00:00:00:19 – 00:00:28:16
Clint Loveall
Strong word. Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Happy to have you back as we start the week together in the second chapter of Ephesians. Maybe we’ll see where we go today and we may slow this down just a little bit. I’m going to start off with the first three verses. Which kind of constitutes a little change of direction as we came out of chapter one on a very high liturgical note, a note of praise.

00:00:28:21 – 00:00:59:12
Clint Loveall
Wonderful. Almost. Adoration worship kind of passage. And now Paul moves into the underpinnings of some of the theology that’s going to be foundational in this book. So let me read a couple verses. We’ll come back and talk about it with you. You were dead through the trespasses and sin in which you once lived. Following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

00:00:59:16 – 00:01:30:22
Clint Loveall
All of us once lived among them in past, in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses. And we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. So if we could stop the remark, I think this is, I think this is, interesting on on twofold that a, Paul goes back to ground zero here.

00:01:30:27 – 00:02:00:11
Clint Loveall
If we’re talking about the very basics of the faith, this is kind of where it starts for Paul. We have a problem. The human has a human problem in our condition. And that problem is exactly the opening line here. You were dead through trespasses and sin. Now, Paul understands this to be the universal human condition. This is the place from which we all start.

00:02:00:16 – 00:02:28:51
Clint Loveall
Jews and Gentiles alike. Notice that he is not in this next section that we’re going to be in for a day or two. He’s not going to use the word Jew and Gentile, but he is drawing a picture. He he is casting a net that will catch everyone. So you were dead through the trespasses and sins. And Michael, interestingly enough, I think through is an important word there for Paul.

00:02:29:06 – 00:02:29:19
Michael Gewecke
Yeah.

00:02:29:20 – 00:02:36:52
Clint Loveall
Like that is the nature of our deadness through our disobedience.

00:02:36:57 – 00:02:56:54
Michael Gewecke
Right? Because God is just because God isn’t metering against humanity. Under chosen wrath. And this is a common narrative in the ancient world about deities who get angry, much like humans. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed that God woke up on the wrong side of the bed. So here comes asteroids. Here comes hail storms, here comes misery.

00:02:56:54 – 00:03:19:22
Michael Gewecke
And. And you. Right? But here instead, we have this movement happening. And we need to make note of this, because I think it would be really tempting to jump into a study like this and to fixate on this language of being dead through trespasses and sins. There’s Christian families that, you know, take that to a pretty far extent.

00:03:19:22 – 00:03:39:45
Michael Gewecke
In fact, you’d say at the reformed Church has certainly had that in our own history and theology. I just want to make sure we understand the context here. This is first noted by the death of Jesus Christ and God’s power to resurrect in Ephesians. Jesus is the first. We’ve already had that. So jump back to the previous studies if you missed it, it’s relevant.

00:03:39:54 – 00:04:06:39
Michael Gewecke
Here we get to chapter two, verse one. And now the lens shifts from Christ to us. You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived. This is the basic fundamental starting point. Everyone is there at the same. The question, of course, that that brings is if we all start dead, then what is the path to life?

00:04:06:41 – 00:04:30:14
Michael Gewecke
If one exists? And because we’ve already seen the movement that Jesus Christ lived, the died, we as the reader, the Christian, already has implanted in our imagination this idea that there is a road, there’s a movement. But make no mistake about it. It’s because of. And Clint, to your point. It’s because of the trespasses and sins in which we have been active participants.

00:04:30:27 – 00:04:50:48
Michael Gewecke
God hasn’t chosen death for us, but rather it’s been a part of our natures and our choice. And it’s therefore reflected in the way that we are living out our lives in the world. And so fundamentally, the question is going to be what can be done outside of us for the sake of what’s happening in and through us?

00:04:50:49 – 00:04:55:06
Michael Gewecke
And this is all set up in just about 5 or 6 words here. Right?

00:04:55:06 – 00:05:22:37
Clint Loveall
And there is a foreshadowing here in which you once lived, which implies that you no longer do, or at least no longer should. But Paul’s going to return to that later. So in which you once lived, following the course of this world, this is another, you know, I know we’re kind of going through this very methodically, but this is another fundamental point for Paul.

