1 You were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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 - 3 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.
Why do we need a Saviour? Last week we looked at the Biblical truth that before coming to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, as Paul wrote in verse 1. Again, if we are ever to appreciate the glory of our salvation, we need to know what God has rescued us from. There is good news, but we need to grasp just how bad the bad news is first.
We need a Saviour because we are dead in sin, and today we will be looking at 2 more reasons we need to be saved, and we find these reasons in verses 2 and 3. We are held captive to an alien power, and we are children of wrath.
It is no surprise that there is a lot of opposition to these Biblical truths, because the world has been fooled into believing that by our nature, we are essentially good people. None of us are perfect, and while there are some obvious exceptions, the overwhelming majority of people are not evil, but good.
This lie has its roots all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, where Satan said to Adam and Eve, “Did God really say? You will not surely die.”
To the non-believing world that has bought into this lie, it just makes no sense whatsoever that without a Saviour, all people are dead in their sin and are incapable of any spiritual good. Not only that, but without a Saviour all are held captive and are blinded by Satan, meaning that without salvation in Jesus Christ, all people are under the wrath of God and are sentenced to eternal torment in hell.
This is why, if we are ever to be saved, there needs to be a divine revelation. God reveals to us not only our need of a Saviour, but also just how we are saved. The world cannot reveal these things to us, because it is in denial that we have such a great need.
If we don’t begin with God’s interpretation of who we are, we will never see our need for a Saviour. But once we learn to swallow our foolish pride and take God at His word, we soon learn that we are dead in our sins, as we saw last week, and captive to Satan and children of wrath, which is our focus today.
What does Paul mean by saying in verse 2 that prior to our salvation, we were “following the prince of the power of the air?”
There are 2 verses which will help us to understand what Paul means here. He writes in Galatians 4:3, “We also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world,” and in Colossians 1:13, He speaks of God who “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Satan is the evil force behind the world system which rejects Jesus Christ and everything He represents. The sins we see being committed in the world are all outward symptoms of an inner cause. Paul also wrote in Ephesians 6:12, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
What this means is that Satan and his legion of demons, are the real enemy. He is called the ‘prince of demons’ in Matthew 12:24. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul calls him the ‘god of this world,’ and three times in the Gospel of John, in chapters 12, 14 and 16, Jesus calls Satan the ‘ruler of this world.’ When Satan tempted Jesus in Luke 4, he said to Him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.” (Luke 4:6)
What all of this means is that the normal state of this fallen world is evil. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign over all things, but it also teaches that in this “present evil age” as Paul describes it in Galatians 1:4, God, in His sovereignty has permitted that the fallen world in which we live is under the control of Satan.
The apostle John reminds us in 1 John 5:19, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
When John writes that we know we are from God, he is speaking about those who have been saved from the consequences of their sin through faith in Jesus. This is the power of the cross, and the ultimate victory which Jesus has won over the devil.
This is the great hope we have, but as Jesus reminds us in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
History and the current state of the world prove that Jesus was right, because the majority of people reject Him as the Saviour. Without a Saviour, Satan, the prince of the power of the air, reigns over the sons of disobedience, and he holds them captive through his lies and deceit. He told Adam and Eve they wouldn’t die, and he says the same thing today. The greatest lie in all of human history is that we are essentially good people, meaning we do not need a Saviour to redeem us from the dreadful, eternal consequences of our sins.
Paul, In Ephesians 2:2 describes exactly how Satan rules over the world when he writes that he, “is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” He exercises his rule by working in the hearts and lives of people who are not saved, by telling them constantly that they do not need a Saviour, and because they are spiritually dead, they cannot resist his lies. This again reminds us that it takes a supernatural act of God to raise us spiritually. Unless God, in His sovereign grace, stirs our hearts by His Holy Spirit, and reveals the total depravity of our sinful hearts, we would have no hope at all of salvation.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 says, “If our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
This is how the devil compounds the hopelessness of people who are dead in their trespasses and sins. They are prevented from seeing anything glorious in the Gospel of Christ. Instead, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18 they see the cross as foolishness.
