Observation: The letter to the church in Ephesus uses just about the strongest possible metaphor to contrast life before grace, and life after grace: being dead, and coming to life again.
Application: The biggest problem with being dead is you can't do anything. You can't work. You can't serve. You can't praise. You can't love. You can't speak for yourself or anybody else. You can't sing. As far as we know, you can't even think or dream. In the world we know through our five senses, you have lost any and all power to create change. You're just gone.
This is a perfect metaphor for a life of trying to reconcile with God without grace. You can't do it. You may as well be dead. If we compared it to being sick, maybe you could take the right antibiotics and feel better. If we compared it to sleep, you could just "get woke" and be done with it. All of these are conditions from which, if you've got the gumption, you can do something to recover.
Death is... well, not like that.
This is a good metaphor because it is memorable and it forces us to face down a hard truth. Without God's grace, we have the same chance as a cadaver of earning righteousness. In fact, the cadaver may have an advantage in that for better or worse, it has stopped sinning.
God's grace isn't just a bonus to make a good life better. God's grace brings us to life from death. God's grace does for us what no human being, no force of nature, nothing in all creation can do: it saves.
Read and trust: if God can raise a dead man to life, God can bring a sinning people forgiveness. If God can raise Jesus, God can raise you.
Prayer: God, we thank you for your grace, which is life to us. Amen.
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