The story is told of the Queen visiting a nursing home.
All of the residents were delighted to see her, greeting her with flowers and smiles and whatever else it is you do when the monarch comes to town. There was one exception, however. In the corner of the room, away from all the excitement, sat one elderly lady.
The Queen approached her to speak with her. After the usual chit-chat didn’t seem to get through, the Queen leaned in and kindly said:
“Do you know who I am?”
The elderly lady thought deeply for a moment, examining the Queen’s face. Then she replied:
“No dear… but don’t worry, if you’ve forgotten there are people here who can remind you.”
Joking aside, our sense of identity is hugely important. Knowing who we are, what we are and where we’ve come from is crucial. And what’s important in life is also important in our spiritual lives.
In Ephesians, Paul wants Christians to remember who they are. God has a masterplan for the world: “to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him” (Ephesians 1:10). And if we are trusting in Jesus, we have been drawn by God’s grace into those plans and purposes.
But how did that happen? How did we get here? And why is it so important to remember?
Paul begins by looking backwards.
1. Who do you think you were?
Paul is brutally honest about who we were without Jesus:
“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 flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
— Ephesians 2:1–3
The diagnosis is not that we were spiritually sick, or in need of improvement. Paul says that, without Christ, we were dead. A corpse cannot resuscitate itself. And that is Paul’s point: without God’s intervention, there was nothing we could do to save ourselves.
This spiritually dead life is nevertheless full of activity. We are caught up in sin and, Paul says, enslaved to the world, the flesh and the devil. We are not living in a neutral vacuum. Each of us follows someone or something - we are enslaved to...
- The world – captured by culture.
- The Prince of power of the air (the Devil) – the shocking truth that if we’re not lead by Christ we’re enslaved to Satan.
- The flesh – if it feels good, I’ll do it.
Where does that lead? Paul says we were “children of wrath”, facing the judgement of a holy God.
And remember: Paul is writing to Christians. He wants us to remember what we were, and what we still would be without Christ.
That should humble us. It should also shape how we see those who do not yet know Jesus. However respectable, successful or moral they may appear, without Christ their spiritual condition is the same as ours was: spiritually dead and facing the judgement of a holy God.
And then…
2. Who do you think you are?
Two of the most wonderful words in the Bible come next:
“But God…”
Paul continues:
“But 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…”
The only one who can deal with spiritually dead people is the author of life himself.
And notice when God acted: while we were still dead. The initiative was entirely his. It wasn’t because we had somehow made ourselves worthy. We couldn’t do anything — we were dead.
God acted in Christ. He brought forgiveness through the blood of Jesus.
And Paul makes the astonishing point that what happens to Jesus happens to us. Because Christ was raised to life, we are raised to life. Because he is seated in heaven, we are, in some sense, seated there with him.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith.”
Why has God done all this? Paul answers:
“so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
God is bringing his masterplan to fulfilment, and he has brought us from spiritual death to spiritual life primarily for his glory - so that his grace and kindness might be displayed.
3. What do you think you should do?
Who you are shapes what you do.
Paul makes this wonderfully clear:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:8-10
There are two things we must do.
First, don’t boast. Our salvation is entirely God’s work. We were spiritually dead and helpless. We contributed nothing to our rescue. We are his handiwork, not the other way around.
But secondly, do good works. Good works do not contribute to our salvation — they flow from it. We have been recreated in Christ so that we can now live differently.
As Paul says later in the letter - “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.” (5:1)
So remember who you were. Remember who you are.
• Be thankful: all you have is given freely by Christ.
• Be humble: we have nothing in ourselves to boast about.
• Be mindful: the church may sometimes feel small or insignificant, but it is part of God’s great masterplan.
We were spiritually dead, but now we have been made spiritually alive in Christ.
God is building his church as individuals move from death to life.
And gloriously, we are part of it and have a part to play in to.
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