THE TOTALITY OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY AND THE ONLY REMEDY: Ephesians 2:1-5

BIG IDEA: The totality of total depravity and its only remedy.

I. THE TOTALITY OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY (vv. 1-3)

I) IN CHRIST, YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM YOUR NATURAL CONDITION (v. 1)

(I) In Christ, you have been saved from the deadness of sin (v. 1a)

Ephesians 2:1a “And you were dead.”

(II) In Christ, you have been saved from the domination of sin (v. 1b)

Ephesians 2:1b “in the trespasses and sins”

II) IN CHRIST, YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM YOUR NATURAL CONVERSATION (vv. 2-3a)

Ephesians 2:2a “in which you once walked,”

(I) In Christ, you have been saved from the dominion of sin (v. 2b)

Ephesians 2:2b “following the course of this world,”

(II) In Christ, you have been saved from the Devil, who is the prince of sin (v. 2c)

Ephesians 2:2c “following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

(III) In Christ, you have been from the delight of sin (v. 3a)

Ephesians 2:3a “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,”

III) IN CHRIST, YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM YOUR NATURAL CONDEMNATION (v. 3b)

(I) In Christ, you have been saved from the damnation owed to sin! (v. 3b)
Ephesians 2:3b “and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

II. THE ONLY REMEDY OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY (vv. 4-5)

The only remedy to the totality of our total depravity is God’s sovereign grace.

I) In Christ, you have been saved according to God’s rich mercy toward you (v. 4a)

Ephesians 2:4a “But God, being rich in mercy,”

II) In Christ, you have been saved because of God’s great affection for you (v. 4b)

Ephesians 2:4b “because of [His] great love with which he loved us,”

III) In Christ, you have been saved by God making you alive even when you were dead—this is what it means to be saved by grace (v. 5)

Ephesians 2:5 “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”