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Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany
January 15, 2025
Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
Here’s an opening statement that is bound to take one aback! This letter to the Ephesians begins with this strange indicative phrase, “you were dead.”
Let’s pause. It’s worth sitting with this idea for a moment. Can one assume that those who were once dead, but are no longer dead, would be aware of their previous death? I would think that being dead is a reasonably significant experience, not having experienced it, of course. On the whole, people don’t like being called dead, even when suggesting that they were formerly dead. And yet, death in all of its various stages is necessary to understand the depth of the writer’s point: any consideration of grace requires a reflection on death.
The New Testament presents a complicated vision of death. Death is both an enemy and, as Christ suggests, the means by which we experience new life. It is through the lens of death that we can reconsider the effect on sinfulness. Sinfulness defeats new life. Death is not simply a biological event, it is a spiritual event also, for it is the slow decomposition of what was once vital and full of possibility. Death is both a process and a part of human geography through which we must all walk.
This presents a challenge to human beings. What do we prefer? Remain part of what we know or seek new life in a new place. The passage does state how salvation is described. The saved are “raised up and seated.” This image of salvation is one of retrieval. Those who are saved are rescued from a land of death and afforded the opportunity to sit beside Christ in perpetuity. It probably is quite a stretch to make a convincing argument for this point. How many would find that God’s promised future is preferable to the present tense of sin? This is why in this letter there is the opportunity that addresses sin and death and speaks a word about grace.
Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ for it is grace that reorients us, turning us from shame and sin, the very land of death, to the very presence of God. It is God’s grace that has saved us from our wanderings and our sins. This is the most miraculous good news: God’s grace saves. Moreover, it is by receiving this grace, freely given, that we come to realize the genuine peril of our deathly sojourn and our powerlessness to find a path to safety. That realization, as this passage declares, is immeasurably rich. Surrounded by this richness, we realize our true worth, not as one who is failing toward death, but as one basking in the light of God. While we become cognizant of what it means to be human, taking into account the consequences of our behavior we are not rendered hopeless at all. God’s activity, through Christ, transforms the human condition from death to life. This is truly God’s accomplishment! It is beyond our comprehension and our ability to describe. The creature is, indeed, very different from the Creator. Astoundingly, we have been “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
A Prayer of Self-Dedication
Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
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