"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Ephesians 2:1 (NKJV)
A Question:
Would you think a person to be intelligent if they could summarize their whole life in one sentence?
Actually, every child of God should be able to do this because the answer has been given in the Bible for 2,000 years. Ephesians 2:1-7 gives us all the information that we need.
Before we look into this, I want to tell you about a man who came into counseling because of severe guilt about his past. He couldn't get past what he had done
By opening his heart to what the Word said about his past, present and future, everything fell into place.
First of all, he was a spiritual zombie (or a dead man walking) before he was born again. The words: "you were dead in your trespasses and sins" meant that his appetites energized him when he was dead, before he was born again.
His future promised to make him an eternal trophy of God's grace. The words: "raised us up together"; "that in ages to come He might show . . .His grace", taught him this truth.
He realized that before he was born again, he used and infected others. He then came to realize that he had been given a new life. He was a new creature. He was to live in the present and look forward to his future. Once his heart changed, his wife felt she could live with him after all.
Nothing clears a person's eyes and straightens the back-bone more than being able to sing the ex-zombies song of praise: “Once I was dead, but now I’m alive, and someday He will make a trophy out of me.”
Sing with me (use your own heart's melody): "Dear Father, I am no longer a zombie, because you made a new creature out of me. Joy, oh joy comes to me knowing I'll be a trophy You will see. Hallelujah, yes I'm singing Hallelujah and I'm praising Your holy name. My eyes are clear and my back-bone's straight because this is my promised fate. Hallelujah, I sing Hal le lu jah!"
Dr. Bob (AZ)