Understanding Who You Were, What God Did & Who You Are Now | Isaac Gross

There are some things about your past you need to remember—not so you can live there, but so you can understand just how much God has done.

Ephesians 2 begins with a difficult truth: apart from Christ, we weren't simply struggling, misguided, or in need of improvement. We were spiritually dead. Sin had shaped our desires, the world influenced the way we lived, and we could never make ourselves alive through enough goodness or good works.

But God. Those two words change everything.

In “Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ | Understanding Who You Were, What God Did & Who You Are Now,” we walk through Ephesians 2:1–7 and the incredible contrast at the center of the Gospel. We were dead, but God—rich in mercy and because of His great love—gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. We couldn't rescue ourselves, so Jesus did for us what we could never do on our own.

And He didn't only save us from something. He brought us into an entirely new way of living. Before Christ, sin was our master. But because we have been raised and united with Jesus, what once ruled us no longer has the final authority over us. The world will still tempt us. Our flesh will still have desires that need to be denied. The enemy will still try to influence us. But the believer no longer approaches those battles as someone who is powerless.

You have been set free. That freedom isn't permission to ignore sin; it's the power to stop living like you're still enslaved to it.

Paul takes it even further: God has raised us with Christ, seated us with Him, and made our lives examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness. Our transformed lives become living evidence of what a merciful and powerful God can do.

So remember who you were—but don't confuse who you were with who you are.

You were dead. But God made you alive. You were enslaved. But Christ set you free. You were ruled by sin. But now you are united with Jesus.

You don't have to keep living like a slave to something Christ has already freed you from.