Made New: An Ephesians Book StudySample

You’ve probably said, “There’s good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

In Ephesians 2, Paul starts by sharing the bad news. Warning: It’s really bad. Paul paints a bleak picture of our lives before Christ.

He writes that before making Jesus our Lord, we followed two leaders: (1) the devil - who hates us and will do anything to keep us from God and His love, and (2) the desires of our sinful nature - which will always lead us down the wrong path.

The result: We were disobedient, refusing to obey God. This left us deserving of God’s anger and dead in our sins. If you’ve seen the movie The Princess Bride, you might remember when Miracle Max declares Wesley is “only mostly dead.” That’s not us. Spiritually, we were completely dead.

All of this is hard to read. We want to think of ourselves as good people. “Maybe we needed a little help from God, a little improvement, but we weren’t that bad.” We don’t like to think of God being angry with anyone, and certainly not ourselves. Paul shatters our illusions. Our sin is far worse, and its implications are far more dire than we realize.

That is all … bad news. But good news is coming. In fact, Paul writes this description to magnify what Jesus has done for us. Without realizing the gravity of our sin, we can never truly appreciate God’s amazing grace.

Response
1. How does Ephesians 2:1-3 describe life without God? How did you see this play out in your own life before you put your faith in Jesus?

2. Paul uses words like “disobedience,” “obeying the devil,” “refusing to obey God, “ and “following passionate desires” to describe our lives before Jesus. Where do you still see some of that old life in your new life, and what would help you fully put it behind you?

3. Take some time to thank God for freeing you from the old, dead life you used to live.

Weekly Memory Verse
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Ephesians 2:8-10

Written by Vince Antonucci