Commentary on Ephesians 2:1-8

Shall we turn in our Bibles now to Ephesians, the second chapter. Paul is going to talk about someone tonight...very interesting. You! Well, at least you are interested in the subject. For many of you it is your favorite subject. If we were able to take a wide angle lens picture of the service this evening and posted it on the bulletin board, and you went up to look at that picture, who is the first one you would look for? Of course. And you (Eph 2:1) Paul said. Now notice the words, hath he quickened (Eph 2:1), Are in italics. What it means is that these words were added by the translators. That they do not appear in the original Greek text in this place. Now, they do appear in the original Greek text down in verse 5, but it does not appear here at the beginning of this text. And so they wrote "hath he quickened" in italics in order to indicate the fact that they themselves added those words. They are not a part of the original text. Evidently it was just a little bit to heavy. The things that Paul has to say about you, so that they tried to sort of cushion the whole blow by giving you a peak ahead at what he is going to say about you. But at this point, Paul is just saying, and you who were dead in your trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1); God said to Adam, "In the day that you eat thereof you will surely die." Talking about that forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. God was talking about spiritual death. That awareness of God, that communion with God, or that fellowship and oneness that God intended that man should have with God. That would cease, for God is a Spirit, they that worship Him worship Him in Spirit and in truth. The relationship with God would cease the moment that man disobeyed the commandment of God, the moment man transgressed. And so "and you who were dead" really as the result of your transgressions and sins. The Greek word for sin, hamartia, is a word that means "to miss." Our English word sin comes from a root "to miss." In fact, it comes from a game in archery that the British used to have. They would put a hoop on a pole, and each man would take his quiver of arrows and shoot his arrows through the hoop one at a time. And so maybe you would have five men in the contest. Each of them with ten arrows, and one after another they would shoot their arrow through the hoop there at the top of the pole. Now, if a man should miss the hoop, then he was called a sinner, you have missed. And he would have to treat the rest of the fellows to the drinks. He was a sinner. He had missed the mark. Now, by the very root of the word, it does indicate, which is also true, that it is possible to be a sinner without wanting to be. It is possible that you would be trying very hard to hit the mark. But no matter how hard we may try to hit the mark, none of us have really hit the mark that God has required for man. All have sinned, or missed the mark, and come short of the glory of God. Now, some may have come closer than others. If we decided to go sailing out here in the channel and maybe sail to Catalina, but half way across the channel we sprang a leak in the boat and it starts to go down, and some of you who can\