us. Now, note, the word there is "were"--past tense--so I am not saying that "children of wrath" is part of the definition of "human being". Can't be, or Jesus wasn't human. But it is surely part of that which constitutes sinful Man. The Bible uses this word in a variety of places, and it is always in the sense of a birth condition, the innate characteristics, how we are constructed, part of our "kind" (James 3:7).

So, what is that nature? What is part of our constitution? It is being "children of wrath". And what is that? It doesn't mean we are offspring of wrath. It means we are children under wrath. It means we, as dead, sinful followers of Satan, immersed in our own desires and following the world, fully deserve the wrath of God. It means we are people who deserve wrath; that is our nature. Thus, as sinners it is in our nature to deserve wrath.

And that is the pool out of which "God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-7). I don't know about you, but looking at it more closely like this only makes God's grace and mercy so much bigger. But maybe that's just me.