From Death to Life
Scripture Reading — Ephesians 2:1-10
God ... made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. Ephesians 2:4-5
The Bible says every person without Christ is spiritually dead. But when we look around us, this doesn't seem to ring true. Some people might look totally corrupt, but many others look like decent people and appear very much alive. Isn't it extreme to say that all people without Jesus are dead in sin?
Well, a carefully embalmed body may be less shocking than a mangled or decaying corpse, but a corpse is still a corpse, no matter what cosmetics are used. In the same way, one person's sinful condition may be much less offensive than another's. There may be different degrees of spiritual decay, but all are equally dead in sin.
Once a person is dead, the degree of decay makes little difference. Dead is dead. That's why believers talk like this: "On my own, I would ignore the Bible and be indifferent to Christ. But because God's Spirit has breathed new life into my soul, I trust in Jesus and believe his Word. It is by grace I have been saved."
"At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly... While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8). When we were dead and decaying, Jesus overcame sin and death. Then he breathed the life of his Spirit into our souls and created in us the faith to believe in him. We did nothing. God has done it all.
Thank you, Father, for your love. Thank you, Jesus, for dying our death and raising us to life with you. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for bringing this life into our hearts. Amen.
About the author — David Feddes
Dr. David Feddes is pastor of Family of Faith Church and provost of Christian Leaders Institute, which supports mentor-based ministry training through online courses. David is also adjunct missiologist for Crossroad Bible Institute, which provides biblical distance education to more than 40,000 people in prison. Previously he served as broadcast minister for the Back to God radio program, reaching people in more than fifty countries. David earned his Ph.D. in intercultural studies from Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL. He and his wife, Wendy, have nine children (one in heaven).
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