This section
Paul, as he was praying for the church
Offers a description of Jesus
Vs. 19-23

Returns to us
In Christ, chapter 1 tells us we are full heirs before the beginning of time
Now in this chapter, he talks about how Jesus as worked in time

Paul works us through three words:
Dead, Alive, and Good Works
In doing so, he gives one of the most succinct descriptions of the Gospel in the Scripture
10 verses have been memorized and quoted
Paul arranges these in a very peculiar way

In fact, the world formulates them differently
Realist and the Performer both encounter these in a different order

Realist
Alive - Good Works - Dead
You live, you be the best you can, you die
Create your own meaning
To do this, you have to believe you are good

Performer
Human dynamo
Dead - Good Works - Alive
Maybe its Religious fervor
Maybe its a great life
Kids, family, career
Acheiving a life of moral superiority
Create your own salvation
To do this, you have to believe you can do it

Gospel fundamentally disagrees
Dead - Alive - Good works
Final two are given to us

Dead in our transgressions
Prince of the power of the air
Later, power and principalities
Evil spiritual forces at work
Human sin
Passions of the flesh
Passion is good, but when bent and broken - running hard after the wrong thing

Common Grace
Positive - the image of God, though bent and twisted, is still in us
Negative - God is holding back the full of effect of our sin

Made Alive
Only in the person of Jesus Christ

Grace
saves
AND
gives us the ability to do good works

Good Works
God ordained

No Boast
Who did it? - the question we’ll ask at the end
Whose fault is it?
Realist - wants to boast in her goodness
Performer - wants to boast in his moral superiority

Today, you have a choice
How will you boast?