Ephesians 2:1
And although you were dead in your offenses and sins,
And although you were dead in your offenses and sins,
This is the beginning of another long-running sentence, filled with different characters.
It's like Paul was elaborate about where we are and where we are going; he now wants to tell us where we are coming from. He is painting a picture of a stark difference here.
You were dead in your offenses and sins.
How does hearing that make you feel? Does it fill you with hope or with despair? Did you reject that divine indictment or not? Does that make you feel empowered or weak?
One thing you cannot do is to reject that divine indictment.
Paul will later say in me, in my flesh dwells nothing good (Romans 7:18). Therefore, there is nothing redeemable about the flesh; there is no upgrading the flesh.
Israel was the experiment for "if you can do something with the flesh." It was a multi-century experiment. We see the eventual verdict when God drove them from the promised land.
So it is clear that we are dead in our offenses and sins. Driven by the fleshly instinct, fueled by sin, or rather, fueled by the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).
In another place, we were told that we are slaves to sin (Romans 6:17, 20). So the language of death and the language of slavery both, in a sense, communicate paralysis.
There was a man who was paralyzed that Jesus healed. There was no amount of wishing and hoping that would make the man rise up (John 5).
The man can have all the hope in the world, but it does not matter; he was not getting up.
Until Jesus showed up and said, "Rise up." Similarly, until Jesus came into the picture, our spiritual situation would have remained unchanged.
The passage of time will not change it; trying harder will not cut it. The man and others like him in Solomon's portico were hoping and waiting for when an angel would stir the water, and the first person who got in would be healed.
But this man would have surely waited forever without Jesus.
And Jesus, in another place, said that if we do not believe in Him, we would die in our sins (John 8:24).
I want to apply that to that man and say that without Jesus coming to the man and raising him up, he would have died in his infirmity.
And the eternal question has been: Why didn't Jesus heal everyone? We know the problem is not ability, because He is God; it is not a lack of compassion, because we see Him have compassion for people (Matthew 9:36); and it was not because of a lack of experience (Matthew 8:16). But, in my opinion, it boils down to the divine choice.
How do you feel looking back on that incident and seeing Jesus, who has the powers of heaven and earth? Do you feel that God is not good? It can't be so, right? But for me, it is a powerful picture of salvation, where Christ comes to you and raises you from the dead, and may leave your friend, spouse, brother, and others with whom you were together dead in offenses and sin.
And the man did not reach out to Jesus; the man had no clout, no name, he did not even know Jesus, and we cannot even begin to beguile him when Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be healed, and he said, "There is no one to push me." If it were you, what would you say?
So you want to construct some message of faith from the passage? Forget it.
And one thing I think it points to is the selectiveness of salvation. The story of the man clearly leaves many questions.
So also is your salvation. Why should you be raised from the dead from your offenses and sins and not your neighbor? You cannot explain it, and if you can, know that it is the wrong explanation.
Our salvation is a mystery, just as it is a mystery even till today why Jesus raised that one man and not others.
And we have to just leave it at that, and just obey Jesus, just as the man did. What is better than to be raised after being dead in offenses and sins?
We know what death is, but what are offenses and sins, and is there a difference?
This is a simplistic description: In the context of this particular verse, "Sins" tell us the overall pattern (more general); "offenses" are the specific ways that pattern is expressed. The offenses show the pattern (sin), and the pattern is seen in the offenses.
