Episode 7: From Death To Life

Welcome to Episode 7 of Live It Out! A podcast where Adam Green and Pastor Jason Lancaster talk about God's Word and encourage one another—and our listeners—to live it out for the glory of God and for the good of others.

In this episode, we dive into the powerful truth of Ephesians 2:1-7. Paul reminds us that we were once dead in our sins—walking in disobedience, following the ways of the world, and under the influence of darkness.

But God, being rich in mercy and great in love, made a way. He brought us from death to life through the finished work of Jesus Christ. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t deserve it. It is completely by His grace that we have been saved, raised up with Christ, and seated with Him in the heavenly places.

This reality should radically change how we live every single day. When we truly grasp that God made us alive in Christ, it reshapes our identity, our gratitude, our humility, and our purpose. We are no longer defined by our past failures—we are now alive to live for God’s glory and for the good of others.

We pray this episode fills you with gratitude at God’s amazing grace and motivates you to live differently this week because of what He has done.

If this encouraged you:

• Leave a comment: How does knowing you’ve been brought from death to life change the way you live?
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Join us Sundays at Village Bible Church in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas at 9:15 am!

We hope you're encouraged, challenged, and equipped by what we share! If this episode blessed you:

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey friends, welcome to another episode of Live It Out. I'm Adam Green, and with me is Pastor Jason Lancaster here at Village Bible Church in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. And just before we get into the podcast, we want to thank you for tuning in, for joining us for this podcast. But more than anything, we'd love for you to take that next step and to join us in person here at Village Bible Church Sundays at 9 15 a.m. And to take that even that next step of making yourself known. Come introduce yourself to Pastor Jason, myself, or anyone on our staff. We'd be more than happy to meet you and to welcome you to our church family. Well, today we've got an exciting passage, really one of my favorite sections from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 7, with this incredible contrast of what God did to bring us from death to life in Jesus. Let's listen to Pastor Jason as he outlines this section and kicks off our conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, I think the key thing to keep in mind is that all humanity is under the wrath of God. And by nature, children of wrath, sons of disobedience, daughters of disobedience as well, that we're dead in sin. Yeah and yet we're still alive physically. So I would say, in the sense we're spiritually speaking, we're the walking dead, that it's following the ways of the world, and apart from God's intervention, we'll be lost forever, under his wrath, in hell, forever. And I know it's not a popular uh message, but I tell you what, if we don't start with the bad news, the good news really doesn't make much sense. It makes what's good news about Jesus coming? What I mean, did he just come us to give us a boost to make us a little bit better, or did he come to make dead people live?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Even when I read over this passage again this week, I pause at the famous statement, but God. And I think in your sermon you outlined it, you know, it wasn't but Jerry or but fill in the blank, but really God in that place of being dead, completely separated from the Lord, no hope of ever getting to a right standing positionally with a holy God. I love those words, and we should cherish and just I mean, find complete hope in the words that it was God who made that effort, God who made that move in our lives to give us grace.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

He loved us first.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

He loved us first. The move was his to make only, and he made the move toward us. And it's not a combo. He does his part, we do our part. Nope. My part is sin. Yeah. Your part is sin, God's part is the saving, and he made the intervention to save us.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah. He didn't wait for us to get our act together, clean up, you know, pull our own bootstraps, but he intervened when we were what? Sinners. Dead. Sinners. So it says rebellious.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I love that verse. Completely dead. Not moving. Dead means dead. And so God made us move it then toward us.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Right, right. I love that uh quote you said about grace. Do you mind repeating that?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah, so like the idea, uh, there's a lot of definitions of grace. What I like is the idea is that we do our worst to Christ and He does his best to us. And that's that, I guess you would say, double imputation where he gets our sin and we get his righteousness in the cross of Christ. That's grace. That's mercy. We do the worst, he does the best.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah, that's right, that's right. And I think why I love it is it's talking about the richness of his mercy. Maybe you can expand on that. I've got a couple thoughts, but I want to hear sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

I wonder if we think that God reluctantly or he's doesn't really want to give us mercy, but he sees we messed up, so we did. But that's who he is in his character. And if we understood the riches of mercy, it would make us run to him faster. And when we do come to him, it's not like, uh, uh I blew it again. Give me some mercy. He's like, okay, here's some rich in mercy. Yeah. Here, this is who I am in my character.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Amen to that. Yeah. If we think of it like we think of ourselves with situations that maybe happen with us, maybe we'll give him mercy a few times, maybe, but then eventually we're like, yeah, enough. Yeah. You know, you've whatever, disobeyed me, you've disrespected me, you've wronged me. I'm done. Yeah. But praise God that God is not like us.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And when we fail continually again and again and again, we can rest in Jesus paid it all.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Paid it all. And even when we mess up in the flesh today and later today, and tomorrow, and for many years, all the days that God's given us, we can rest in. I love that God is rich in his mercy. He wants to give us mercy. Amen. And we can rest in the finished work of Jesus. There was a preacher I listened to back, and he was trying to calculate just the amount of sin a person does in his life. And again, it's countless, it's innumerable because even the sins that we think we think we do, but there's so many that we don't even perceive that we're sinning the moment, the thousands upon millions upon millions of sins. And I just love that God loved us and that his mercy is greater than the magnitude of our sins times all those he died for.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah, we always sing it. His mercy is more. Do we believe that? Do we truly believe it? And if we did, we would run to him sooner than later and receive his mercy. Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

