The Heart of the Gospel - Pt 7

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-7 ESV).

This Sunday I will be preaching at Gospel City Church in Arlington, Texas. I am continuing in the series begun by the pastor, Mark Mangrem, several weeks ago. He is preaching through the book of Ephesians. As the schedule dictated, I am using the first ten verses of chapter two for my text. Given the restriction of time and the abundance of material in these verses I will only deal with verses 8-10 Sunday morning. However, today I have the opportunity to deal with the first seven as we consider the fourth part of this basic truth that man is completely depraved: our rebellion is so complete that we are totally deserving of eternal punishment. Verse three of our reading goes on to say that in our deadness we were “children of wrath.” That is, we were under God’s wrath because of the corruption of our hearts that made us as good as dead before God. The reality of hell is God’s clear indictment of the infiniteness of our guilt. If our corruption were not deserving of an eternal punishment, God would be unjust to threaten us with a punishment so severe as eternal torment. But the Scriptures teach that God is just in condemning unbelievers to eternal hell (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9); so, to that extent must we think of ourselves as totally at fault apart from the saving grace of God. In summary, we can say that total depravity means that our rebellion against God is complete; it is “total.” Everything we do in this rebellion is sinful, our inability to submit to God or reform ourselves is total, and we are therefore totally deserving of eternal punishment. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of admitting how bad our condition is. If we think of ourselves as basically good, our grasp of the work of God in redemption will be ineffective. But if we humble ourselves under this terrible truth of our total depravity, we will be in a position to see and appreciate the glory and wonder of the work of God. That will allow us to fully experience this great gift of God. Knowing the seriousness of our disease will make us all the more amazed at the greatness of our Healer. My hope is that knowing the extent of our deep-seated rebellion will amaze us as we consider the long-suffering grace and patience of God toward us. That is the heart of the Gospel!