Suggestions for leading a study:
Don't be Dead, Dude
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Discussion Questions
-Verse 1 speaks of
people as being “dead” in their sins.
Since this isn’t speaking about physical death, in what way do you think
that is true?
-Re-read verses 2
and 3. From the following list, who is
to blame for our bad behavior?
-the people we live among
-the Devil
-Our own deliberate bad choices
-The sinful nature we were born with
-Regardless of who’s to blame, what was the result according to the end of
verse 3?
-The “natural” thing
for God to do is to be mad at us.
According to verses 4 and 5, what does he do instead, and why?
-Do you think that people
can still feel like an “object of God’s wrath”, rather than recipients of his
grace? If so, how does that effect their
relationship to him?
-According to verse
6, what position are we in spiritually, and how can knowing this help in our
struggles with the world?
-According to verse
7, God did this for us to “show us off.”
Is his grace accomplishing that in your life?
-Verses 8 and 9 tell
us how God saved us. Verse 10 tells us
why. What are those, and is there any
way you still need to fully experience either the “how” or the “why” of
salvation?
Leaders' Guide
Dead be Dead, Dude
This lesson looks at the difference between who we were
before Christ and who we should be now because of his grace. It reminds us that the position we are now in
should empower us to live rightly as well as be productive members of the
kingdom.
-Verse 1 speaks of people as being “dead” in
their sins. Since this isn’t speaking
about physical death, in what way do you think that is true?
In a basic theological sense, spiritual death
is first and foremost a situation that we are in which puts us outside of a
relationship to God forever. Just like
eternal life is not something Paul thinks of as starting “after we die”, but at
the moment when we are saved, so spiritual death is also a present reality, not
just what might happen when this life is over.
Going beyond the theological to the more practical, this way of thinking
applies to the two things this lesson is about: the bad behaviors that
characterize our life outside of Christ, and the good works we should be doing
since we have been saved by him. Sinful
behaviors are ultimately ones that are destructive. To be devoted to them is to do those things
that lead to death. Alternatively, to be
“dead” is to not be able to accomplish the good things God has for us to
do. Dead people aren’t very
energetic. Try to get past just a
“spiritual” way of thinking about this and get to more practical ways in which
this metaphor works itself out in the things we do that are “deadly”, and the
things we don’t do because we are so caught up in all of the other stuff. It is an intense picture of a life without
future or purpose, both now and into eternity.
-Re-read verses 2 and 3. From the following list, who is to blame for
our bad behavior?
-the
people we live among
-the
Devil
-Our
own deliberate bad choices
-The
sinful nature we were born with
If you read through
these verses carefully, all four of these causes show up. You can discuss where the cause of bad
behavior usually comes from for a little bit, but probably people will shortly
see that the whole idea is not to pinpoint the blame. If and when the response of “all of the
above” comes up, congratulate them and make note of the fact that what Paul is
really doing here is to paint a picture of what it means to be “dead.” You are in an environment of negative
influences that surround you and will enslave you forever without some sort of
supernatural assistance to escape.
-Regardless of who’s to blame, what was the
result according to the end of verse 3?
The result was that we became “objects of
wrath.” The wrath referred to here, of
course, is the wrath of God. It doesn’t
mean we were mad-- we were the people who were deserving of God’s wrath. The next verse explores whether we actually
received what we deserved, so move right on to that.
-The “natural” thing for God to do is to be
mad at us. According to verses 4 and 5,
what does he do instead, and why?
God makes us alive. He saves us by his grace. And he does it because of his great love for
us. Make sure to underscore that just
because we were by nature “objects of wrath” did not mean that was how God
chose to treat us. He in fact chose to
transcend what would have been the “natural” thing to do under the
circumstances and instead gave us life by his grace, because of his love.
-Do you think that people can still feel like
an “object of God’s wrath”, rather than recipients of his grace? If so, how does that effect their
relationship to him?
This is an application question for anyone
who might still feel as if God can’t really love them. Assure them that if that was how God wanted
to see them, he certainly could. In
fact, that would be the default position, since that was where we naturally
stood in relationship to him. But this
passage uses very strong language and intense pictures to assure us that God
went to great pains to save us because of his love rather than be mad at
us. If we don’t understand that, we are
trapped in a life of continuously trying to make him happy at us, or at least a
little less angry. But we can never do
that completely and will always battle feelings of inadequacy and failure in
our relationship to him, which is definitely not what he wants for us.
-According to verse 6, what position are we
in spiritually, and how can knowing this help in our struggles with the world?
This amazing verse states that we have been
raised up and seated with God, just as
Christ is. In fact, that is why we can
be that, because we are “in Christ.”
Many Christians tend to think of themselves as “down here, toughing it
out,” until one day when we are released from the burdens and temptations of
this world. Paul has a totally different
point of view in mind. Although the book
of Ephesians concedes that we will always have spiritual battles here, we do so
from a position of absolute strength and authority. Learning to think differently on this issue
can have a profound effect on how victorious we are in those struggles as we
face them with the confidence and security that this picture of our position
represents.
-According to verse 7, God did this for us to
“show us off.” Is his grace
accomplishing that in your life?
Once again, Paul reminds us that we exist for
the praise of his glory. In this case,
God intends to show us off even to spiritual beings, and he intends for it to
happen forever. But we should also be
“making God proud” every day. This
reminds us that being saved by grace is intended by God to have real, visible
positive effects that can be noticed: not
to display how righteous we are, but to show off how powerful his grace is and how
great his love for us that he would save us by that grace. Considering specifically how lives are doing
that sets the stage for the final question.
-Verses 8 and 9 tell us how God saved
us. Verse 10 tells us why. What are those, and is there any way you
still need to fully experience either the “how” or the “why” of salvation?
The how is by grace through faith. The why is because he has works prepared for
us to do. Although many Christians have
verses 8 and 9 memorized, most fail to realize that those verses are integrally
tied to verse 10 (note the “therefore”), reminding us once again that we are
saved by grace for good works. In terms
of the experiences of the group, this is first of all an opportunity to ask if
everyone has experienced salvation by God’s grace. Perhaps they have, but are not living in the
victory of having been given new life, and are still trying to make God happy
with them. As far as the works God has
prepared for us to do, all of our lives will be an adventure of
discovery in regards to those. The most
important thing to note in the context of this passage is that whatever we are
doing for God, we are doing it to show off his grace and his love, not to earn
his favor. Worrying about what those
works are and whether we are doing the right things misses the point
completely, of course. This is about a
victorious life lived in the knowledge that we have already been raised up and
seated with God in Christ, so we don’t have to worry about whether we’re doing
the right things, but joyfully live a victorious life that displays his grace
and love to the world.