Introduction: The Context in Ephesians 2
Whenever God would have us understand that His salvation is by grace and grace alone, through faith in Christ and His redemptive work, He always starts by showing us what we are by nature and the judgment that we are under apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way the Apostle starts this chapter. As he leads these Ephesian Christians to consider the great grace of God that saved them, he begins by showing them what they were and where they were when God found them.
He starts by telling us that God has to do something — He has to quicken us and make us alive because He finds us spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. He tells us that we are walking according to the course of this world, governed and controlled by the Prince of the power of the air. He tells us what we are by nature: children of disobedience, rebels who have disobeyed God. And then he tells us that we all — every last one of us, Jew and Gentile, bond or free, poor or rich, learned or unlearned — had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We did this because we were, by nature, the children of wrath, even as others.
Then he comes in with the great gospel message: But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. God did something. He quickened us. He made us alive together with Christ. And how did He do this? By His grace alone. He raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus — that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
I. Children of Wrath by Nature
We come now to the last expression in verse 3: we are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. This is the final statement that the Apostle Paul makes regarding man and sin. Every last one of us is on the same level before God. We are all, by nature, the children of wrath.
This expression is divided into two parts — what we are by nature, and the wrath of God upon us — and if you have ever tried to wrestle with these two things, you will know that they are among the most difficult and perplexing subjects in all of divine truth. Try to fathom that each one of us came from our mother's womb speaking lies, conceived in sin, having inherited the Adamic nature. That we are sinners from the womb. And not only that, try to fathom this: that in the very moment of conception, we received an Adamic nature that came immediately under the wrath of Almighty God. Not because of anything we had done ourselves, but because Adam stood as our representative. When he rebelled against God, we became rebels in him. Therefore, from our mother's womb, we were under the wrath of God.
I don't know of anything that man in his natural state hates more than this. Men will get mad and fight you over their free will. They bitterly resent and blasphemingly deny that they abide under the wrath of God. But this is the reason the people of God appreciate the grace of God — because we know what we are. We know where we were. We know that if God had not called us, we'd have been lost forever.
II. The Wrath of God and the Love of God
People say to me, why don't you preach on the love of God? But I tell you plainly — you cannot understand the love of God without understanding the wrath of God. For God to be a God of love, He must be a God of wrath. That must be part of His character. Because His justice and righteousness demand it. He hates sin. His wrath is His anger against sin. And therefore, our eternal destiny depends upon understanding this.
There is no verse of Scripture that speaks of the wrath of God and the love of God together more powerfully than John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish. That word perish — that is the wrath of God. But have everlasting life — that is the love of God. Why was the love of God manifested? Because we were going to perish. Why Calvary? Why the blood of the everlasting covenant? Why was it essential that Christ take our place? You see — you cannot understand these things apart from the wrath of God.
Now, God's wrath is not the passion of a being who has lost control of himself. He is not a sadist. He tells us in Ezekiel: I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and be saved. His wrath is His judgment. It is the manifestation of His indignation against sin. It is His wrath based upon His justice. He is a just God and He hates sin.
How did He manifest it? What did He do at the flood? The imagination of the thoughts of man was only evil continually. Why the wrath of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah? The stench of their sin had come up before Him. Why did God's wrath fall upon Israel in the wilderness? Their unbelief and disobedience. And when you come to the New Testament, as soon as you open its pages you find a man standing on the banks of Jordan crying: Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Repent!
And why does Paul begin that great book of Romans — which speaks of justification and grace — by saying: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness? Because Paul has no gospel apart from the wrath of God. And he warns us in Romans 2: After thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
III. The Wrath of the Lamb
The greatest proof of this truth is found in the book of Revelation. All the way through we find the Lamb — the Lamb, the Lamb. But look at Revelation 6. The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the chief captains, every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, saying to the mountains and rocks: Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
A paradox — a Lamb and wrath. He is the Lamb that taketh away our sins now. He shall be the Lamb that administers the wrath of God upon all those that do not obey Him. The gospel goes out. You are told over and over that you need Christ, that you stand under the wrath of God. You are told to flee from the wrath to come. But the day is coming when we shall not be able to flee from the wrath of the Lamb. And that One who has offered Himself in the gospel shall be the One who shall judge us according to our works.
IV. We All Sinned in Adam
Go to Romans chapter 5. Paul says in verse 12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. How did we sin? We sinned in Adam. He stood as our representative. When he rebelled against God, we became rebels in him. And even from Adam to Moses, even those infants who had not committed any sins of their own — yet death reigned over them. They were rebels in Adam. Death came upon them.
The greatest illustration of the universality of sin, to me, is the death of infants. Why do they die, having not yet committed any sin? It is because every man comes into this world under the judgment of physical death because of Adam's sin. Verses 15–19 of Romans 5 repeat the same truth: by one man's offence, death reigned by one… by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation… by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.
And beloved, if we do not believe that, then we cannot believe the comparison He gives. For in the same passage He shows us that just as in Adam we sinned and died, in Christ we shall be made alive: by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Death in Adam. Life in Christ. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. We were in Adam under the wrath of God. We need to be in Christ to escape the wrath of God. And He came. He gave Himself. He came and brought us the salvation by which we might be delivered from the wrath to come.
Conclusion: Cry Unto the Lord
Where do you stand this morning? We have proven from Scripture that we all sinned in Adam. We are by nature the children of wrath. And until we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath of God abides upon us. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (John 3:36). Present tense. The wrath of God abides even now upon every individual outside of Christ.
So I ask you this morning to cry unto the Lord — to look to Him, to cry out after Him: O my living God, reveal Thyself unto me as the One who is rich in mercy, the One who is great in love, the One who is able to quicken and make us alive in Thyself. Work by Thy grace in my soul. Give me that faith to lay hold of Thee.
I pray that we will leave this morning, by the grace of God, having a knowledge of this one thing — that we are by nature the children of wrath, even as others — and why we need this distinguishing grace of God to work in our souls, and why salvation is by grace and grace alone through our Lord Jesus Christ. For He made me willing in the day of His power. And I praise Him for this.