| How We Are Saved, Part 13: God's Viewpoint - God Made Us Alive |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, November 10 2008 00:00 |
|
As we attempt to understand salvation from the perspective of God, we should pay close attention to what Paul writes in Eph. 2:1-5: “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 and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 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.” There you have it! We were dead in sin, and dead people cannot hear the gospel, dead people cannot believe in Christ and come to Him, dead people can do nothing to help themselves. We were dead men walking! We were followers of the evil one whose spirit of disobedience manipulated us. We followed our own sinful and selfish desires and thoughts. We were, and this has to be the worst, children fit for God’s wrath! But God, out of a motivation of his love and mercy for us, a love we know originated in eternity past, made us alive and saved us by grace! What a glorious transformation. Paul said, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17) God spoke nothing into something at the creation of the world, and he does the same in our spiritual re-creation; he speaks and we exist; he breathes life into our dead souls (Rom. 4:17). Dead skeletons arise as living people! (Ezek. 37:1-14). (To be continued next week) |
Join our Devo Mailing List
We'd be honored to send you our devotionals via email. To be included on our list please visit our Contact page and write us a request.