“But God…” … by Zack Fugate

  Posted on April 4, 2021  by   No comments

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”-Ephesians 2:1-3

Recently, during a morning quiet time of reading scripture and praying, I was struck by several things and eagerly awaited my children waking up to share some of my thoughts. Throughout my children’s lives there are times when I have been so struck by something in scripture, that I don’t even wait for them to shake the cobwebs out of their heads from waking up. As soon as I see one of their bright and shiny faces, my thoughts begin spilling out and I read the passages that struck me. Each time this has occurred, I have been blessed by the slow gathering of each one of them as they exit their bedrooms. During the most recent incident, I chuckled a bit inside as each of them found a way to rest on the ledge of the balcony above our living room, and Uriah even had his feet dangling over the edge between the rails. I share this to simply set the scene for the discussion of the passage from Ephesians that we had that morning.

I quickly pointed out to my kiddos that Satan has zero power over anything or anyone. Just as the verses above express, he is the prince of the power of the air. But the distinct connection between Satan and power here is that his followers are those that are following the course of this world. Even more specifically, I stressed the statement, “…among whom we all once lived…” We discussed how there is not a single human that was not, is not, or will not be born dead in our trespasses and sins – apart from Jesus Christ. We talked about how easy it would be to just give up at that point. That in recognizing that we enter this world dead in our sins, it would be simple to throw in the towel and gorge ourselves in the passions of our flesh, which this world caters to every step we take.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in 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 coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And it is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”-Ephesians 2:4-10

“But God…” Those two words carry any and all hope that we have. Through Jesus, we have been given life! There is not another option. There are no other lifelines this world can offer. We cannot do it; we are not enough; and if we are not alive in Jesus, then we are worshiping the prince of the power of the air and we reside in this world as sons of disobedience. “But God…” Let that sit in the deepest recesses of your heart… “But God…” Your brother in Christ Jesus, Zack Fugate