If a body is dead, what can it do? Can a dead body talk? No. Can a dead body jump up and down? No. Can a dead body breath? No. Can it think? No. What can a dead body do? The answer is always "nothing." Dead is dead.

The first three verses of Ephesians 2 explain to us that we were dead in our transgressions. Yes, our sins had destroyed our lives. God saw the wretchedness inside in of us all - the evil motives for our actions, the relentless gossip and backstabbing, the selfishness, the anger toward others, and the shameful sins we have hidden from those around us. Those sins took our lives away from us.

Lifeless we were laid before God, unable to move, think, or speak. God, on the other hand is life. And thus, dead in sin, we were the opposite of God, God's enemies. Nothing we could do would earn God's favor. Nothing we could do could take even a smidgeon of our guilt away. As the Ephesians 2 says, we were gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, were by nature objects of wrath - God's wrath.

As God's children though, we are now different. So what made this difference? Certainly it was nothing that we did; for we were dead. Rather, God's grace makes all the difference. This morning we are going to investigate that grace of God which took our lifeless bodies and made us new creations.

1. God loved us

The Apostle Paul, through inspiration, began this sermon lesson emphatically with the words, "But...God." We were dead. We were objects of wrath. But God... These words are so important. These words are so comforting. God saw our sinful state. He saw that hell was waiting for us. And God stepped in. We were dead, But God loved us anyway.

God loved us because that is God's nature. 1 John 4:8 reminds us, "God is love." That is God's character. He loves unconditionally.

God looked down on us had compassion on us. In spite of whom we are and what we have done. In spite of our shameful sins and evil hearts, God spared us the misery of hell. He did not give us what we deserve - punishment in hell.

That is true unconditional love. Even though we were dead, even though we lack anything that God would need, he chose to redeem us and adopt us through faith. God gave us what did not deserve. God's love shows itself in his rich mercy. God looked down us and had compassion. That has made all the difference.

2. God made us alive

We were dead. We were lying in the grave of sin, rotting and stinking. We could not get out. We couldn't save ourselves. But God's mercy, flowing from his love, made us alive again. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only and Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

God sent his Son to be the perfect sacrifice. The blameless Messiah fulfilled God's law. The spotless lamb was slain on the cross of Calvary to remove our guilt. All our sins were placed on Jesus. All our guilt was exchanged for his holiness. And Christ rose victorious from the grave on Easter Sunday. Jesus is alive. He paid the price. He won the victory. God's love solved our problem.

And now...God has made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. God took us out of our grave of sin. And because he did this, we are now united with him; we are members of his body. And because we have been taken out of our grave of sin, we share in his resurrection and power. God took you out of the grave of sin and made you alive again. God's grace made all the difference.

3. God raised us up

God, however, did not take you out of the grave of sin to make you walk around the graveyard forever. He not only took us out of the grave, but also out of the graveyard. Verse 6 tells us, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus."

Because God loves, because he made us alive, we are no longer destined to wander this dreary world for all eternity. We are here now, but not forever. When God takes us out of the graveyard, he will put us in heaven. There we will be with Jesus. There we will praise God. There we will be perfect.

God's loved moved him to not only make us alive, but in Christ Jesus, we are also going to heaven. Christ's resurrection and ascension is our proof. Jesus will come back to take all believers to paradise. When God takes us out of the graveyard, he will exalt us and seat us in the heavenly realms. His grace makes all the difference.

4. God works in us

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." We are not saved by our good works. No one can brag that they have done anything for their salvation, not one single thing.

Conversely, we also are not condemned by our bad works. We are no longer dead in our sins. They are not counted against us because of what Jesus Christ did for us. You have been saved by God's grace - his undeserved love for sinners.

We receive God's riches at Christ's expense through faith. Faith is the delivery truck that brings us forgiveness of sins, new life and salvation. Faith also changes us. We are now new creations in Christ Jesus. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. If we were still dead in sin, without faith, we would never do anything that would please God. But we have been taken out of the grave and raised to life to do good works.

Now we are God's work of art - his masterpiece. He shapes his masterpiece with his Holy Word. When do good works, we give glory to our master. We honor our maker. We praise the Savior. That means the good works are not our glory. God works these good works in us. He gets all the credit for his masterpiece. Before, we could do nothing because we were dead. Now we can do everything through him. God's grace made all the difference.

Conclusion:

Dead in sin - that is what we were. But God...those words made all the difference in us. We were dead, but God loved us. We were dead, but God made us alive. We were dead, but God raised us up. We were dead, but now God works in us.

Here is the point that we learn from all this. Everyday in our lives, we struggle with temptation and sin, gloom and heartache, dangers and troubles, anxiety and worry. And too often we rely on ourselves way too much. Put your trust in the Lord. Lay everything at the cross of Christ. For God's grace makes all the difference in our lives here on earth and in eternity. Amen.