"The Walking Dead"

Series: Talking Through Ephesians

Live with Renewed Purpose

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What’s the deal with our culture’s zombie obsession today? From big-budget blockbusters to B movies, people seem to have an insatiable appetite for the undead. Maybe it's the way they stumble around with their twisted and dark desires that resonates with us on a deeper level. But as Paul begins the second chapter of Ephesians, we learn a far more frightening fact: YOU were the walking dead!

The Big Idea

Without God's love and grace, we'd still stumble through our days, dead in our sins. Whether we knew it or not, we were living our lives — going to school, sitting in traffic, eating dinner with our families — without actually being alive! We followed our passions and did what felt good, all under the direction of "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 2:2). "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 ..." (Eph. 2:4-5).

In a shocking twist, through Christ, we've been reanimated! Where we once wandered selfishly and aimlessly, now we live new lives honoring our King (Eph. 2:6-7). It's a transformation only God could do — the way he did when he raised Christ from the grave (Eph. 1:19-20). There's no room for pride about our newfound life — God saved us when we couldn't save ourselves (Eph. 2:5, 8-9). We deserved death (Rom. 3:23), but God gracefully "does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities" (Psalm 103:10).

Now we're God's workmanship, created for his purposes (Eph. 2:10). We walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), doing good as we gratefully rejoice in his mercy and love for us!

The Big Question

How will you respond now that God has brought you back to life?