00:05:22:42 – 00:05:56:58
Clint Loveall
The world around us is tainted by that trespass, by that sin. The world around us reflects the deadness of the human condition. And when when Paul says world, he does not mean everything about the human experience he has in mind, specifically the reality of life that is outside of what God wants for us, the the brokenness of the world in which we live.

00:05:57:03 – 00:06:32:19
Clint Loveall
And Paul says that in our deadness we followed the course of this world. The world craved power. So we craved power. The world loved money, so we loved money. The world said, it doesn’t matter what you do with your own sexuality, as long as you can find pleasure, you should do it. So we did that. We as humans have followed the course of the world following the ruler of the power of air, which is a reference to evil.

00:06:32:24 – 00:07:10:40
Clint Loveall
But notice that even even in saying this, Paul won’t give that spirit too much credit. Because what is air? Air is not solid. Air has no form. The ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now at work among those who disobey, who are disobedient. Notice he no longer says among you that that brokenness, that deadness, that power of the world is at work still, but not among everyone, simply now, among those who have not yet been set free in Christ.

00:07:10:41 – 00:07:18:42
Clint Loveall
And again, Paul hasn’t said any of this explicitly yet, but he is setting the stage for what’s going to come.

00:07:18:47 – 00:07:51:18
Michael Gewecke
We we have a very popular and common New Testament turn here, especially in this language of the course of this world. We just went through the Gospel of John not long ago. And this is very common in the gospel, where you have the world versus the spirit. And here following the ruler of the power of the air, this in the original language could get translated a couple of different senses, and one of them can be the spirit of the times or the things happening, around the world.

00:07:51:18 – 00:08:11:55
Michael Gewecke
And so being caught up is the image, right? The idea that you’re caught up in the circle in which you live, almost like the goldfish that lives inside your small little tank, here you are, and you know nothing other than the world in which you live. You’re caught up in that water. You swim in that water and that current that this is your life.

00:08:12:00 – 00:08:40:31
Michael Gewecke
But Paul wants to make clear that at the end of the day, it’s not just the state of how we enter in the world, Clint. We don’t get off the hook. It is ultimately through the trespasses and sins. It’s we are committing these, acts of rebellion, of disobedience. We’re participating in the world’s, way of dis ordering God’s best and intention and that is a fundamental, Lee important.

00:08:40:31 – 00:08:41:04
Michael Gewecke
Turn them the.

00:08:41:04 – 00:09:13:07
Clint Loveall
Text. Yeah, well, and I think it Paul makes it he he does not want to simply imply that Michael I think he wants to make it just completely clear. So look at these three short words that begin verse three, all of us. Right. In case we think we have any room to hide from the reality of our sinfulness, Paul says, all of us, including himself, all of us, once lived among them in the passion of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses.

00:09:13:12 – 00:09:40:55
Clint Loveall
And we were by nature children of wrath. And here again open and closed bookmarks like everyone else. And there is a thing that is tempting as Christians, Michael, is that we come to Jesus and we hear the reality of our sin, and then we put our faith in Jesus and we’re challenged to live beyond our sin. And then sometimes there are those in the church who forget that they were sinners.

00:09:40:55 – 00:10:16:03
Clint Loveall
Yeah, there is a pride sometimes that occupies faith. And I think Paul is very wary of it. And so I think for Paul, there is a humility that he aspires to here in remembering that we all got our start at the same place. We none of us were exempt from the human condition, and none of us can take any pride or any, satisfaction in the idea that we pulled ourself out of our own problem.

00:10:16:03 – 00:10:19:03
Clint Loveall
Because that is true for no one.

00:10:19:08 – 00:10:40:01
Michael Gewecke
So I don’t want to overstate that case, but depending upon where you land on dating of the book and who wrote it, all those kind of things you could be a little one way or another on this. But Clint, it’d be safe to say the original people who received this letter, there were few of them who had grown up in a Christian household, right?

