But God …! Ephesians 1-3

Ephesians 2:1-4a (ESV)

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. But God, .. 

Throughout the beginning words of Ephesians, Paul is bringing to the minds of the church at Ephesus what they were without Christ and what they now are, in Christ.   The above passage being one of the most powerful of all those statements.  

Before God intervened in their lives (and ours) they were: 

1. Dead in trespasses and sin
2. Walked in trespasses and sin
3. Following the course of the world 
4. Following the prince of the air
5. Following the spirit of the sons of disobedience
6. Living in the passions of our flesh
7. Carrying out the desires of the body
8. Carrying out the desires of the mind
9. Were by nature children of wrath
10. Just like the rest of mankind

But God ...!  This is the most marvelous statement to follow that list of evilness.   God intervened in our lives and now calls us the Sons’ of God.   We are now children of God.  We once were not but now are His! This is the Gospel message.  This is what God saved us from.