It was about midnight in March of 2003 as our C-17 aircraft began descending over enemy airspace. I was strapped into a nylon webbing seat in full body armor and combat gear with my rifle between my knees, one of about a hundred soldiers crammed into the cargo area of this particular aircraft. We sat quietly, bathed in the eerie red lighting used to illuminate the back of the aircraft to reduce the light signature when we should land. I tried to doze a bit, but was too keyed up to fall asleep despite my exhaustion.
As executive officer of Barbarian
Company, I had spent the last month working 20-hour days prepping our men and
equipment for deployment to Romania in advance of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Then when we arrived in Romania, I turned
around and did it all over again to get us ready for our air movement into
Northern Iraq as part of the invasion force.
This was my second operational deployment, but I was nervous,
nonetheless.
Suddenly, the quiet was broken by
an audible alarm. The pilot began to
juke the aircraft wildly and then broke into a steep, spiraling descent. The pilot was avoiding enemy air defenses.
I sat there keenly aware of how
utterly exposed I was. On the ground, I
could move, shoot, and fight. Here, if
high velocity lead started crashing through the thin aluminum skin of the
aircraft, I had nowhere to go and nothing to shoot at. Because we were a light infantry unit, we
didn’t even have parachutes we could use to bail out, if necessary. There was nothing I could do. I could only pray the Lord’s prayer, focusing
extra emphasis on the clause, “Deliver us from evil.” I was totally, and utterly helpless. Useless.
Dead insofar as my ability to act on my behalf.
Ultimately, the pilot would
prevail over the unseen enemy, delivering us safely to our destination,
completely unaided by me.
In his Epistle to the Ephesians,
Paul paints us in much the same way.
“And you were dead in the
trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this
world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
St. Paul describes us as walking
in our trespasses and sins, which is the Biblical way of saying we live and
abide in our sinful nature. And rather
than living out the purpose for which God created us, to exercise dominion over
the creation as faithful and obedient creatures following his law, we follow
the sinful passions of our flesh, indulging in the sinful desires and
temptations of the body and the mind, such that even our “good works” are tainted
by sin. And because of this we are
children of wrath, subject to the curse of the law. And in this fallen state, we are slaves to
another spiritual power, that of sin, death, and the devil.
In short, we are spiritually
dead. Incapable of living righteously in
accordance with God’s will. We are
useless. We are incapable of acting on
our own behalf for the purpose of salvation.
We are helpless.
And yet, though we are dead,
there is one who has beaten death, who can resurrect us to life with him. Jesus Christ, son of the Most High God, who
died for us and satisfied the curse of the law, that we might live with him and
through him. It is he, whom God has
sent, who has prevailed for us to deliver us from the power of sin, death, and
the devil.
“But God, being rich in mercy,
because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved –
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches
of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
In this short passage, Paul emphasizes
two things to us. First, he emphasizes
that it is through God’s love and mercy that we are rescued for our spiritual
deadness. We see the repetitive mention
that it is God who is rich in mercy, who extends his love toward us. And this love is extended by his grace, not
by any merit or work initiated by us. It
is by grace, defined as God’s unearned kindness or favor, that we are saved.
Second, he emphasizes that this
salvation which is extended by grace, is done so through the person and work of
Jesus Christ. In this short passage,
Paul references the person of Christ no less than six times, as the person who
has affected all the aspects of our salvation for us.
So, even though we were dead, we
were made alive together with Christ, raised up with Christ, seated with Christ
in the heavenly realms in Christ, so that in the coming age he might show the
riches of his grace toward us in Christ.
It is Christ whom God sent from
his side in heaven down to us. It is
Christ who was made incarnate with us.
It is Christ who lived among us, and spoke of God’s mercy toward us, and
healed us, and died for us. It is Christ
who descended into the grave with us, yet who was raised from death from the grave
for us, and who brings us with him by God’s grace to live with him in the
presence of God the Father. We are saved
solely on account of Christ’s work.
Paul, again, uses the rhetorical
device of repetition to emphasize that we are rescued from our spiritual
deadness through God’s grace. He takes
the phrase he made earlier – by grace you have been saved – and now expands
upon it again.
“For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Paul emphasizes that the gift he
extends by grace is not received on account of any work that we have done or
any merit that we possess. It is
extended simply as a gift and is received only through faith in Christ Jesus
who through his own life, death, and resurrection, has delivered us from our
sin. Though we were helpless, Christ has
prevailed on our behalf, and the gift he offers is received simply through
clinging to him in our faith.
“For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should
walk in them.”
Now, freed from our spiritual
deadness, we are restored in Christ to be the creatures we were created to
be. We are his forgiven and redeemed
people, freed from the stain of sin, freed to live for him and do the works
that he has prepared for us. Though we
may sin, we cling to Christ, confident that he has broken the hold of sin,
death, and the devil for us, that we might be forgiven and restored anew until the
immeasurable riches of his grace are made fully manifest to all mankind.
May you rest in the assurance
that though you are helpless, God has sent his Son to rescue you from the power
of sin, and that his grace is made efficacious by faith in Christ. Amen.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought
us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
- Isaiah 52:5