Those who deny their need of a Saviour see no need for the cross. The whole idea of God taking on human flesh and dying the death of a common criminal is foolishness.
What Satan does is prevent those who are spiritually dead from understanding the truth of the Gospel that saves.
In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, Satan is depicted as the birds who ate the seeds which had been sown. Jesus said in verse 4, “As he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.” He explained what He meant in verse 19. “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.”
Before coming to Christ in faith, we were not only dead in sin, but were held captive to an alien and evil power. Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
This is what it means to be dead to God and enslaved to Satan. This is why we need a Saviour, because there is nothing that we can do in our own strength to fix the sin problem we are born with. Our only hope is if God Himself reaches down into our desperate situation and saves us, which is what He has done for us by sending His only Son to be our Saviour.
Paul explains how God saves us in 2 Timothy 2:25-26 where he writes that “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
Notice what Paul says here - that God may perhaps grant them repentance. As we saw last week, salvation is something which God does from beginning to end. Even the desire to repent of our sins and the faith to believe in Christ are gifts that God grants us.
It is so important that we understand this. If you are not a Christian, if you have yet to confess your sins and accept salvation through Jesus Christ, but you can sense a stirring in your heart, that is the Holy Spirit at work, drawing you to Christ. If that is where you are now, hear the words of Isaiah 55:6-7. “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Turn to Christ while you still have the opportunity, before your heart becomes so hardened to the truth, that you will not be able to believe.
Satan works in all those who are without a Saviour, the result of which, as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:2 is that we all once walked “following the course of this world.”
This simply means that in our natural, fallen state, before coming to Christ, we walked in step with the times. We were not aliens and exiles in this sinful world, but natives. We just went with the flow, completely oblivious to how desperately lost we were.
Satan is the god of this world, and he ruled over us. We might not like that idea, but this is what the Bible teaches, and the evidence of Satan’s dominion over this world can be clearly seen.
Every time we read a newspaper or watch the news, we can see the result of the forces of evil at work in the hearts of those who reject Jesus Christ. They are ruled by Satan who blinds the minds of unbelievers, fills them with ungodly desires, holds them captive to do his will, and then fools them into thinking that all is well because they are in step with the times. That was the condition of every one of us until we were made alive and rescued from Satan by the Saviour.
Paul continues in verse 3 by saying we “were by nature children of wrath.” Another uncomfortable truth, but one which we need to understand. The first question is, whose wrath is Paul writing about? He answers that question like this in Ephesians 5:5-6. “You may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
It is the wrath of God that is coming. We were by nature children of the wrath of God. R. C. Sproul tells the story of when he was a student, a fellow student was handing out Bible tracts, and as he gave one to Sproul, he asked, “Are you saved?” Sproul’s answer was, “Saved from what?” That is an excellent question!
Years later, Sproul wrote in one of his books that our salvation in Christ means that we are saved by God, we are saved for God, and we are saved from God.
In our fallen state we naturally did the things which God hates. By nature we rejected the knowledge of God, by nature we denied the Gospel, and by nature we were filled with desires that were nothing but idolatry in the eyes of a holy God.
This is why Paul exhorts Christians in Colossians 3 by writing, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Colossians 3:1-10)
Notice verse 6: “On account of these the wrath of God is coming.”
We like the idea of God being a God of love, mercy and grace. He is all of these things and more, but the Bible teaches that He is also perfect in His justice and wrath.
One of the greatest disservices the church has done for people is to tell them that God loves them unconditionally. You will not find this taught in the Bible. It is not only unbiblical, but extremely dangerous.
When a non-believer is told that God loves them unconditionally, they will not be convicted of their sin, or of their need for a Saviour. It would suit me just fine for God to love me just the way I am, because that means I can carry on living the way I want.
Paul Washer says that one of the worst things we can tell an unbeliever is “God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life.” He says the typical response is, “Hey, I love me too, and I also have a wonderful plan for my life. Where is this God, because you can sign me up.”
