Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1
to 10. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. When the Lord Jesus Christ described
himself as the life as he did on several occasions. Once to Martha when he said,
I am the resurrection and the life, and then again to his disciples
when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And when
he describes himself as the life, he is teaching us something about
spiritual life that I want to direct our attention to today. The Saviour, when he spoke to
his disciples in John chapter 14, that great I am saying, he's
speaking to Thomas, but he speaks to all his disciples and he speaks
to us with them. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. The Lord Jesus Christ there is
saying, that he is the life, but he adds to that that he is
also the truth, meaning that he is the meaning of life, and
he is the way, telling us that he is the means of life. So that here is the Lord Jesus
Christ telling his disciples, telling us, that he is the way
of life, he is the truth and the meaning of life, and he is
life itself. It is a staggeringly comprehensive
and all-inclusive statement. It's an assertion that only God
or a madman could make. And let me just remind you of
something of the context of this statement in which it was made.
The Lord Jesus Christ is getting ready to die. He is getting ready
to lay down his life. He is almost, as it were, upon
that altar of sacrifice. He has told his disciples that
he is leaving. He has told his disciples that
he is going away. And they are downcast, they are
grieving, they are hurting in their hearts, in their minds,
in their souls. And the Lord Jesus Christ designs
these words to be a comfort to them. Remember the context? Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Why? Because I am God. I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. No man approaches to Jehovah,
the triune God, but by me, the God-man. And that's what the
Lord Jesus Christ is saying here. This is an extraordinary statement. He was not simply saying that
he taught or promoted a way of living, but that he himself is
life. He's not only saying that he
is the only saviour from death, the one, the exclusive means
of salvation, but he is telling us that he is life itself. and the only way by which sinners
are reconciled to God. He's not simply saying that his
words are dependable and trustworthy, and they are, but that he is
the very truth. He is the one true God, the author,
the creator, the sustainer, the essence of all life, be it natural
life, be it spiritual life, be it eternal life. This one, Jesus Christ, in speaking
the way he did, this one, Jesus of Nazareth, a 33-year-old man,
a carpenter, and an itinerant preacher, on the eve of his execution,
claimed to be the true and living way of salvation for sinners
like you and me. Spoke these words to the comfort
of his friends, and for the church that he founded. He is the everlasting,
ever-existing, all-powerful, all-knowing, great I AM, the
Alpha and Omega, and there is no other. I said a moment ago
that the Lord Jesus Christ, in saying these things, was either
God or he was a madman. I do not believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ was mad. I do not believe that Jesus of
Nazareth was mad. I believe he is God. As Jude
says in his little epistle, the only wise God and saviour. And I heartily recommend him
to you today. He is worthy to be believed. He is worthy to be trusted. for salvation and everlasting
life. Today and over the next few weeks,
and I don't know how long it will take, it is my purpose to
think with you about what the Bible teaches concerning new
life by grace through faith, or what Paul calls salvation
by grace through faith. And we will dwell upon this passage
in Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 10 particularly, but we'll refer
to other passages as well. And if you think that this is
fairly basic stuff, I agree with you. But I tell you this, This
is the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. And we will touch upon things,
upon matters, upon doctrine, upon teachings here that not
one in a thousand so-called evangelicals believe. So today's verse begins
at the beginning of the chapter. in Ephesians chapter 2 verse
1. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Now most of us will know the
original meaning of this word quick is living or alive. And it's only relatively recent
that it took on the idea of speed. Luke and Paul and Peter all tell
us that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth one day
and he will judge the quick and the dead. And so that's the reference,
the living and the dead. And here in this verse, you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins, Paul
is telling us that we are speaking about spiritual life. That is the quickening that he
has in view. It is spiritual life as opposed
to other kinds of life, because there are other kinds of life
spoken about in the Bible. There is natural life, which
we have in this body, and there is eternal life. But this is
speaking about spiritual life. Now everyone that is listening
to me now has physical life. But the word of God tells us
that no one has spiritual life until it is given, until it is
gifted by God to them. Until then, every single person,
though they may have natural life, have no spiritual life. They are dead in their spirits. They are spiritually dead. Dead
in sin. Dead in their sins because of
the fall. Because of Adam's sin and because
of the fall. Now this is a very basic point
in our doctrine, in our Christian teaching. It's a very basic point
in scriptural truth. That all men and women are dead
in sin because of the fall. basic and yet you will be amazed
at how much theology of our modern times are based on exactly the
opposite viewpoint. That says that people are both
able and indeed can desire to act spiritually before they ever
receive the gift of spiritual life. That is what so much of
our Christian and Protestant doctrine, even Reformed doctrine,
is predicated upon. But today I want to look at four
aspects of spiritual life, or what Paul here calls quickening. with reference to this opening
