September 14: Made alive

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.  (Ephesians 2:1-5 — New American Standard Bible)

People are walking around, living their lives, fighting for their dreams, mired in a stagnant way of life, oblivious to the fact that they’re dead… spiritually dead. When we live the way we want, and deliberately disobey what we know is God’s desire for us, we may not realize it but we’re following “the prince of the power of the air” — Satan. He is the prince of this world, and unless we deliberately say “no” to him and “yes” to God, we already belong to him. This passage, and many others like it, teach that we are all lost and dead until the moment that we turn to God and decide to live for Him. If we do nothing, we’re dead; if we choose God, we will live.

A powerful truth that reveals the insight and greatness of God is that He loved us even when we were still dead in our transgressions. Many people don’t understand this aspect of God, and feel they have to fix up their lives before they can come to Him. They feel like they’re responsible for messing up their lives and should have to fix them before they can expect any help from God. “God only helps those who help themselves,” they say. But He knows we can’t do it alone, because our fight is not against the world only, but against Satan and his demons. What He needs from us is faith, and the humility to confess that we’ve made a mess of things and need His help — then He’ll come in and give us life… real life.

We are saved by what the Bible calls “grace”. In other words, we can’t be saved by simply doing a lot of good things, though our actions are important. No amount of good works could ever pay God back for all the bad we’ve done. What God is looking for is faith in Him, that we have a relationship with Him, and allow Him to make this amazing transformation in our lives. In one way this is all God’s work, in another way, not one step can be taken by God without our willingness. This doesn’t mean that our faith is only words — not at all, it has to be practical — but it does mean that the transformation of our lives and our salvation are more God’s work than our own. We do our part, but He does the heavy lifting.

“God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love… even when we were dead… made us alive together with Christ.”