Salvation from Sin
2: 1-3
Salvation from sin DIG: What does it mean to be “dead because of your sins?” How is the flesh different from the body? Why does this distinction matter? How does our experience support the way Paul described life without Yeshua to understand where they stand without Him? Why is it important for believers to remember what life is like without Yeshua?
REFLECT: Spiritually, how alive do you feel? Trying to find a pulse? In intensive care? Out-patient care? Feeling extremely healthy? Being able to run a spiritual marathon? Are you more alive than the unbelievers you know? How does God make dead people alive? How does Paul’s description of life without Messiah serve as motivation to share Yeshua with others?
Our past position in the world.
Salvation is from sin, which characterizes life before coming to a personal relationship with Yeshua Messiah. In these three short verses, there is perhaps no clearer statement in Scripture on the sinfulness of mankind apart from the Savior.92
You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience (2:1). Of course, this means spiritually dead; that is, he is unable to understand and appreciate spiritual things. He possesses no spiritual life, and he can do nothing of himself to please God. Just as a person physically dead does not respond to physical stimuli, so a person spiritually dead is unable to respond to spiritual things. A corpse does not hear the conversation going on in the funeral parlor. He has no appetite for food or drink; he feels no pain; he is dead. Just so with the inner man of the unsaved person. His spiritual faculties are not functioning, and they cannot function until God gives them life. The cause of this spiritual death is sins and acts of disobedience. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). In the Bible, death means separation, not only physically, as the spirit is separated from the body (James 2:26), but also spiritually, as the spirit is separated from God (Isaiah 59:2).
The unbeliever is not sick; he is dead! He does not need resuscitation; he needs resurrection. All lost sinners are dead, and the only difference between one sinner and another is the state of their decay. The lost derelict living on the street may be more decayed outwardly than the unsaved bank president, but both are dead in their sin – and one corpse cannot be more dead than another! This means that our world is one big graveyard, filled with the walking dead (First Timothy 5:6).93
The lifestyle of a spiritually dead person follows the pattern of the surrounding culture, described as the ways of the world. Paul did not mean physical creation, but rather the human value system and structures that are opposed to ADONAI. This fallen world is in direct contrast with the Kingdom of God. Therefore, Paul instructs us: Do not love the world or the things of the world. If someone loves the world, then love for the Father is not in him; because the things of the world – the desires of the old sin nature (see the commentary on Romans, to see link click Bm – The Consequences of Adam), the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life – are not from the Father but from the world (First John 2:15-16).
Not only are spiritually dead people living in conformity to the world, but they also unwittingly obey the universe’s most wicked creature, Satan. He is depicted as the Ruler of the Powers of the Air. The Evil One is a spiritual creature, invisible to the physical eyes but not to the eyes of faith in the inspired revelation of God, the Bible. who is still at work among the disobedient (2:2). Encouraged by the devil himself, the prevailing tendency of a lost person is disobedience. The essence of sin is willfulness, a stubborn resistance to the authority of Messiah and to the recognition of His glorious nature. This attitude or spirit is at work in the hearts of the lost, prompting their behavior and maintaining their bondage.94
In addition to their own love of sin, unbelievers reject the Good News because Satan has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe, and the veil remains (see the commentary on Second Corinthians Aw – Veiling and Unveiling) as long as they do not turn to ADONAI (Second Corinthians 4:4a). The Serpent of Old controls the ideologies, opinions, hopes, aims, goals and viewpoints currently in the world (Second Corinthians 10:3-5). He is behind the world’s faulty systems of philosophy, psychology, education, sociology, ethics, and economics. But perhaps his greatest influence is in the realm of false religion. Of course, the Adversary is not a god, but a created being (with a choice). He is called a god because his deluded followers serve him as if he were one. The Evil One is the archetype of all the false gods in all the false religions he has spawned (see the commentary on Revelation Dd – I Saw a Woman Holding a Golden Cup).