verse. And these four, we'll move through
them quickly, so don't be too concerned about the time. These
four are these. Quickening, making alive, is
a necessary work. Quickening is a divine work. Quickening is a sovereign work. And quickening is a transforming
work. So first of all, quickening is
a necessary word. Paul tells us that until and
unless we are made alive, we are dead in trespasses and in
sin. Because that is the default condition
of every human being. We are born in sin. We are ruled
by sin. We are subject to sin. We are trapped by sin. And we are condemned for it. And this is important. Listen
to this please. I don't want you to misunderstand
this point. Our sin is not the acts of sin
that we do, the wrong things that we perpetrate. Our sin in
the first instance, in its primary sense, is the root of sin which
is within us. out of which these acts come
as the corrupt fruit of the natural man. And so that sin, that corrupt
nature is common to every son and daughter of Adam down through
the ages, down through the generations of humanity. And we're told that
Adam is the head, the first man. He is what we call the federal
head of all who are of his genealogy. In Romans chapter 5 verse 12
we are told, And in 1 Kings 8, verse 46, we're
told there that there is no man that sinneth not. And in Romans
6, we're told that the wages of sin is death. So let us look
for a moment at what Paul describes or explains this dead in sin
to be. And we're referring particularly
to verses two and three here of the passage. And I want us
to especially note that sin is not passive. It is our active allegiance to
this world. Our sin is our allegiance to
this world and the principles of this world. It's an unholy
alliance that we have made with the devil, the prince of the
power of the air. It is a vicious, we might even say violent antagonism
towards God. We say in our heart, effectively,
away with this man. We walk according to this world's
course. It's the world that sets the
parameters of our walk in the natural man, in our natural life. We are in step with Satan. It's almost like we are arm in
arm with him. We walk with him according to
the way that he would have us walk, so we follow. The course is set by the world.
We are regulated by the world's values and by the world's norms. And our actions are inspired
by the world around us. Indeed, our actions are validated
by the world around us to such a degree that we look upon ourselves
and we are righteous in our own eyes. Paul says, let me tell you about
sin. Sin in our conversation is our
practices, our preferences, our principles, moulded by the lust
of the flesh. It's the desires of our mind
and our heart motivating our conduct and our attitudes against
God. Our nature is rebellious and
corrupt. It separates us from God. It isolates us from His holiness. We are spiritually ignorant,
spiritually blind. We can't see, we can't understand. We're spiritually deaf, we can't
hear. We might listen to the gospel
being preached but we cannot hear it spiritually because we
are simply living natural lives in our physical bodies. We do
not have a spiritual ear. The word of God tells us, he
who have ears to hear and that's not everyone by nature. We are
senseless to the spiritual way, the spiritual truth, and the
spiritual life, which is Christ. We are dead in our trespasses
and sins, and we stay that way, enemies of God, dead until he
quickens us. So quickening is a necessity. The second point is this. Quickening
is a divine work. Now, if we were just to pause
for a few moments and think about that, it would be pretty obvious
that it had to be. Spiritual life is the opposite
of spiritual death. It is the opposite of all the
things that we've just talked about there in that previous
section about our opposition and our rebellion and our walking
in step with the world and our being motivated by the lusts
of the flesh. Spiritual life is the opposite
of that. It is the change of course. It
is the release from Satan's rule. It is altered. practices and
preferences and principles. It's a changed and a renewed
nature. It's different passions, altered
attitudes. It's spiritual sensitivities
enabled so that we see spiritual things, hear spiritual things,
receive spiritual things by faith. which is God's gift to us. The power that is needed to accomplish
that is not in man's own natural ability, nor is it in our own
will. On the contrary, the natural
man, the old sinful nature, the old man, if you like, fights
against that quickening. People say that we have free
will. No, the old man, the natural
man is fighting against the new man and the quickening. He opposes
him. He resists him. He would slay
him if he could. Slay the new man, slay the new
creation because that is what quickening is. It is no less
than a new creation. Now sometimes, and properly,
we talk about conversion. And there is a conversion, but
the conversion is in the outworking of the new man that has been
created. It's not a conversion of the
old man, but it's a new creation. God does not change our old nature
into a new nature. He gives us a brand new nature. And the old and the new will
continue within us as long as we live. And their coexistence
will not be amicable. The two natures will war against
each other. It's God's work to create the
new nature, not ours. The old nature cannot and it
would not if it could. enliven or invigorate its enemy. The will will not will into existence
that which it is opposite to. If we are dead in trespasses
and sins, can we choose to let God create a new holy man in
us? It's an absurdity. There's real
madness. to imagine that the old man,
that the natural man, that the carnal man would ever will to
be ruled and dominated by a new creation, a holy creation. No, quickening must be a divine
act, and it is a divine act, which is why the apostle Paul
says here, ye or you hath he quickened. You has he made alive. And our point follows directly
from this because quickening is a sovereign work. Quickening
is a necessity because we are dead in our sins. Quickening
is a divine act of God because it can come from nowhere else.
