The Dead Alive By Grace: Total Depravity
Text: Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV
We're in a series on the book of Ephesians called, “Who are You?” Ryan has walk us through the first chapter where we find out we are a new creation, and we find out that we are those who need the gospel.
Today, we are going to see that one of the ways to answer that question “Who are you?” is by saying you’re a sinner. If you're a Christian, you can say are a sinner, redeemed by grace.
Has anyone ever told you were a sinner?
For most of us, that sounds like really bad news. It's certainly not exciting. But I want to argue that the verdict that you are a sinner is actually really good news.
We all know and feel that something's wrong in the world. God has answered what's wrong in the world: sin.
But everyone feels there is something wrong in the world, and many haven’t reached the same conclusion as God. Over here, the psychologists mindset saying, “Yeah, something wrong with our minds. We need to be rewired.” You got the medical mindset saying, “We're sick, there's something wrong, and we should take medicine and fix the problem.” You got the sociologist mindset out their saying, “Man, if we could all just get in the same room and talk that would solve our problems.”
All identify there's something wrong in the world, and then they say what the solution is. And God is saying the problem is sin. And that is good news precisely because it has a real answer to what's wrong in the world?
The answer is not that we need to get a couple wires that were crossed aligned. We cannot get everyone in a room and just kind of talk it out. The answer, in fact is not even inside of us at all. The answer begins by understanding you are the problem, and you don't just need some new thoughts. You need a new you.
You need to be born again to be made into something new so that the sin that was you is no longer you. The solution is outside of you. If sin is in fact what is wrong with the world, if who we are sinners, then God is the only one with the solution. His Son, Jesus Christ, provides the only answer to all of the problems in the world. Today, we're going to see God diagnose our problem. The problem is you had no desire for God, you followed everything but God, and you deserved the wrath of God.
We are going to break this down into three points. If you thought you were by nature, well you could see these as three blows to that ideal:
Your Former Identity: You had no desire for God.
Your Former Influences: You followed everything but God. And
Your Former Indictment: You deserved the wrath of God.
Your former identity, influences, and indictment.
As you might have been able to tell, we are focusing on the first three verses of chapter 2. Next week Andrew will cover verses 4–7, and then the following week we will look at verses 8–10.
Let me read verses one through three, and we'll focus first on verse one.
“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.” (Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV)
Former Identity
Let's look at verse one, and see blow number one.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1 ESV)
We begin by looking at our former identity: no desire for God. When you look at this sentence, ask yourself, “Is this in the present tense? Or is this in the past tense? And you were dead in your trespasses and sins? This is why I say former identity.
Paul is writing to Christians, those who've accepted Christ, and he wants them to remember who they were. This morning, if you're a believer, this is describing your former identity — your identity before who you were in Christ. If you're not a Christian, this is your identity. This is who you are. So Paul describes our former identity as being dead.
But what is dead?
First he describes our deadness as dead in our trespasses and sin. Notice though that those are actions words. Right next to this term dead are action words: tresspasses and sins in which you once walked. These are things people do. And the chapter goes on to talk about how we follow the course of this word, our own passion, and so on. We are doing stuff.
Then look even closer at the word trespasses. It's plural. It wasn't that we just did a sin in our past, but we had an abundance of trespasses and sins. And that all showed us to be dead.
Though Paul calls us dead. He seems to understand that we are still very much alive. Though we were alive, we are alive in our rebellion and disobedience, we were dead to obedience to God. He means that we were living with no desire for God, no awareness of God, no care for God, no love towards God, no honor for God. We lived in complete rebellion against him.
Here is how one theologian puts it:
“Being alive to disobedience, we were dead to obedience. In being alive to rebellion, we were dead to submission. In being alive to unbelief, we were dead to faith. We had no living spiritual nature to incline us to do anything for the glory of God and in reliance on his power. And lacking that spiritual nature, we were dead: dead to righteousness, dead to holiness, dead to obedience, dead to faith.” (Piper)
Did you ever see that movie Sixth Sense. If you haven't seen it, this is a bit of a spoiler alert. But it's been out for like twenty years, so I'm sorry for spoiling it, but I'm guessing you weren't going to rush out and see it tonight if you haven't already seen it.
What you find out at the end of the movie is that this guy you have been following is actually dead. He’s a ghost throughout the whole movie. He's been doing what seems like normal things. He's been living what seems like a normal life and doing what seems like normal things. But in fact, he's dead.
This is a picture of being “very much alive,” but it turns out all the things you were doing we as someone dead. In our case, we were dead to God, dead to obedience, dead to honor God. You did a lot of things, but in the end, they only showed that you were dead the whole time.
What I want you to see is missing from this former identity are words like: faith, obeying God, honoring God, loving God and worshiping God. Everything in our former life is all about rebellion against God. They were all tresspasses and sin. Everything we did prior to Christ, everything, was rebellion.
