Pre & Post Salvation: Who We Were & Are Now

Remember your spiritual condition before God before you were saved [Eph. 2:11]

• this gives us great reason to praise and glorify God more
  • Paul's preconversion state [1 Tim 1:15-17 | Gal. 1:13, 22-24 | 1 Cor. 1:26-31]
• this will cause us to be humble [1 Cor. 15:9-10]
• circumcision was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham; the external sign pointed to an inner reality [Gen. 17:1-14 | Deut. 30:6; 10:16]
• We have a spiritual circumcision in our heart [Col. 2:11, Phil 3:3]

We were deficient in 5 areas [Eph. 2:12]
1 we were separated from Christ
- no wisdom and knowledge [Col 2:3]
- no atonement for sins/wrath [Rom 8:1]
2 excluded from the commonwealth of Israel [Psa. 147:19 | Rom. 9:4]
3 excluded from God's covenants
4 they had no hope
5 they were without

The great reversal [Eph. 2:13]

• now we are in Christ and he in us [Col. 1:27]
• we are now apart of the people of God [1 Pet. 2:9-10]
• we are now no longer strangers to God's covenants [2 Cor. 1:20 | Gal. 3:29, 7, 9]
• now we have hope
• now we have God