DEAD IN SINS

Friday – October 21, 2016

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ from Eastern Gate Ministries International and The Three Minute Word publications.  God is so good.  Don’t be remiss but pray for the Church of Christ (the Anointing) in America and wherever God might lead you to pray.  We don’t pray for the buildings like this wonderfully old Church in Birmingham Alabama but the people in and out of the Church who name Jesus as Lord.  Now back to our text in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:4-6 (KJV)
⁴  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
⁵  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
⁶  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

God, Elohim, loved us before the foundation of this present world.  Before there was one recorded word that we now have the privilege and obligation to read, God had spoken a plan, a wonderful plan for all.

Ephesians 1:4 (KJV)
⁴ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

1 Peter 1:19-20 (KJV)
¹⁹ But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
²⁰ Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Both of these passages refer to us, the Church, for what we call the New Testament is aimed primarily at the Church.  God did not make Adam to fail but if Adam failed there was a plan to redeem mankind.  A plan that by necessity required the highest price.  Eternal life required that someone with eternal life die that others could have that life.  Jesus, Immanuel (God with us) was born and lived as other men but was all God in His spirit absent the unique characteristics of God (Philippians 2:6-8) and all man in His body.  He had to fill His mind with the Words of God just like us, and He had to train His body to not desire the sensual that violates the Word.  This love of God, this plan was at work even when we were repudiating the love, spiritually dead in sin (dead soul).  The instant we said yes Lord we were quickened, made alive spiritually becoming a living soul.  We were quickened, made alive just as Christ was made alive by the Holy Spirit.  Let’s look at this 5^th verse in the Amplified Bible.

Ephesians 2:5 (AMP)
⁵ Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).

We are partakers of the same salvation that was accorded Jesus.

Psalm 91:14-16 (KJV)
¹⁴ Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
¹⁵ He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

It has come to me that this part of the Psalm applies to us individually and is also a picture of Jesus and the salvation He attained, which is become our salvation (rescue) in Him.  Jesus was the sinless Lamb of God.  On the Cross He became sin for us shedding His Blood and dying first in the Spirit then in the body.  Yes, His Spirit died, was separated, went dark, for the wages of sin is death, and just as the spirit of Adam died first then the body so it was with Jesus.  On the other hand the soul, the mind of Christ was all Word.  At His physical death He descended into Hell in our place.  Then Justice intervened for innocent Blood had been shed, and Jesus mind was not corrupted and He spoke the Word of God, the promises of God in Hell.

Psalm 16:8-11 (KJV)
⁸ I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
¹⁰ For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
¹¹ Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Justice made Him free, resurrected Him from the dead with an incorruptible body restoring Him as Son and as God forever.  He came forth by the Blood of the Lamb (His own blood), and the Word of His testimony (His own Word).  The same Power of God, the Holy Spirit, the Grace of God, that raised Jesus, raises us with and in Him when we declare Him as Lord.  Jesus’ Spirit was quickened, made alive by the Holy Spirit and so was ours at salvation.  And soon we will receive an incorruptible body just like Jesus.  The Grace of God raised Jesus to His own right hand in Heaven and so were we raised and seated with and in Him.  Jesus was restored to the family of God and so have we been restored in Christ Jesus.  Jesus was given back eternal life and so have we attained unto eternal life in Him.  Our salvation is in every respect just like Jesus’, which is the Blood Covenant in action.

By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice