Dead in Your Sins, Made Alive by Grace in Christ

Samuel MABBOUX, pastor of the church of Nice l'Ariane, opens his Bible to Ephesians 2:1-10 and invites you to come back to the basics. Not to repeat what you already know, but because, as he puts it, "sometimes we try to understand things that are so complex in the word of God, but the basics haven't been settled." The essential thing is the Gospel. The basics are the cross. The basics are Jesus Christ.

In this passage, the apostle Paul writes to the church of Ephesus and describes a path in two movements: you were dead, but God made you alive together with Christ. This message wants you to feel that contrast firsthand, so you don't stay on the surface. Have you already passed from death to life?

Outline of the message

1. You were dead: a plain and honest diagnosis
2. But God, rich in mercy: the intervention that changes everything
3. By grace, through faith: how you receive this salvation

1. You were dead: a plain and honest diagnosis

"You were dead through your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked" (Ephesians 2:1-2). Samuel MABBOUX insists: this is a diagnosis, and it's a spiritual law. "The wages of sin is death." If you're not in Jesus Christ, if you haven't yet been forgiven and washed of your sins, you're spiritually dead. God doesn't coexist with sin. You have to choose: either sin, or God.

The pastor also points out that the Bible treats thoughts as a form of sin. "You're not responsible for the first thought, but you're responsible for the second one, for what you do with it, for whether you feed it." The same goes for a look: you're not responsible for the first, but for the second. God asks you to take your thoughts captive in Jesus Christ, turning them toward what is good, pure, pleasing, and perfect.

Paul then speaks of "the prince of the power of the air." Samuel MABBOUX explains that he looked into it: in Greek, air carries the idea of an influence present everywhere. To live according to the course of this world is to live under that influence. "Turn on the news for five minutes and you'll see that this world is heading toward its ruin." You don't even need faith anymore to see that the end is near. That's why he adds: "I'm so happy to know that my future is elsewhere."

Are you ready to go and meet the Lord? Samuel uses a simple image: "My heavenly suitcase is packed. My earthly suitcase, often, isn't." Preparing your heart isn't about packing socks into a bag, it's about letting the Lord take hold of you. Paul himself said he felt "torn" between the desire to go to heaven and the desire to see more people pass from death to life (see Philippians 1:21-24).

The pastor then quotes 1 John 5:19: "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." He clarifies: this doesn't mean every unconverted person is possessed, but they are under the influence of the evil one. "Simply refusing the grace of God is a sin that leads to death." We often talk about active sins: lying, stealing, murder. But the worst sin, the one that holds back the largest part of the world, is a passive sin: the simple refusal to come to Jesus. Your non-choice is already a choice.

Then Paul joins himself to the Jews: "We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh... and were by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). Samuel MABBOUX draws the conclusion: the law didn't help us. This isn't about following a set of rules, it's about a change of heart. The psalmist already said it: we are conceived in sin (see Psalm 51:5). Our flesh doesn't want heaven, and it pushes us toward sin.

He shares a memory: before his conversion, hatred and anger used to drive him. In middle school, he could get into a fight over a look he'd misread. "I think that now, if someone came to hit me, I couldn't even defend myself, because I don't have that energy anymore: I'm no longer fed by that hatred and anger."

And he adds an important word about freedom. The world calls freedom the ability to go wherever you want, to do whatever you want. "True freedom is when you're reconciled with God, your creator." He mentions a Romanian pastor, locked up for years in a few square meters, who used to say: "Jesus Christ was there with me." Meanwhile, many people believe they're free when they're actually slaves to their own flesh, kept "on a leash" by addictions, hatred, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness.

Finally, Paul says we were "by nature" children of wrath. Samuel insists: your willpower alone won't be enough to change your nature. Deciding "I won't sin anymore" won't change anything. You need an inner transformation. "Only Jesus can change that." As Paul writes in Romans 5:12: through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death passed to all people.

2. But God, rich in mercy: the intervention that changes everything

"But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:4-5). Samuel MABBOUX highlights the contrast: after the picture of sin, death, rebellion, and wrath, comes "but God." Two words that change everything.

He reminds you of a simple sentence he loves to repeat whenever he's asked what message he brings to the church: "Tell them Jesus loves them." That's the foundation. And that foundation transforms a heart.

On the question of inherited sin, he's clear: "You're not responsible for Adam and Eve's sin." But you carry its inheritance. He uses the image of a mayor in a town who happens to be named Hitler: he did nothing wrong, but the name is heavy to carry. In the same way, your "name" before Christ is that of a sinner, and you can't peel it off on your own, only Someone else can change your identity.

