You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
5 Even[kai] when we[hemas] were[on] dead[nekros] in sins,[paraptoma] hath
quickened us together with[suzoopoieo] Christ,
[Christos] (by grace[charis] ye are[este] saved;[sozo]) KJV-Interlinear
5 even when
we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved), NASB
Even when we were dead in sin. This is a reference to the status of the unbeliever.
Before you were saved, you were classified as an unbeliever and dead to God. Dead means separated such that there was a permanent separation that you yourself could not repair.
Our context here is Gods work, Gods effort, Gods grace, not yours.
Sin is the despicable, abominable, degenerate disgusting, putrid, and rotting thing that God despises. Sin is deceit, lies, rejection of truth. And is the thing that leads all who are a part of it, to total ruin and self-destruction.
In sin, means you have hit the bottom of the bottom and can go no higher.
Quickened means to be made alive again. We studied that in verse one. But we were not made alive again in the same fashion as in the old way, or in sin, but made alive again in Christ. Christ is truth and Christ is life, not death. Again, God did this, not you.
For it was by grace, 'charis,' Gods favor, Gods intention, Gods purpose, that you were saved, not by means of anything you can do or even intend for yourself.
Therefore, despite that which God despises the most, namely sin, that which people pursue and that which sends its followers into corruption and destruction, but despite this, despite mans preoccupation with sin and mans own effort, and mans own effort to gain some sort of credit for mans results, despite all of this, God in His matchless grace, set forth a plan to save all of humanity.
Even though all of humanity will not be saved, because many will reject Gods gift of salvation, but still God put together a very detailed plan for salvation.
Humanity is by nature very arrogant and selfish and self-centered. Humanity tries to gain credit for himself for whatever he has. And yet it is God who makes all of the provisions for everything, even every breath that you have or ever will have.
In salvation, people have come up with many plans of their own. People seek to work for their salvation, they try to come up with many descriptive terms, such as yield or surrender or raising of the hands or submit and many other terms. Most of these terms are ambiguous or marketing tools but very subtly imply doing something in order to earn something. Most of them are distractions away from the real spiritual life and therefore traps for failure.
And yet the Bible teaches in very clear and lucid language, that salvation is not of mans doing, but totally from Gods doing.
Too often people get the event of salvation confused with the spiritual life that follows, and they are two very distinct and different events.
The first, salvation is an even that lasts a single moment, just as your own physical birth lasted but a few moments when you exited from the womb.
And then there is the rest of your life which lasts perhaps for several decades. The rest of your life follows your birth, it is not a part of your birth but only began with your birth. So too, salvation is the beginning of your spiritual life not the sum total of it. Your spiritual life follows in the years and decades and forever, really, after you were born again.
In salvation, you but believed in Christ. That took a moment in time. But after your spiritual birth, then you are faced with that daily decisions of maintaining and growing up in your spiritual life, and that is where many of those ambiguous terms come into play. They imply a 'doing' of something, but do not specify what that 'doing' is.
And again, the Bible is very clear. Your 'doing' is your daily Bible study, your learning, your growing, your confessions that help you maintain your fellowship status so that you can study and learn and grow up.
But then again, people get things mixed up and try to define their own spiritual growth process, and again despite mans confusion and self-righteous efforts, God still maintains His perfect plan for mans benefit, even when Gods plan is rejected.
Therefore, man cannot earn or deserve anything in life. Man is but a speck of dust into which God placed human life. So there is no room for boasting of any kind, regardless of who you are, or what you can do, or what you think of yourself. For without God, you would not be even that tiny speck of dust. And what can dust boast about?
