“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 2:1-2)
Did you hear about that team of dead guys who climbed Mount Everest? No? That’s because dead guys don’t climb mountains. Dead guys don’t do anything. Dead guys who are all the way dead just sit there decomposing. You can poke them with a stick. Nothing.
What would it take to be good enough to be with God in heaven forever? It would take a lot more than being able to climb Mount Everest. Some people have done that, right? But none of them were dead when they did it.
Paul wrote that we all start out with a big problem. Spiritually speaking, we’re dead – born that way because we were born sinful. We were poke-us-with-a-stick dead. All the way dead. And spiritually dead people can’t take even one step toward God. So we lived spiritually dead lives, just like Satan wanted us to.
Powerless. Lifeless. Dead.
Think: If we start out as spiritual dead, how much of heaven can we ever hope to earn by doing spiritually good stuff?
Pray: Ask God to help you understand more clearly what He did to bring you salvation.
Do: Find something dead and poke it with a stick. No? Okay, find someone spiritually dead and poke him with a stick. Then read Ephesians 2:1-10 to him.