And quickening is a sovereign work. Now, what do we mean by
sovereign? Simply this, it is God's choice
to quicken whomsoever he will. If the power is God's, if the
action is God's, if the creating work is God's, then it is God's
choice whom he will give that to, do that for. Give the gift
of new life. Now obviously, God does not quicken
everyone. There are many who never become
new creatures, never receive spiritual life. There are many,
many who have never even heard the gospel preached, far less
being brought to life by and through that gospel and enabled
to believe in that gospel. But the point is this, and this
is what Paul is saying here. Some do, some do. Some do believe, some do receive,
some do have a spiritual life granted to them. Who is it that
decides? Who is it that makes the difference
in that case? Not the dead sinner. We've seen
that that's absurd. Not by the will of the old man,
he would never do that. Not the evil nature that reigns
and rules in us, in our flesh and in our carnal attitudes,
that walks in step with the devil. No, it is God who decides. And
that's the Bible teaching of election. God's sovereign choice
is written large on every page of this book. God chose Abel,
and he chose Noah, and he chose Abraham. He said, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. And election is according to
God's will and according to God's purpose. Sovereign choice to
elect one to salvation and to pass over and leave another under
the legitimate judgment of their sin. This is divine prerogative. Man could not, man would not,
but God does. And that's grace, real grace,
effectual grace, distinguishing grace, sovereign grace. And that is why Quickening must
be a sovereign work of God. It isn't based upon any good
in the creature, for all have sinned. It's not based on the
will of the old man. The old nature is dead in its
trespasses and sins. It is God's good pleasure to
quicken whomsoever he will. And how absolute is that sovereign
election? Paul's example of the two twins
in the womb, Jacob and Esau, really shows us how absolute
sovereign election is. And in Romans 9, verse 11, he
says this, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, nor of works, but of him that calleth." Sovereign choice
of God. And let me mention here too,
in all of his sovereign grace, God is absolutely consistent
with himself. Justice and holiness are never
compromised in the choice of God's election. Wrath against
sin, even the elect's sin, is never denied. Remission for sin
is not gained without punishment and shed blood. But here we find
the doctrine of substitution. Here we find the ram calling
the thicket. Here we find the Lord Jesus Christ
sent within the covenant of God's grace and peace to lay down his
life as a substitute for his people, to carry the weight of
their sin, to take upon himself the burden of their iniquity,
to take their transgressions and their sins by which their
death is assured and their natural man is to be punished, and lay
it upon himself and become their substitute, their saviour, their
surety and atone for their sins. The surety stood forth, the substitute
offered up himself. A saviour was found in Jesus
of Nazareth to redeem God's people and fulfil all holiness and righteousness. And finally, Quickening is a
transforming work. We've already alluded to this. By making new creatures, God
has begun a new work, a good work in his chosen people that
he will not forego or abandon. The Father has not chosen a people
in sovereign grace. And the Son has not died for
that people and paid their debts and redeemed their souls. And
the Holy Spirit has not quickened that people and made them alive
to ultimately fail in bringing and delivering them to eternal
life and everlasting glory. These things are sure and certain. God's chosen people for whom
Christ died are those whom the Holy Spirit quickens. And he will deliver all of them
to everlasting life and everlasting glory. Grace is a finished work. All whom God has chosen in eternal
election, all for whom Christ has died upon the cross as substitute,
all will be regenerated, quickened, made alive by God the Holy Spirit,
saved by the hearing of the gospel, and brought into a lively relationship
with God through their union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because their spiritual life
is His life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. And this is non-negotiable. This
is God's work. That work produces fruit in its
beneficiaries. Sinners like you and me who hear
the gospel come believing. We hear it and we receive it.
We seek peace with God. We seek forgiveness and cleansing
through the blood of Jesus Christ. No more fighting against God,
but worshipping in spirit and in truth as we never could before. How? Why? Because we've been
quickened. Ye had he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and in sins. Following, learning, Desiring
the Lord Jesus Christ as we never could before, as we never did
before. Rejoicing, serving with praises
and thanksgiving for the spiritual life that has been implanted
in us. Why? Because we're born again. We're new creatures. God has
made us spiritually alive. When Paul writes in Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 1, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses
and sins, he is preaching the gospel of sovereign grace. He's
giving good news to dead sinners of life in Jesus Christ. He is saying, once you were dead
in trespasses and sins, dead in your soul, dead in your heart,
dead in your desires towards God, But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us and give us once again in them a Realisation that
this great work of new life, this great work of quickening,
is God's work. A necessary work, a divine work,
a sovereign work, and a transforming work in the people of His choice. Amen.