There's a section about that we're seated with him in the heavenly places. Can you maybe uh yeah, we can just glance over that as we're fast forwarding through the scripture, but can you help us just grasp a little bit about what that means for us right now, today?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

And this is the concept of spiritual union with Christ. Colossians 3 elaborates a little bit more and it says, Since then you've been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, or Christ is seed at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above and not on earthly things. For you've died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. So the spiritual union, the concept is you wouldn't know this is true unless the Bible told you this is true, because I'm just looking at you, you're looking at me. We wouldn't know it's true unless the Bible said this is your reality. So the reality is that you, in union with Christ, are in him at the right hand of the Father. You've been raised, and so you're you're still here physically speaking, but one day you'll be fully united. Uh, and that will reality will be face to face. But now that you are in him, you're not a loser.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Your identity is in him, your acceptance is in him, and that's why we're just set our minds on things above and our hearts on things above, because our old ways dead, dead, new ways, life.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Given a new heart, yeah, new perspective, new life. Amen. The spirit residing in us. And I love even this morning, I was trying to have our congregation recognize that we have access to that throne as we are seated with him in the heavenly places. We have access to that throne of grace through the blood of Jesus. And it's a reality of we get so laser focused on what's right in front of us, but to really think of that eternal perspective, of that heavenly perspective, that that we have the presence of God all the time. We have access to Jesus. We can pray to him, find grace and mercy and hope. And then uh I love how this even ends with the the example that we're we're trophies of God's grace. Yeah. And so, and God loves to give grace, to give mercy, right? To give his love. And uh, even if we're in suffering, even if maybe we're struggling with temptation, yeah, we could we could go, we we could pray to the Lord, we could say, I'm not dead anymore. That's right. I'm alive in Jesus. God help me. Yeah, help me to overcome that habitual sin. Help me to overcome, to basically find strength in the seated Christ who reigns above.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Amen. Amen. There's no temptation that has overtaken you except what's common to us.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

God's faithful. He's not gonna let us be tempted beyond what can bear, but when we're tempted, he's gonna provide a way out. And he provides a way out. We take it by his grace, by his strength, by walking with him daily in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Right. Uh, as you conclude, I don't know if you could do it off the cuff, but you got these ten things.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

It's it's like if this is true. Yeah, I like to say, if it's true, which I believe it is, uh-huh. If it's true that we are not dead anymore, but we're alive now, what does that look like practically daily? And so I just listed 10 things, actually, 10 and a half things, and people can make their own list, but I I I tag some things on there, like, you know, if it's true, I'm in Christ, I've been raised. I I really shouldn't complain about much.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

I really shouldn't grumble. I should be full of gratitude. I mean, if you are dead, I just think about Lazarus. He's dead, and he's alive. Can you imagine Lazarus walking around just complaining about stuff? He was really physically dead, and then Jesus raised him alive. And so I would say to us who've been raised, we really shouldn't grumble or complain about much. Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

And and I I would tag on to that. We should strive every day to be happy in Jesus. We should find our joy in Jesus. There's just a couple that I threw in there. But also, if you want to branch out beyond us, I think we should talk to dead people. I think we should talk to dead people about Jesus, people who don't know Jesus. And I think we should pray for them as well. Pray for God to wake them up, to have them see where they're now blind, to see the grace they can have in Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

I think in a light of that, we have to ourselves first be so moved by the truth of this passage. Yeah. To not just live humdrum through our lives as if we're we're just charting through our days, but not living with that hope that we are alive, that we are changed. Yeah. That really needs to at first affect us.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

And sometimes we get really reluctant talking to people, to be thinking to keep rejecting, they keep rejecting. But just think about your own life, especially if you grew up in America where you've heard the gospel several times and your initial rejections, initial rejections, and just to keep loving people and keep pushing through and sharing Jesus with them, uh, you never know when or when they're gonna come alive, what's gonna break through, but they keep giving the gospel.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And what's the worst that can happen, right? Yeah, what's the worst that can happen? That's right. They reject you, something happens, you die, you die. I mean, you're we're alive. You're with the Lord, yeah, that's right. You had a comment about taking risks for God. You can expand on that one.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