You might be asking, can I literally do no good things without Christ? Well, yes and no. You can certainly do good things in comparison to evil things, like murdering people. Put you cannot do do things for God’s glory. Therefore, everything you do will be sin. Here's how it's put in Romans 14:23, the second half of the verse:
“For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23 ESV)
Let me just pause and try to give a picture of this because I think we know this intuitively.
Before you are a Christian, you might go out and give all away in order to help the homeless. That is a good thing, objectively. But you would never had said, I did this in order that God may get the glory. You wouldn't do that. You didn’t care about God. That's the whole point of living in the world and rebellion against God. All of those acts do not proceed from faith, therefore they are sin. You are refusing to acknowledge God as the utmost. You are refusing to do all things for God's glory.
Do you see what I mean by saying that your whole life was in rebellion against God? Everything showed that you had no desire for God, that you are dead to God and his ways.
One way theologians like to describe what we're talking about here is with this heavy phrase total depravity. It can be confusing because when we hear something like total depravity, we think, complete. We substitute in our mind for the word total words like utter — utterly depraved.
Then we get this idea that it means that all of us are as sinful as we could be. That's not what total depravity means, as if everyone here is as bad as Hitler. It does not mean that you are as bad as you can be, but it does mean that your sin is far worse than you could ever imagine. Everything you did, everything in total, was sin. These trespasses and sins are offending God in ways that are making your life totally unacceptable to God.
And total depravity means that this sin, these trespasses, are affecting every part of you. That is where Paul is going next. We are going to see that our sin, our depravity, has affected our minds. It's affected, our passions, our desires, our influences, both within us and outside of us. It affected everything. We are totally, all of us completely from the root all the way up, depraved.
Former Influences
Let's look at blow number two: our former influences: following everything but God. We followed the world, the devil, and the flesh — everything, but God. Look at verses two, and the beginning of three.
“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,” (Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV)
Not only does every good boy not do fine. There's not even good boys or girls, instead sons of destruction and daughters of destruction. We see that Paul begins by breaking down our former influence by saying we follow the course of this world.
Following the World
In following the course of this world, the Bible shows that we followed the outside influences surrounding us. We bought into the current fashions, the lastest fade, the newest thrill that the world had to offer. When the course of the world went one way, we followed. And this was in direct rebellion against God. Following the course of this world is not neutral, but hostile to God. Here’s Galatians 1:4:
[Jesus came to] deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,” (Galatians 1:4 ESV)
The world is called “the present evil age.” Colossians 1:13 calls it the domain of darkness. This is the song we sung. This is the food we craved. We followed the present evil age wherever they travelled.
And someone is driving that ship. That gets to the second influence: Satan.
Following Satan
In this section, he's called the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. The prince of this evil age, of this dominion of darkness, is Satan himself.
Our former influence the one who was directing our steps, who was giving us passions and desires is not God, but Satan himself. Satan is constantly whispering lies everywhere, and those who are not in Christ believe them.
It is not that every non-believer you know is demon possessed, but rather, they are under the influence of Satan, not of God.
Another pastor helpfully put it this way, “If you follow Satan in this world, you're going to follow him in the next” (Piper).
Following the Flesh
Then, finally, our third influence, the flesh — our own passions and corrupt desires. Look at verse three:
“Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,” (Ephesians 2:3 ESV)
And the passions of the flesh are these evil desires that have only self at the center. If the world and Satan are these external influences, these are the corrupt passions that are naturally bubbling out of you. These are the self-drive desire that only worry about trying getting what pleases us in the moment, carrying nothing for God in His glory, or even other people, unless it benefits us.
Here's how Romans 8:5–8 describes it:
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5–8, ESV)
When it says we're following our flesh, it means that in our former life, we could not please God because everything we did was set on the flesh, not on God Himself.
I hope you're starting to see how this is really a true problem. This is far deeper than the fact that some wires in our brains need to be rewired. Even if we could just get together and talk, the beast that is inside of us — a beast far more heinous than any that dwells in seperants, wolves, or ravage dogs — this beast would ruin everything.
Do you remember this story that you probably read it in high school, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The whole story is about a doctor who realized that he had these evil tendencies. What he does is he designs this potion that would separate the evil in him from the good. It would create two people. And the goal was that by creating a good that's unhindered by evil, he'd be able to do all good things.
But he finds out when the evil one comes, that it is far worse than he could have imagined, and even more shocking, he found a curious joy for this evil being. Here's what Stephenson wrote:
“I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil; and the thought in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine . . . every act and thought centered on self.” (110)
Terms like total depravity try to get us to see who we were before Christ. We were far worse than we could ever imagine, far uglier than we could ever fathom. Your day to day gardening, eating, hanging with friends — all of it was far worse then you ever thought because it had no goal of honoring God. Everything you did was corrupt. As Spurgeon said,“ Just as salt flavors every drop of the Atlantic Ocean, so our sin flavored every part of us.”
