Growing in HopeSample

You Were Dead...

You have something in common with every human being on the planet, and that is that you have done something wrong (Romans 3:23). We all have! We all have either lied, taken something that did not belong to us, been disobedient to our parents, or any number of other things. The Bible tells us that when we do something wrong, it is not only an action or sin against another person, but it is against God. When you do something wrong, you sin against God. What we have earned or what we deserve for these sins is death; an eternal death in hell (see Romans 6:23). 

We were born with a nature (or a tendency to) sin. This is something that each one of us inherited from the first man, Adam (Romans 5:12, Genesis 3). This sinful nature, along with your willingness to follow through with sin, condemns us all to an eternal death in Hell.

BUT GOD…

The first three verses of our focus passage (Ephesians 2:1-10) were about each of us being spiritually dead. We were all headed for an eternity in Hell. Humanity, in its sin and rebellion to God, is doomed! However, verse 4 begins with “But God”. BUT GOD loves us too much to let that be the end of our story!!! He loved us even when we were children of wrath and His enemies. It is by His love, His grace, and mercy that we are saved (saved from eternal separation from Him). Now that we are alive in Christ, He promises we will be with Him now and forever!!! 

It is only by God’s mercy that we are spared from an eternal death in hell. Because of His great love, all followers of Jesus are “made alive together in Christ.” “BUT GOD” is the change of direction for us from death to life, from hopelessness to a new hope found only in Jesus!

Prayer:
Thank You, Father, for having mercy on me! In my sin, I was dead. In my sin, I was a child of wrath, an enemy of Yours, doomed to eternal destruction. BUT YOU saved me! You love me! It is only by Your grace through my faith that I am now alive in Christ! I am no longer a child of wrath, but a child of God! Teach me how to live as Your child! Continue to change me, and use me to share the truth of who Jesus is to those around me! In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.