I mean, if I am already dead alive, like what's the worst that can happen to me in following Jesus, in making whether it's financial risk in giving, risk in sharing the gospel, risk in getting up and moving out of this country and to share the gospel with others, uh I think that there should be no risk that is off the table for believers in sacrificing, in the sense our our desires and our wants and all of our fleshly needs, that we just go for it. We just lay it out there for Jesus because what is the worst that's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

What I was trying to do today overall is get people to see what is real reality, what is actually true, what we would not see left to our own. The word of God has to tell us. Yeah, these are the things that are true, and if we believe that's the way reality is, we will take risks. Yeah, we will continue to proclaim Christ no matter what.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

It should affect us. Yeah. Almost like what Jim says often is what gets you up in the morning, what what gets you excited in the morning? It should be the Lord. Amen. Praise God for every day.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

How can I submit my life to you? Show me, put people in my conversations, put people in my life, interactions that I may resemble the love of God to others and may proclaim Jesus Christ. Yeah. You had you had one other area that I thought was super important, and that is um, I think it was the idea of the conversations with other Christians. I think it was more on the lines of maybe you can help me. Was it more of on the lines of admonishing one another, helping one another out, looking out for one another? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

I think it's key, if if we if we were dead serving the world, flesh, and the devil, and now we're alive, the world, flesh, and the devil don't go away. Yeah. We're still being tempted daily by ourselves. You could say, well, Satan made me do it, or my flesh made me do it, the world made it. I don't care what you say, as long as you own your sin. And when someone is a believer, whether it's me or someone else who's not, owning their sin, I want to be called out on that. Or I want someone to interrupt, say, hey, you should be thinking about this differently. Look at this area of your life. And we need to be willing to do it to other people because we're alive now, and so we don't want to go back to some of our old dead ways.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Why is that so hard? I think in church contexts, it it's so easy to come on a Sunday, everyone looks happy, everyone has that Sunday look, which I know we don't want that. We want people to come with their burdens that come with whatever's going on and bring it to the foot of the cross. But you know, how can we encourage people uh in in our own church and other churches to be looking out and to be not afraid to admonish their brother or sister who maybe maybe they know they're in sin or maybe they know that they're struggling.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Two things. The reason why it doesn't happen much in church is because Christians can be the some of the most judgmental people in the world, the most annoying, judgmental, picking on stuff that's just ridiculous. Yeah, and so throw that aside. The way that you facilitate this within a church is by everyone being vulnerable with their own stuff. If you're not ever vulnerable, if you don't ever struggle anything, if you're not ever tempted, if you don't ever do stupid things, and you don't share that with others, then no one else is gonna do that either. And then you create an environment where you're just chipper, happy, smiley Christians, and you don't reveal anything. That's why you that's why I try to when I'm preaching, when I'm in small groups, say, look, here it is. Not just what bad things have been done to me, but bad things that I have thought or that I have done. Yeah. Throw it out there, create that environment where grace, I need it, you need it, we all need it. That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

And uh really we're only hurting ourselves. Yeah. If we're putting on a facade, then we're not able to extend ourselves for help or prayer. But again, I think just ultimately, we as brothers and sisters in Christ, especially if we're members of this church, lock arms in arms, trying to help encourage and admonish one another in the word of Christ. Yeah. Um, not to become better for ourselves, to pat ourselves in the back, but ultimately to say, Lord, we need you. I need one another, so that we can strive to live for the glory of God and make him known simply by how we live.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

And and for his glory. So any any lasting thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah, there's one thing I'd like to tag on the end. Um, because I know there may be some watching us online who don't follow Jesus. And you may try to make some deductions about what we're saying. If we're saying that you are dead, then there's no you're dead. There's no movement you're making toward God. And they may think, well, if I'm dead, I'm dead. How am I gonna how am I gonna know to God if I'm dead? So some people like to say, well, dead means you're in the bottom of a pit, God lowers a rope, you reach out and grab the rope, and he pulls you up. When you're dead, you're dead. You're not reaching, you're not grabbing nothing. But where you're at right now, in your life of sin and rebellion, under the wrath of God, if you feel so stirred within you, of conviction of sin, of knowing that you're away from God, that is God by the power of the Holy Spirit working in you. Yeah, and your response is a one of faith, of turning from your sin, putting your faith in Jesus, and receiving the mercy of God in Christ to you that's for you right now.

unknown 17:19

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Amen. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of Live It Out. We hope you were encouraged and you were blessed by this episode. And if you were, we ask that you would drop us a comment. We ask that you would share it with others. And if you have any questions or you have any topics for future episodes, we ask that you would email us at live it out all one word at vbchsv.org. Well, we hope you have a good week. Keep living it out for God's glory and for the good of others. God bless.