“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.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Many times in the past years as I looked at the people in this world who do not have faith in Jesus, I looked at them with either envy or anger. Envy, because they seemed to live as they please without regard to God. Anger for the same reason. Over the years, the Lord has worked on my heart through such passages in His Word as we find here in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The Lord shows us that we ought to feel sorry for such people, to pity them because, regardless of who they are, how famous, rich, successful, beautiful, or celebrated, they are following the prince of the power of the air, that is, Satan the devil. They are his slaves who do his bidding and reject the will and mercy of Almighty God in Christ Jesus. They think they are free and happy, unaware that they are all on their way to eternal punishment. Their unbelief and rebellion saddens God and it should sadden us as well.
Paul wrote these words about faith and salvation to Christians who had been raised either as Jews or outright pagan idolaters. Either way both groups were dead in their sins before they heard the gospel. Paul reminded them that the religious works they performed before faith brought them no closer to God. Religious rituals of any kind, even good deeds done out of human altruism do not merit God’s favor, love, mercy, or forgiveness. Only by God’s gracious gift of faith could anyone of them (or us) inherit eternal life. Only by grace through faith could anyone even perform true works of righteousness for such works are done by God working through man.
Such a teaching is quite foreign to the ways of today’s world for billions reject the God Who has revealed Himself in Jesus and the Word. These are all idolaters even those who call themselves atheists or agnostic who worship themselves. Consequently, no matter how many so-called good deeds they do, no matter how many superstitious rituals they perform or pious and noble words they proclaim, they are all dead in their sins. We Christians are called to proclaim to them the message of faith in the work of Christ on the cross not as the way to achieve forgiveness, joy, and eternal life, but as the way to receive them. Though this message be scorned and rejected, though we be labeled as intolerant and subversive, we cannot neglect our task. If we love sinners as Jesus does we will proclaim the truth so all may look to Him by faith and live.