It is that massive and pervasive influence over society by which the Deceiver deludes the unregenerate so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Messiah, who is the exact likeness of God (Second Corinthians 4:4b NLT). Except in rare cases, the Ruler of this world and his demons do not directly indwell individuals. They don’t need to. The Old Serpent has created a system that panders to the depravity of unbelievers and drives them deeper into darkness. In addition to being dead in their sins and acts of disobedience (Ephesians 2:1); veiled from the truth (Second Corinthians 3:15); loved the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19-20); unbelievers follow the ways of this world and of the Prince of the Power of the Air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient . . . [living] in the lusts of the flesh, gratifying the cravings of [their] sinful nature and are by nature objects of wrath (Ephesians 2:2-3). They are of [their] father the devil, and [they] want to do the desires of [their] father (John 8:44). All the evil of the human heart – crime, hatred, bitterness, anger, injustice, immorality, and conflict between nations and individuals – is pandered to by the agenda of the Lawless One. The world system he has created inflames the evil desires of people, causing them to be willfully blind and to love their darkness.
Indeed, we Jews too, just like you Gentiles, once lived this way (2:3a). Thus, Paul introduces the topic of how Jews and Gentiles have been joined together into a single people through Messiah. This discussion dominates Chapters 2 and 3, having already hinted at the mystery (1:9) of God’s plan of redemption through the coming of Messiah, and the mention of “we” Jews and “you” Gentiles in 1:11-14. Earlier, in his letter to the Romans, which occupies that same topic, Paul in turn singled out for special attention both Jews (see the commentary on Romans Au – The Religious Jew’s Lack of Obedience), and the Gentiles (see Romans Cy – The Jealousy of the Gentile Believers).95
This spiritual deadness described by Sha’ul of Tarsus does not result in lack of activity, as would be true of a physical corpse. Rather, those who are spiritually dead are very active, although in a sinful and destructive manner. Their lives are marked by the passions of their old nature and obey the wishes of their old nature and their own thoughts (2:3b). Sha’ul of Tarsus points out that we have all missed the mark, coming short of earning God’s praise. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
Every unconverted sinner is headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else (2:3c). We shouldn’t see His wrath as something like human anger, which can be petty and unpredictable. Instead, the wrath of God is His constant and unyielding opposition to sin. Surely, this shocking description of the human condition should prompt believers in Messiah toward a vigorous communication of the Gospel and the way of salvation. The very notion of divine wrath should tender our hearts toward the lost and fuel a desire for their salvation. The stronghold of sin is entrenched in the lives of the lost, reinforced by culture and the Enemy, but the power of the Gospel is greater. On a daily basis, let us all be quick to recognize an opportunity for a Gospel conversation and be courageous enough to seize it.96
Dear Father, Praise You for your being both totally holy and completely loving. Your holiness cannot cancel out Your love, nor can your love cancel Your holiness. It is such a comfort to know that Your love invites all to come to Your eternal rest in heaven. Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and “you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).
Your holiness extends to Your holy home in heaven and requires that any who enter there must also be holy. And nothing unholy shall ever enter it, nor anyone doing what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). The only way possible for anyone to be holy, is to have the righteousness of Messiah. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21, also see Isaiah 53: 4-6, 10). Thank You that You give your holiness (Romans 5:17) to those who hear Your word of truth and believe in You (Ephesians 1:12).
What a joy it is to know that You planned from before the foundation of the world (Messiah 1:4) for those who love/trust in Messiah to be redeemed/ brought into a relationship of love with You by Messiah’s blood. In Him we have redemption through His blood – the removal of trespasses – in keeping with the richness of His grace (Ephesians 1:7). Knowing about Your love is wonderful, but before You can give salvation, the heart must believe/trust in You. After you heard the message of truth – the Good News of your salvation – and when you put your trust in Him, you were sealed with the promised Ruach Ha’Kodesh (Ephesians 1:13).
The flip side of eternal life is eternal death. How it must grieve your loving heart to have to send anyone into an eternity of fiery hell; but You did all You could by giving what cost You the most to open the path for them to come to heaven, and they refused to bend the knee in worship of You. These shall go off to everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life (Matthew 25:46, Daniel 12:1-2, Isaiah 66:24, Revelation 14:10-14, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Mark 9:48, Luke 16:19-31).
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