THE RADICAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN

EPHESIANS 2:1–10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins

(Ephesians 2:1).

Paul begins his discussion in Ephesians 2 by saying that the Ephesians were dead. He does not say that they were almost dead, or gasping for breath about to die. No, he says that they were dead, wholly uninterested in true life.

The Devil Did Not Make Them Do It

He goes on to say that they “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” (Ephesians 2:2). They willingly did the Devil’s desires. This did not mean that they were demon-possessed or were somehow forced to do Satan’s designs. Rather, it means that they were happy to follow his lead.

When President Kennedy was assassinated, the news commentators tried to describe the horror of the heinous deed committed by Lee Harvey Oswald. “This was a demonic act,” they said. They used the same language when Martin Luther King Jr. was slain, and when Bobby Kennedy was shot. “This was an inhuman deed,” they said. “It was diabolical.”

But is this true? Were these “inhuman, demonic, diabolical” deeds? Not at all. They were precisely and exactly human deeds. They are examples of men acting according to their sinful natures.

Only God Can Save

Paul goes on to say that “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (Ephesians 2:4–5). Notice that Paul does not say that “man, about to die, laid hold on his inner goodness and turned to God.” Not at all.

We see the depths of human depravity in this passage by way of contrast. Salvation is totally of free grace, given to dead people who in no wise were interested or even able to ask for it.

CORAM DEO

Just as Adam blamed Eve in the Garden of Eden, so we naturally tend to blame other people, or the Devil, for our misdeeds. When we do this, though, we only hurt ourselves, because it prevents us from turning to God and letting Him cleanse us. Today ask Him to show you places in your life where you have been blaming others. Following confession, bring those sins to Him for true forgiveness.

For further study: Genesis 6:1–8, 8:13–22; Ecclesiastes 9:1–6

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