Mor(ph)e Week 1 – David Nasser

Summary

This campus community, we begin our new series entitled ‘Morphe.’ Throughout this semester we will take a look at what has been deemed the magna carta of Christianity, Ephesians 2:1-10.

Tonight, we will focus on verse 1. Paul begins by talking about who we as believers were before coming to know Christ. Before Christ, we were all dead, separated from God. We existed in our sins and transgressions. We were missing the mark intentionally and unintentionally in our sins and transgressions instead of glorifying God. As Paul says in Romans, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We were all in a dire situation life and death. Knowing who we were before Christ allows us to see the depth of the Gospel and its transformational power. The Gospel raises dead people, permanently removed from God, to life.

Verses

Ephesians 2:1-10

1.As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2
in which you used to live
when you followed the ways of this world
and
of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,
the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3
All of us also lived among them at
one time,
gratifying the cravings of our flesh
and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of
wrath.
4
But because of his great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy,
5
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.
6
And God raised us up with Christ
and seated us with him
in the heavenly realms
in Christ Jesus,
7
in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,
expressed in his kindness
to us
in Christ Jesus. 8
For it is by grace
you have been saved,
through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God —
9
not by
works,
so that no one can boast.
10
For we are God’s handiwork,
created
in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in
advance for us to do.

Quotes

‘You’re in more trouble than you think you are without the grace of God.’

‘A lot of us overestimate the power of sin and underestimate the power of grace.’

‘Who we were is much more drastic than many of us realize’

‘Who we are is much more empowering than many of us realize’

‘Who we are becoming is much more hopeful than many of us realize’

‘Sometimes, you refer to a specific person, sometimes, a group of people, sometimes everyone and anyone who has ever lived and will ever be. This is precisely this kind of verse. This verse is no respecter of men. All who have ever been and all who will ever be are sinners so all start here on the map.’

(Adrian Rogers)

‘Sinning is much more about what we fail to do than what we do.’

Questions

1) Who were we before grace? Who are we in grace?
2) What is the difference between someone who is over-churched and someone who is spiritually dead? Which is harder to minister to?
3) Are you the over-churched person or the completely desperate person?
4) If you are dead, what does it mean to be alive?
5) Are you currently living in a one-time sin or a sin that has manifested into a transgression? Either way, what is holding you back from bringing you freedom in Christ?