Dead No More!

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,” Ephesians 2:1

Before someone comes to Christ, they are the walking dead. No, they are not a Zombie, but they are dead spiritually and don’t even realize they are the walking dead. In the book of Ephesians, Paul explains the great doctrine of regeneration. However, before that, he reminds us…, “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.” John MacArthur writes, “The wages, or payment, for sin is death (Rom. 6:23),  and because man is born in sin he is born to death. Man does not become spiritually dead because he sins; he is spiritually dead because by nature he is sinful. Except for Jesus Christ,  that is the condition of every human being since the Fall,      including every believer before he is saved. It is the past        condition of believers and the present condition of everyone else.”

Thankfully Paul continues, “But God, being rich in mercy,      because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up     with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the   immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” You have to love the word “but”, because without it we would all be doomed to hell. All believers were justified  to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now that you were born again into God’s family, you need       to realize that you were saved for a purpose. What is that       purpose? You were “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” When you were made alive in Christ, God transformed you.   You are not the same person you were before; your desires   and goals have changed. If your salvation didn’t change you,    it didn’t save you.

Too many so-called Christians have never truly been             transformed. The great preacher Johnathan Edwards voiced   his concern when he wrote the following:

“Scripture describes conversion in terms which           imply or signify a change of nature: being born again, becoming new creatures, rising from the dead, being renewed in the spirit of the mind, dying to sin and    living to righteousness, putting off the old man and putting on the new, becoming partakers of the divine nature, and so on.

It follows that if there is no real and lasting change in people who think they are converted, their religion      is worthless, whatever their experiences may be.      Conversion is the turning of the whole man from sin   to God. God can restrain unconverted people from sin, of course, but in conversion he turns the very heart and nature from sin to holiness. The converted person becomes the enemy of sin.

What, then, shall we make of a person who says he has experienced conversion, but whose religious emotions soon die away, leaving him much the same person as he was before? He seems as selfish, worldly, foolish, perverse and un-Christian as ever. This speaks against him louder than any religious experiences can speak for him.

Christian rejoice in your salvation, knowing that you who were once dead have been made alive in Christ Jesus. But, woe to you who claim the title of Christian but are still the walking dead. Examine yourself and see if you have been transformed or are merely self-deceived.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark