Have you ever played the mental game “What if?” The game goes like this: You think about your life and the alternate reality you could’ve lived. Can you imagine what your experience and personality would be if you didn’t have the parents you did? Can you picture where you would’ve been if not were the influences surrounding you? The human brain has an ability for imagination, unlike any other creature. We can create realities that never were. We can almost taste an experience we never had. We can even create videos and pictures that make events look like they really happened aka deepfakes! Sometimes we wish the alternate reality was the true one. There is an alternate reality out there that many imagine being authentic and achievable but is counterfeit. This alternate reality is this: a truly-lived life is having the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want, and however I want. It’s this societal mantra that confronts us every day, that true life and true freedom revolve around getting everything our hearts desire whenever we want it, wherever we want it, and however we want it.
Maybe you know more than you wish you did about that kind of life. The alternate, counterfeit, deepfake kind of reality that says freedom is nothing more than being able to do whatever you want. Freedom is having the total affirmation to live how you want to, regardless of how it affects others. You have the right to make yourself happy by any means available. Some of us know what life looks like through such a lens because that used to be you. You turned to whatever you thought would satisfy, and bring you joy, maybe it was sex, maybe it was substance, maybe it was social media, maybe it was work, maybe it was friendships, maybe it was money, but you came to realize you were missing something. In this “free” life you found yourself feeling out of control, chained to urges. Maybe you have known Jesus your entire life. Baptized as a baby into God’s family like Braydon is now. You grew up with the amazing gift of being surrounded by Christian influencers, but I want you to imagine what your life would’ve been without that upbringing. Who would you be? Who were we spiritually before Jesus? Brace yourself: Dead. Rotting. Disgusting. Heartbreaking. Repulsive. Failure. Lost. Always chasing, never finding. Dead.
Most of the people the apostle Paul wrote this letter to knew what life was like before Jesus entered their life scene. The culture in Ephesus was obsessed with superstition. They craved supernatural power and felt alive when they could sense it. Remember last week when we heard about the burning of those magic scrolls which today would’ve been worth millions? Their superstition was a booming economic business. People were going crazy over the occult and witchcraft, and before we say that’s crazy even now in our modern society, paganism or witchcraft is one of the fastest-growing religions in America. But they weren’t just turning to dark spiritual forces to find freedom and life, they had prostitution in their temple of Artemis, they tried filling voids with partying and entertainment, but it all led to nowhere. They lived like they were dead, constantly chasing but never truly being alive.
But the Ephesians aren’t alone in that chase, you and I are in it too. Without Jesus, that’s all we are, hopeless chasers. Paul puts it like this, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.” Without Jesus, you and I are dead. Out of control. Following the world. We want to feel alive, but it always feels out of reach. I can’t help but think of a friend of mine who is a recovering sex addict. He described his life like this, “A one-night stand became my whole life nightmare. All I was doing was chasing and losing myself more and more.” It’s that struggle we’ve all had of something trying to drag you down, but when you try to put that struggle into words or point at it and “see!” you just can’t fully describe it. That feeling of swiping at air is what Paul is getting at when he talks about Satan being “the ruler of the kingdom of the air.” It is a reality, not a fantasy, that there are evil spiritual beings literally hellbent on convincing you that your reality in Jesus isn’t real. They want you to live dead, to live in a fake, alternate reality.
Your and my spiritual enemies want us to live life like we used to. To live in our own personal B.C.’s, Before Christ. But did you notice all the past-tense words Paul used? Words like “were,” “used to,” and “lived.” The reality is that you are no longer who you used to be. You are living an “A.D” life, a constant “walking with Jesus” reality. You have been “made alive with Christ.” Through faith, through baptism, you have a new identity defined by grace and wrapped up in Jesus. Satan and his allies, our sinful nature, and death want you to forget that and live like you’re dead. When you feel the urge to sin, they say, “Do it, it’ll feel good.” When following God is inconvenient they’ll say, “Don’t listen to him, live free!” A phony freedom if there ever was one! They want you to choose death over life, to live in an alternate reality, and to walk away from the constant reality of God’s mercy, grace, and love for you and the plan he has for you. Then comes an amazing word…BUT. In just one tiny conjunction, a single word. Paul shatters that fake story and reminds you of your always-true, never-changing reality.
Just as the Ephesians were thinking back to who they used to be, or who they could’ve been B.C., before Christ, Paul reminds them and you and me today, that’s all in the past. Why is that all in the past? Not because we put it there. Not because we busted out those Men in Black amnesia sticks and used them on God. Look at what God wants you to remember today and always, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Even when we were living dead, totally unable to approach God, God didn’t give us what we deserved (that’s mercy) and out of his selfless, self-sacrificing life for us, love he chose to show us even though we could never deserve it (that’s grace) he made us alive with Christ. Not only that, he “raised us up with Christ.” When Easter happened, when Jesus rose, it truly was like we rose with him too. Our resurrection is as good as done because we are so tightly connected to Jesus. These words that Paul uses in Ephesians 2, mirror words he said in his letter to the Romans when he says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Baptism links you to Jesus in every single way, and that’s why it’s AMAZING to celebrate this day in Braydon’s life!
Your baptism is worth celebrating every day of life because it is a powerful reminder of the absolutely true reality of our lives and our identity. We belong to Jesus. Who we were B.C. doesn’t define us anymore. We live the A.D. life. We live in the sphere of Jesus. Thinking of the ongoing power of God’s grace and our baptisms was something huge to the theologian Martin Luther. When Satan come at him trying to get him to doubt God’s grace, Luther would say “Ego baptizatus sum,” in case you don’t know Latin 🙂, it means “I am baptized.”
It’s not “I was baptized,” it’s “I have been and continue to be baptized.” And for Luther, that was a big deal. Luther dealt with doubts and terrors and fears his whole life. There were nights when he said he felt as though the devil was trying to snatch away his faith, where those voices would creep into his head saying that he wasn’t good enough, that he hadn’t done enough to merit God’s love, that he was worthless. During those times, during those dark nights of the soul, Luther would shout, “Baptizatus Sum!” I am baptized! I continue to be baptized! And he was absolutely right. My family in Christ, your baptism is a sign that there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can ever separate you from God’s love. Not your sin, not what others do to you or say about you or think about you, not even what you might think about yourself. God has called you by name through baptism and has said “By grace, I have saved you! This has nothing to do with you or anyone else, it is purely my gift no strings attached. Never doubt my love for you!”
For all those moments when Satan tries to come at you with his alternate but entirely fabricated reality, saying things to you like, “Living for Jesus isn’t the best life you could have,” or, “Living for Jesus is really a burden, holding you back from who you could be, what your potential could be the happiness you deserve.” When those thoughts come and they will until we’re home, you can shout, “By grace, I have been saved through faith. I stand forgiven, set free, made alive with Jesus. God in his mercy and love made me his child. He brought life to the walking-dead person I used to be. That’s the reality.” The reality is that you belong to God. That is who you ARE, not could be, not could possibly be, but ARE. Because you know who you are, you know whose workmanship you are, and that his plan is far better than yours or mine.
You’re not here to gratify desires. You’re not here to live trying to follow the world. You live to simply do the work that Jesus has prepared before the world began for you to do. As he put together his plan for this world, you were a part of it. He has placed you where you are, given you the gifts he has, and has given you the gift of walking with him. He has brought you to where you are, with the family you have, the people you’ve met, the things you’ve been through, and none of it has been random. He longs for you to live alive, and what is being truly alive? It’s walking behind him. It’s living alive when you sometimes need to drag kids kicking and screaming to church, because you know they’ll hear the words of pure life from Jesus. It’s living alive when you’re watching your best friend on a hospital bed and praying to God through tears. It’s living alive when you wrestle with temptations because you know God is there and he promises to fight for you. It’s living alive when you have to say no to events because they would take you away from your time with Jesus. It’s living alive because you live for the One who died and rose again, so in a little while, that’s all this earthy existence is, you would get to experience life at its fullest, unfiltered, unhindered, all Jesus.
We live alive with Jesus. We know reality. We don’t turn to virtual reality or alternate reality to cope with life’s struggles. We don’t look to escape. We cling to Jesus, because we know by grace we have been saved, your ever-constant status before God. We live because he rescued us. We are alive and free with Jesus. Do you know why God did all these things for you? Because he wants you to see him as he really is: The God who loves you, the God who gave you identity, the God of reality. Live in that reality, because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen.