A Depressing X-Ray (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Let me tell you about one of the most painful experiences of my life. I was probably 7 or 8 years old, and walking across our living room one day I suddenly got the most ridiculous pain in my right foot. It was so bad I couldn’t even stand on it. I was a bit of a hypochondriac in those days, so my parents weren’t altogether sure there was something wrong with me. But there really was. Two days later, when I was still in agony, and still couldn’t put any weight on my foot, they took me to the doctor for an x-ray. The x-ray showed the problem, I had a three inch long needle inside my foot. It had gone in so deep that you couldn’t see it, I needed an x-ray to be shown the cause of the problem. That same day I had an operation, and I still just about have the scar on my foot to prove it.

It took an x-ray to show what was wrong, and here, in Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul shows us an x-ray of our hearts and lives. He shows us what we were like before we are saved, what some of us are still like today, then he shows us what we are like now we’re saved, and finally, he shows us what our lives should be like now. A spiritual x-ray is what we need, whether or not we are saved. If you’re not saved here this morning, Paul is about to show you what you look like, he’s about to show you the problem. Just like I couldn’t see the needle in my foot, neither can you see the problems in your heart without an x-ray. And if you are saved, you need to be shown what is true about you. Just like I needed to realize what was wrong with my foot, so I could get back to my normal life, so we need to realize what Jesus has done for us, so we can live our lives for His glory.

Our first x-ray, from verses 1-3, tells us that we are dead without Jesus. These verses are depressing to read aren’t they? Paul tells us that even if we look nice, or normal, on the outside, we are dead inside. Sin and death are connected throughout the Bible, because it is sin that cuts us off from God, the source of all life. These verses show us what we were like before we were saved, or what we are like now if we’re not saved. We were dead in transgressions and sins according to verse one, verse 3 tells us that God saw us as children of wrath. That God was angry with us, whether we felt it or not. Verse 2 tells us how we behaved in those days. We followed the course of this world, we lived in the ways of the devil, and we were ruled by the desires of the flesh.

Before we were saved, three awful enemies, death, sin and the devil had complete power over us. The devil ruled our desires, our plans, our dreams and our actions. The devil is described as ‘the prince of the power of the air,’ not meaning that he has power over the oxygen we breathe, but that he sets the atmosphere on Earth. It’s the devil that influences a political agenda for the apparent harm of God’s Kingdom, it’s the devil’s influence that means we use hell to describe good things (it was a hell of a game) and Jesus Christ as a cuss word. And what’s even worse is that before we are saved, we love this world. Before we are saved not only does the devil rule the atmosphere, he rules our desires, and we can’t help but follow them. Verse three tells us that we carry out the desires of the body. We are under the control of the devil, and we love to do his work.