July 21

“And hath raised us up together…” Ephesians 2:6

Our status as to our spiritual condition was officially ‘dead’! The wages of sin is death, and there is no human who is not affected by this tenebrous influence. The Bible proclaims that ‘..all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God”. This makes our human destiny a dark one indeed, were it not for the light of God’s love and grace! God has made a way to raise us from the dead! When we come to the salvation He has provided, that is, we accept the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary, and participate in His death, burial and resurrection, we pass from death to life! We are raised together with Christ! In His victory over sin and death, we find our victory also! We overcome death, sin and the world, because He overcame them. It is the only solution to the sin/death problem which plagues the human family.  This is the ‘good’ news of the gospel, that while in our natural state, we are the inheritors of death, Jesus made a way to give us life, and that more abundantly! It is strange how so few comparatively, choose to have life instead of settling for eternal death. Logic and wisdom would seem to make it a simple choice, but because it requires faith to believe that God means what He says (and for many to believe He even exists in the first place!), not so many choose life. Those who do believe and accept in faith what God has given discover the wonder and blessing of His truth! They become alive where they were spiritually dead, and awake to the reality of all that God has in store for His followers. Maybe some stumble at the simplicity of the gospel. They might feel that if God had demanded some difficult task, such as climbing a high mountain or killing a beast with their bare hands, in order to obtain salvation, it may be more credible. They miss the point that God wants to make salvation available to all, and that means all must be able to come to salvation the same way. The one thing that all humans can do, regardless of age, opportunity, ability or background, is believe! God has put in all humans ‘the measure of faith’, that is, the ability to believe. Ultimately man could not do anything of his own anyway, no matter how great the exploit, to purchase his personal salvation. Only Christ’s sinless life was an apt sacrifice for sin. Jesus gave His life freely; He did it for all humanity, and that is why faith and not our own provision, is essential! Why should we remain dead in trespasses and sins, when Jesus has made a way to resurrect us and give us life eternal? Let us allow God to work in us, and through the faith He has given us, accept the loving gift of salvation, that we may be born again, resurrected and inheritors with Christ of eternity.

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