Verse 6: "and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." It's already accomplished. Your identity card is eternal, it's already heavenly. You're an "ambassador" here below, sent from heaven for a mission, but your future isn't in the things of this world. It's up there. "To sit" doesn't mean simply "to be seated" the way we usually hear it: in the text, the idea is to reign, to hold a seat of authority. But to reign, you first have to be raised, that is, brought back to life by Christ.

Verse 7: "that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." God has a plan of salvation, and Jesus carried it out. On the cross, he said: "It is finished." What remains is for you to see how you benefit from these things by faith.

3. By grace, through faith: how you receive this salvation

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Samuel MABBOUX asks you to hold on to this verse: it's key.

A gift, a present, a grace, is "an undeserved gift." You did nothing to earn God's grace. He illustrates this by telling how he and his brother and sister gave their dad a beautiful "spirit and life" Bible for his 65th birthday. That dad hadn't "done anything special" to earn it: yes, he'd been a great dad, but the gift was given simply because it was his birthday. And the pastor adds: at Christmas, "it's actually someone else's birthday: Jesus's. But you get a gift too." Grace works the same way. Undeserved.

How do you receive this gift? Through faith. "Faith and grace are inseparable." Are we saved by faith or by grace? Both: by the grace God offers, taken hold of by the faith that receives it. Samuel MABBOUX quotes a theologian: "Grace is the first cause of salvation, and faith allows us to make that grace our own." That faith will lead you to repentance, to seeking the Lord, to turning away from your sin.

Verse 9: not of works. If salvation were earned through works, God would be unjust toward those who can produce nothing, give nothing. And works "would have put us a little on equal footing with God: I'm the one who earned this." No: it's Jesus who did everything, perfectly. Grace is universal: "Rich or poor, black or white, tall or short," it's available to you this morning.

The pastor insists on the nature of this debt. You could gather up all the gold in the world and melt it down: it wouldn't buy back even a single sin. Why? Because the debt of sin is spiritual, not financial. It's the power of darkness that has to be broken. That's the meaning of the theme: passing from death to life, from darkness to light, from the power of the evil one to the power of God.

Verse 10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them." Good works come afterward, once the Lord has changed your heart, your thoughts, your way of acting. As James 2:17 reminds us, "faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself." But works always come after faith. Many people, Samuel says, do works to try to get something from God: biblically, salvation stands on grace alone.

So what's the difference between life before and after your conversion? Someone once asked him: "we keep on sinning." That's true, he admits. We still sin, even if only in our thoughts. "But we no longer live in sin." Sin is no longer attached to you. When you fall, God's Spirit corrects you right away, and you say: "Lord, forgive me, help me grow."

Samuel MABBOUX closes with two verses. Ephesians 2:13: "But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ." And Acts 4:12: "There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved." One name, one blood. Jesus is the door, cut from the wood of the cross.

Key takeaways

• Without Christ, you're spiritually dead and under the influence of the evil one, even without being "possessed."
• Refusing grace is a passive sin that condemns just as much as active sins do.
• Your willpower won't change your nature: only Jesus can do that deep work.
• You're saved by grace, through faith; works come after, never before.
• Your future is already heavenly: you're seated with Christ in the heavenly places, on mission here below.

Personal application

1. Today, have you truly passed from death to life, or are you putting it off?
2. Which "second thought" do you feed too often? How can you take it captive to Christ?
3. Is there an area where you're trying to earn grace through your works instead of receiving it?
4. Where do you think you're "free" when God sees a leash that needs cutting?
5. If the Lord returned this afternoon, would your heavenly suitcase be packed?

Verses cited

• Ephesians 2:1-10 (WEB)
• Ephesians 2:13 (WEB)
• Romans 5:12 (WEB)
• 1 John 5:19 (WEB)
• Psalm 51:5 (WEB)
• Philippians 1:21-24 (WEB)
• Acts 4:12 (WEB)
• James 2:17 (WEB)

FAQ

What does it mean to be "spiritually dead" in Ephesians 2?

It describes your condition as long as you're not in Christ: separated from God because of your trespasses, unable on your own to live for him, and subject to the influence of the evil one. This isn't a poetic image, it's a spiritual law: "The wages of sin is death."

Can I earn grace by doing a lot of good?

No. Grace is "an undeserved gift." It's neither a reward nor a wage. You receive it through faith in Jesus Christ, never through your own efforts. Good works come afterward, as the fruit of a transformed heart, never as a currency of exchange.

Since we keep on sinning after conversion, where's the difference?

You can still stumble, but you no longer live in sin. God's Spirit corrects you right away, you confess, you ask for forgiveness, you keep growing. Sin is no longer your master: Christ is.