God does have a plan for the lives of those who do not know Jesus Christ, but it’s one they probably don’t want to hear.
David wrote in Psalm 5:4-6, “You are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.”
You hate all evildoers. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
You won’t find those verses on too many fridge magnets, but you will find them in the Bible.
R. C. Sproul said in a lecture on Psalm 5, “It’s not that God is moderately disturbed with the bloodthirsty person or the person who’s a liar and a cheat and deceitful. It’s that God abhors them. That’s intense, and I think we have to take that seriously. Now, we always say the cliché, ‘God hates the sin, but He loves the sinner.’ That’s nonsense. God doesn’t send the sin to hell. He sends the sinner to hell, because He abhors the impenitent sinner who becomes the object of His wrath.”
This truth stands directly opposed to the false teaching that God’s love is unconditional. Without the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, we are by nature, children of wrath. His perfectly holy wrath and justice is the plan that God has for those who reject salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
The Bible teaches that God would be unrighteous and would be denying His very nature if He just ignored our sin and pretended it didn’t matter. It mattered enough for Jesus to die for our sin.
The church in Thessalonica was a faithful church, despite the persecution they faced, and Paul often boasted of them to other churches, as they were faithfully proclaiming the truth of the Gospel, and in his opening greeting in his second letter to them, he wrote something which clearly spells out the wrath which is to come. “We ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering - since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.” (2 Thessalonians 1:4-10)
That sounds very different to “God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life,” doesn’t it?
In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about the final judgement when He says, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” (Matthew 25:31-34,41)
It’s been well documented that Jesus spoke more about the reality of eternal punishment in hell than He did about the glories of Heaven. He said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Make no mistake, the wrath of God is coming, and our only hope of escaping the punishment our sin deserves is repentance of our sin and the saving grace of God which Jesus Christ alone offers.
John MacArthur wrote of the reality of hell in his commentary, “The punishment of the wicked dead is described throughout Scripture as everlasting fire, unquenchable fire, shame and everlasting contempt, a place where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched, a place of torments and flame, everlasting destruction, a place of torment with fire and brimstone where the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and a lake of fire and brimstone where the wicked are tormented day and night forever and ever. Jesus indicates that the punishment itself is everlasting - not merely the smoke and flames. The wicked are forever subject to the fury and the wrath of God. They consciously suffer shame and contempt and the assaults of an accusing conscience, along with the fiery wrath of an offended deity, for all of eternity. Even hell will acknowledge the perfect justice of God; those who are there will know that their punishment is just and that they alone are to blame.”
In Revelation 6 the apostle John writes about the “wrath of the Lamb” to emphasise the righteous indignation of Jesus against those who rejected His offer of forgiveness and grace.
A favourite children’s Christmas carol is Silent Night, which speaks of the “holy infant, so tender and mild.” Jesus’ return is going to be very different, because the age of meekness and grace will not last forever. John the Baptist speaks of the second coming of Jesus in Matthew 3:12 where he says, “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Again, as last week, we need to know that there is good news. The wrath of God is real, but so is the grace and forgiveness He offers through faith in Jesus Christ.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the great preachers of the last century. Just before his death in 1981 he was asked in an interview, “Do you have any final word for our generation?” He answered simply by quoting 1 Thessalonians 1:10. “Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come.” That is what our glorious Saviour has done for us.
We close with a final warning from Isaiah 66:15-16. “Behold, the Lord will come in fire, and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger in fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by His sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the Lord shall be many.”
For now, Jesus remains the Saviour. Turn to Him and be saved from the consequences of your sin, the captivity of Satan, and the sentence of hell. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, for there is no other name given among men by which you can be saved.
As we have seen last Sunday and today, in the first 3 verses of Ephesians 2, Paul warns of the dire consequences of rejecting the Saviour. We have to know the price of rejecting salvation in Christ, but we will conclude this short series next week as we look at the good news the Bible proclaims, which Paul writes about beginning in verse 4 with two crucial words: “But God.”