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As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 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. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Paul begins chapter two with some hard news. \xa0After this massive, cosmic picture of all that God has done, is doing, and will do across the universe and arc of time, Paul sharply zooms in to the situation in Ephesus. \xa0\u201cAs for you,\u201d he says, glaring now directly at them, \u201cyou were dead in your transgressions and sins\u2026\u201d \xa0For the Ephesians, that was quite literally true. \xa0They had all grown up pagan, totally outside the faith until the gospel came finally also to them.

But then Paul slowly zooms out again. \xa0\u201cAll of us\u201d he continues. \xa0Paul now includes himself. \xa0He recalls his days of persecuting the church. \xa0Paul too had been dead in his transgressions before Jesus met him on the road. \xa0

But really, Paul is now including all of us. \xa0Not just these formerly pagan Ephesians. \xa0Not just the formerly church-persecuting Paul. \xa0But all of us, including those of us today who read this letter. \xa0This is perhaps a bit odd, because many of us were born directly into the covenant of grace\u2014directly into the church\u2014such that there was never a pre-Christian time in our lives. \xa0Never a time when \u201cdead in our transgressions\u201d was the complete and final word about us. \xa0We have just always belonged to Jesus. \xa0

Yet there\u2019s still something true here for us. \xa0Paul is talking figuratively here. \xa0He\u2019s making a caricature, throwing sharp contrast onto the situation to purposefully make it stick out. \xa0While a number of us may never have had a pre-Christian time in our lives, that doesn\u2019t mean that the ways of sin and death have not stained our souls. \xa0It may be harder to see because we didn\u2019t have a conversion moment, but the same struggle is still there. \xa0The Christian tradition throughout the ages has talked about Original Sin to capture this idea.

All of us do still struggle with transgressions and sins. \xa0We were born with it. \xa0Sin came with our humanity. \xa0It is highlighted a thousand times over in the news and social feeds that cross our screens, but it\u2019s also there in the personal, secret sins that you never could quite defeat. \xa0Or the fantasies you entertain. \xa0The vengeance you desire. \xa0The words that slip out accidentally in fights with your spouse, children, or parents. \xa0 \xa0

Many of us may never have been \u201cdead in our transgressions\u201d in the way pre-Christian Paul or the Ephesians were, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t need saving. \xa0Indeed, it is only because of that saving grace of Jesus Christ that death has never had it\u2019s hold on us.\xa0

We will of course speak of this more as Paul carries on into some of those strong, Reformation Day Faith-Alone, Grace-Alone texts in this chapter that are for all the Saints\u2014which is what today is: All Saints Day. \xa0For now though, it is enough simply to remember our baptisms. \xa0A plunging under the waters to picture our death to sin and death in all its ways as we die in the death of Christ which defeated both, so that, rising up out of the waters on the other side, we might have life instead. \xa0His life. \xa0A new life. \xa0It is the same drama that Paul is painting here in the opening verses of chapter two.

Though traces of death remain: it is not the final word about us.\xa0
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Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

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