Suggestions for leading a study:

• Familiarize yourself with the passage in context, including the book itself.  Who wrote it to whom, and why?
• Read through the study guide a couple times to get the “big idea” as well as the flow of the argument
• Have the group read through the passage in it’s entirety before beginning the study.  One of the goals is to try to get your members to learn how to study Scripture methodically, and this is an important step.
• Be prayed up
• Have fun!
  

Wanted Dead or Alive

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in 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. 3 All 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. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For 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 3 tells us that by nature we are objects of wrath.  Yet verse four speaks of God’s great love for us.  Are these two statement in conflict with each other?

·         Verse 5 points out that it was while we were dead that we were made alive.  If we were dead, why would we be “objects of wrath?”  Surely something that is dead isn’t worth the trouble of getting upset over.

·         How is it that grace makes us come alive?  (v.5) Would there be some other alternative that would accomplish the same thing?

·         What does verse 6 say is the result of our having been made alive? 

·         Is the result mentioned in verse 6 something that has already happened, or will it happen when we die?  How is this different than the way we usually think?  In what ways do you think that it is true? 

·         Verse 7 tells us that all of what we talked about occurred in order that the incomparable riches of God’s grace might be put on display.  Apparently God felt like there might be cause to doubt the grace of God.  Do you think that is true?

Leaders' Guide

The point of this lesson is that we are saved not just from something, but for something.  What is that?

·         Verse 3 tells us that by nature we are objects of wrath.  Yet verse four speaks of God’s great love for us.  Are these two statement in conflict with each other?

Clearly God’s love is able to transcend what would be the normal response to the condition we were in.  By nature, we were objects of wrath, but the God of the universe is able to over-rule nature.  And he does so by and because of his love.

·         Verse 5 points out that it was while we were dead that we were made alive.  If we were dead, why would we be “objects of wrath?”  Surely something that is dead isn’t worth the trouble of getting upset over.
This is just a discussion starter.  Obviously we are speaking in terms here that at some level are metaphorical.  The key is that we were dead “in our transgressions.”  It is the fact that we existed in our sins that made us objects of wrath.  The potential to be set free from that and become what God always wanted us to be was still there. 

·         How is it that grace makes us come alive?  (v.5) Would there be some other alternative that would accomplish the same thing?
The actual means by which grace accomplishes it’s goal is a discussion for high level theologians.  The real point of this question is that there was nothing else that could accomplish it.  To Paul and his audience, the Jewish law would have been the only alternative, but his argument in all of his letters is that it in no way could manage it.  Today we might think that being good, or belonging to a particular church, or even being baptized might do it.  This is the time to remind your group that only establishing a relationship to God through Jesus Christ by his grace will cut it to save us from our sins.

·         What does verse 6 say is the result of our having been made alive? 
This verse says that God raised us up and seated us with him in heavenly realms.  (NIV)

·         Is the result mentioned in verse 6 something that has already happened, or will it happen when we die?  How is this different than the way we usually think?  In what ways do you think that it is true? 
The first two sections of this question have obvious answers.  We often think of going to heaven as something that happens when we die, but this statement is clearly in the past tense.  The last section is where you want to dwell.  Obviously, it isn’t true physically, so how is it true spiritually?  Access to God?  Experiencing the presence of God?  Knowing the security of our salvation?  There are a number of answers to this question, all of which are worth discussing since the text chooses not to clarify precisely what it means.

·         Verse 7 tells us that all of what we talked about occurred in order that the incomparable riches of God’s grace might be put on display.  Apparently God felt like there might be cause to doubt the grace of God.  Do you think that is true?
Since we were “dead in our transgressions”, and “objects of wrath”, a state that much of the created order remains in today, many doubt that God is really a gracious god.  There is clearly a lot of evil and sin along with all of the pain and suffering that come along with it still in this world.  But does that mean that God is not a god of grace?  Clearly not, since Jesus died to save us from it.  By making us alive again, he displays that grace.

·        Read verses 8-10.  Clearly getting saved is not something for us to accomplish for ourselves.  If not, what is there for us to be “made alive” to accomplish?  What might that mean for you?

Only God’s grace can save us.  But the “therefore” in verse 10 tells us that the point Paul wants us to get is that we were saved for something, not just from something.  There are works he has prepared for us to do, presumably all a part of how he intends to put us on display to show his grace.  What that means for any individual is a question for them to try to answer every day, but at the very least we need to be open to whatever God has saved us to accomplish.