We are going to spend two days reflecting on this passage. As you read those verses, focus on the word "formerly". In your notebook, make two lists side by side. On the left side, write down where a person is "formerly". Then on the right, make a list of where a person can be "in Christ". It is good to see these things "side by side". After making the lists, come back.
I find it interesting that Paul uses two words - trespasses and sins. We often lump these two concepts together and use the words interchangeably as if they were identical things. This is where it is helpful to look back and see the words in their original language and usage.
The word that has been translated, sin, is the Greek word hamartia. Some of you reading may be marksmen, or hunters. This word fits in that scenario. Imagine someone at a shooting range doing target practice. I have seen this portrayed in movies quite a lot - the marksman with pistol in hand ... the target far away ... taking aim ... firing. If that shooter misses ... he/she has just experienced hamartia - missed the target. In the spiritual realm, that is sin. We miss being all that God intended us to be. We miss living life as God intended it to be lived by this humankind He so carefully crafted.
The word Paul uses that is translated, trespasses, is the Greek word paraptoma. The sense of this word is a little different. I am writing this in the midst of the U.S. football season. From children's leagues to high schools, from colleges to pros ... many of us are caught up in the excitement of that particular game. Picture a receiver having just made a fabulous catch ... running hard down the field ... one foot steps out of bounds ... just barely! ... but out of bounds. The play is dead. The ball stops right there. No more progress on that particular play. That is the sense of paraptoma. It is falling ... getting off course ... stepping off the track.
Paul covers all bases ... there is not one of us that he misses in his descriptions of sin ... regardless of how upstanding a citizen we may be, or how good a church member we may be. Once he has "nailed" us all, Jew and Gentile alike, he reminds us that sin is "death". William Barclay, in his commentary on Ephesians, says that Paul is not talking about the life to come - he is talking about life right now in the present. Barclay identifies 3 ways that sin is death ...
1. Sin kills innocence. And with the death of innocence comes the birth of guilt.
2. Sin kills ideals. And with the death of ideals comes the birth of careless living.
3. Sin kills the will. And with the death of the will comes the birth of living in slavery to habits, compulsions, and indulgence.
Only Christ has a remedy for that "death". Only Christ can resurrect us to life again ... a life free of guilt ... a life driven by God's ideals ... a life of intentional choices that bring glory to God, and allow His glory to encompass us.
Do you have a "guilt" problem? Has the idealism that may have characterized your early days with Christ been tarnished? Are there habits you are succumbing to that you know do not glorify your God? Take heart, my friend ... we close today with Ephesians 2:4 - 5
BUT ... because of His great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy,
made us ALIVE with Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions -
it is by grace you have been saved.
And that is the good news!
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