00:10:40:12 – 00:11:00:24
Michael Gewecke
That, you know, you may have a few, sure, but realistically, the vast majority of people who received this letter converted from something else. They converted from a pagan religion. They converted from a family god or deities from regional, national, or a few.

00:11:00:30 – 00:11:01:35
Clint Loveall
Of them may have been Jewish.

00:11:01:37 – 00:11:30:21
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. Well, yeah, absolutely. And in Ephesus, you know, how much was Gentile? How much was in Jew that they would have had that classic monotheistic religion? But here’s the thing. When Paul’s making this argument, there’s this assumption made that you have had a turning point in your life. And Christians have this temptation that especially if we’ve grown up in the church, well, since I’ve been in church from the cradle till now, clearly I’ve done pretty well.

00:11:30:26 – 00:12:02:52
Michael Gewecke
I’ve understood these things, I’ve been taught these things. I’ve let these things out. And we have this temptation to rank order sins as if the sins that we commit are in some way less abhorrent to a perfect God. And, Clint, that just can’t be. You have to understand that fundamentally, from the scriptures perspective, anything that is before that complete conversion, redemption, and transformation of Jesus Christ is not of the measure of being a child of God.

00:12:02:52 – 00:12:24:09
Michael Gewecke
That that is a gift that is given to us. And there’s really no Christian family, regardless of denomination, that’s going to fundamentally disagree with that point. There’s going to be some nuances. But but we all understand that the necessity for salvation is built in to the reality of human nature, and that therefore we need a God to do it for us.

00:12:24:14 – 00:12:54:59
Clint Loveall
As as we understand Paul, Paul has two buckets sinner and non sinner. Right. And Paul says there is no there is no human one that in the non sinner bucket you would only find Jesus, right? None of us have a place in that in that category. None of us have a claim to that label. Now, Michael, you mentioned tradition and I think we want to be honest here.

00:12:55:04 – 00:13:26:19
Clint Loveall
You and I serve under the umbrella of the reformed tradition, specifically in the niche of the Presbyterian tradition. And so we are colored by that. But I do want to with that caveat, I want to point out this phrase. We were by nature children of wrath, as opposed to those who might be willing to say, well, I just think people are basically good, or I think we’re born good and we learn to be bad.

00:13:26:24 – 00:14:00:34
Clint Loveall
The reformed tradition has a a long history, really, from its inception of believing that the human condition is sinfulness, the human inheritance is sin, and so are people capable of doing some decent things. Theologians have argued that, and I would say, sure, of course they are. But by nature, Paul seems to think, at least as we have read him, that we are not pretty good.

00:14:00:39 – 00:14:34:19
Clint Loveall
We’re not basically good. We’re not inherently good. Notice his words here. By nature, children of wrath like everyone else. Now you you don’t have to agree with that interpretation, but I think it would be very hard to argue that that’s what Paul has in mind. And for Paul, the necessity of that is that we cannot help ourselves. We don’t bring enough, or, I would argue, any goodness of our own to the equation.

00:14:34:31 – 00:14:58:59
Clint Loveall
And so we stand completely in need of God to do something for us, which is why tomorrow, when we turn to verse four, Paul’s going to go to the answer to the antidote. If if these three verses describe our problem, what is it that is the solution? But I, I know not everybody comes from the same tradition. Perhaps that’s listening in.

00:14:59:04 – 00:15:06:52
Clint Loveall
But I think, I think I’m admittedly biased. I think our tradition gives us some insight here.

00:15:06:57 – 00:15:34:06
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, I think it’s worth just taking a short sojourn here on the word wrath, because it’s not a word that we use a lot in our common vernacular. And I think that verse four don’t miss the study, the moral. It’s an essential component to this conversation when when we think of the word wrath theologically, we don’t mean that God celebrates the destruction of God’s creation.

00:15:34:06 – 00:15:52:31
Michael Gewecke
We know that that God’s not wrathful, like an angry father who’s late at night and is trying to cause destruction. Now, wrath here is a reflection of God’s perfectness meeting our rebelliousness that our natures, which are mutually.