Our wickedness was not just fleeting. It's not just a one time thing. It is who we were at the core, the being of who we were. And that is how Paul finishes this section. He says this is who we are by nature.
Former Indictment
Let’s look at blow number three and our final point: our former indictment.
“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.” (Ephesians 2:3 ESV)
Before Christ, we were sons and daughters of destruction, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Paul makes it clear that it doesn’t matter who you were—Jew, Gentile, big, little, old, young, son of a Pharisees, or daughter of a Gentile King.
It says, we were by very nature that way. No one taught us this. We woke up from the womb, by nature, as children of wrath. This is how Psalm 51:5 puts it,
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:5 ESV)
You were not just bad because you did bad things. Those bad things proved who you were, by nature, a sinner. If you’re confused by this, Jacque and I are always looking for babysitters. You can view it as a lesson in seeing how kids are born as sinners.
I didn’t have to teach Landin (our two-year-old son) to disobey. In fact, I spend all my energy teaching him the opposite. But that sin rears its ugly head every time I say don’t roll out all the toilet paper, and sure enough, I come home to a hallway full of toilet paper.
Who Are You?
Who are you? You either were a sinner, or sinner redeemed by grace, if you have accepted Christ.
This is a description of who you are when you do not care for God. By nature, you are a sinner. Those who are in Christ. You were this bad.
I read an author this week who pointed out that it is one thing to sit there and talk about sin and Original Sin total depravity, or sit there and talk about something like AIDS, and its destruction. But it's a whole other thing for a doctor to look at you and say HIV positive.
I'm not saying this first about your neighbor truth, or about Adolf Hitler only, or about the worst of mankind. I'm looking at everyone and saying to you—this is who you were or this is who you are.
To use the words of Romans 3 beginning in verse 10:
“As it is written: ‘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.’
‘Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.’
‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’
‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.’
‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’” (Romans 3:10–18, ESV)
That might seem like really heavy news. Here's the good news. Against that black backdrop shines a very bright and good news. God saw how wicked you were, how rebellious you were, how you were dead in your trespasses— no desire for God, following everything but God, and deserving God’s wrath, But God made you alive. And against this black backdrop, you see grace shine even brighter. Andrew is going to take us on a deep dive of that next week.
But we had to start by saying well we were dead. Because here's the thing, to take an image from a pastor I listened to this week: if one of those hard, but floating life preservers, life buoys hits you in the head while your drowning, you are extremely grateful. But if your on land, thinking everything is fine, and one of those hits you in the head, you are going to be ticked. When you know that you need a savior, and all of a sudden God says I sent a Savior to save you, that becomes really good news.
And the good news is not that you can try harder to get rid of this darkness. You can try all day long, and you will never fear God on your own. And I'm here to tell you all, that is not gonna work. You can't just flip a switch on your own, and all the sudden go from a son or daughter of destruction and wrath into one who's loving and obeying God.
It’s not that you need new wiring in your mind, you need a new mind. It’s not that we need medicine, you need a new body—a new life altogether. It’s not even that we need to sit down and talk it out, we need new words, new priorities, new passions—a new creation. You can come to God and get a new life. You can be born again
That’s why we talk with Christian words like born again. That's what God has promised in Christ. He said, If you would come and confess your sin, he would give you new life. At that moment, this would be true of you from 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Or John 5:24:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)
You can be a new creation. This description today can be of a former you. You can be saved from the wrath to come. You can be saved from destruction. You can be born again. If you would come to Christ, this story of being a son or daughter of destruction would be past tense for you. It would be who you were not who you are. Let me implore you. Don't wait.
For those of you who know this was your story, you knew Christ at the start of this, how do I live this out this week?
Paul is really adamant that we remember things like this. Paul is intentional to say, you need to remember who you were. And two things are going to happen:
First, you're going to remember who you were, and you're going to be then rejoicing about who you are now. The answer to the question, Who are you? Changes everything for you. It determines what you do when you wake up, where you should go, how you live, what you buy. Your identity governs all of that. When you think of this, and you remind yourself each day who you are, I guarantee you will walk into work differently. When you remember, I was dead and raised to life, that changes every priority.
Second, when you see this old you rise up — this old man, this old woman — those passions of the flesh and the desires of the heart that were former, these things that don't belong to God, when they rise up, you can remember, “No, that's who I was, not who I am.” It gives you yet another tool to fight sin.
You can say, “I don't want that. I don't want to go down the road of being angry, bitter, unforgiving, lustful, gossiping. I want to leave it behind. Because that's who I was, not who I am.
May God fill you this week with the truth that:
“When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,” (Titus 3:4–6 ESV)