Dead

What were you before you came to Christ? Go there for a moment and ponder your condition. I remember as though it were yesterday. My parents were divorced and I was a few weeks shy of my tenth birthday when I came to the place of decision.

The Holy Spirit had convicted me of my lostness and convinced me of my need for a Father who would never let me down. On March 28, 1979, I turned my life over to Jesus Christ and He saved me. Before that moment of decision, I was dead. 

Paul reminded the saints at Ephesus about their condition before they came to know Christ in a life-altering way.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,” Eph 2:1 (NIV)

Before Christ came into your life, you had no spiritual sensitivity. You were dead! It may have appeared that you were alive since you demonstrated some level of life physically. However, you were spiritually dead.

Do you remember the story Jesus told about a father who had two sons? The younger son took his share of the father’s estate and wasted it in riotous living and then hit rock bottom in the pig’s pen. He came to his senses and decided to go back home to his father. Notice how the father responded to the son’s return home.

“‘For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” Luke 15:24 (NIV)

What were you? What are you now in Christ? Jesus came to resuscitate you spiritually and eternally.

Pursuing God,

Stephen Trammell
Pastor of Leadership and Pastoral Care