00:15:52:31 – 00:15:55:21
Clint Loveall
Opposed, even God’s just ness.

00:15:55:21 – 00:16:19:53
Michael Gewecke
Right? And so what the human experience is as wrath. God can be motivated by love, by by mercy, by reuniting. So ultimately, we are children of wrath. And I think that language of children is really, really fascinating because if we go back just a few verses, look at verse 18, the glorious inheritance among the saints who gets inheritances.

00:16:20:06 – 00:16:43:51
Michael Gewecke
Children do. So. This text is is parlaying into this larger conversation about whose family you’re in. What what are you a child of? Are you a child of the inheritance of Jesus Christ, which is the gift for all the saints? Or are you a child of wrath of those who stands outside of God’s will? God’s plan, God’s way has revealed in Jesus Christ.

00:16:44:06 – 00:17:14:40
Michael Gewecke
And so wrath here shouldn’t be taken to be some kind of jubilant or joyous description of a God who loves to be angry. I don’t think that’s a fair interpretation. It’s the realistic, human reception of something radically more perfect, holy right, and just than we are. And ultimately, the question is, will we be converted from the brokenness that is our innate human family into the image of Jesus Christ by his great gift?

00:17:14:49 – 00:17:38:15
Michael Gewecke
Or will we not, that that’s the thing that’s happening here. I think we just need to tease out. There’s a lot of people walking around with the idea that God is always angry at you. Well, realistically, it’s better to think less about, well, is God angry and more about what is that anger going to lead you towards? And ultimately it is all undergirded by the grace and love which we’re going to find tomorrow.

00:17:38:25 – 00:17:39:37
Michael Gewecke
Don’t miss that section.

00:17:39:37 – 00:18:07:25
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think there’s a lot at play here, Michael. I mean, many of us, in fact, we learned in Sunday school, right? Jesus. We are saved from our sin. Well, that’s the same as saying we are saved from God’s wrath right over our sin or because of our sin. And as as many would know, a loving parent doesn’t refrain from punishing their child.

00:18:07:30 – 00:18:36:24
Clint Loveall
They punish their child because their child deserves it, and because they hope they will do better. And so love and punishment are not are not separate from one another. They’re not incompatible. And and again, this is where Paul gets and I know that the church has a bad reputation, sometimes deservedly so, for pointing fingers and calling people sinners.

00:18:36:28 – 00:19:19:15
Clint Loveall
Generally speaking, I don’t find that to be a helpful practice. But in this text, in this context, I think we see in the text an important understanding of where Paul starts. We are by nature children of wrath, people of sin like everyone else. And for for what Paul’s going to do these two confessions are vitally important. A that we are all sinners, and be that we are all sinners, that that Christians do not somehow stand outside of the reality of human brokenness.

00:19:19:22 – 00:19:31:42
Clint Loveall
We came from within it, and knowing that leads us then to gratitude and a deeper understanding of what God has done for us, which is where we’ll turn in the next passage.

00:19:31:48 – 00:20:06:18
Michael Gewecke
Clench of we’ve received this rich inheritance in Christ. We are still who we are. A child who’s received an inheritance is still a child. They still have a personality. They still have a past. They still have choices. They still have consequences. And sometimes I think we fail to recognize that God has given us so much freedom as humans to live in his way, that we sometimes misappropriate the the place of God, having both chose us, and also allowing us to choose as we go along the journey.

00:20:06:18 – 00:20:34:55
Michael Gewecke
These are both always true, and fundamentally it’s a mystery. It’s a mysterious, way of living your life. If you recognize it’s both about what God is doing in and through you, and also it’s about how you respond to the choices that God has allowed you to make. And so, please join us, continue this conversation with us, because that the way that we are deliberately and slowly going through texts allows us to see some of the nuance of these details.

00:20:35:09 – 00:20:42:05
Michael Gewecke
But it’s all connected together. And so you’re not going to want to miss tomorrow. I hope that you’ll join us for that. And, we look forward to seeing you then.

00:20:42:14 – 00:20:43:08
Clint Loveall
Thanks for being with us.