1 Kings 10-11 | Luke 21:20-38

“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

What is the state of a person before they receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour? They are spiritually dead, separated from God, the source of life. Yet, this was not the original intention of God. When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in the Garden of Eden and said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17). As the events would unfold, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. What happened next? Did they fall over dead? Were there a couple of corpses under the tree? No, they went on to live for many years. What happened that day was not a physical death but a spiritual death, where they were separated from God.

As descendants of Adam and Eve, we inherited that condition from the moment we were conceived, as 
1 Corinthians 15:22 says, “For as in Adam all die….” And in Romans 6:23, Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death….” Notice the present tense statement that the wages of sin is death and not will be death. This is because we are already dead as a consequence of Adam and Eve and there is nothing that we could ever do for God from our end to earn salvation.

Therefore, the basic problem of humanity is not that we are sinners; that is the fruit. If sin was the problem, then the solution would be forgiveness and cleansing from our sin. But sin is not the root of the problem, the true problem is we are spiritually dead, which causes us to “[follow] 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 2:2).

The only thing that solves the problem of humanity is to put life back into us, which God does by His Spirit indwelling us. Ephesians 2:1, 4-5 goes, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” In our natural state, Scripture gives us two options: we either stay dead and die in our sin or come alive.

May we choose not to stay in our spiritually dead state but choose to receive the life of God through Jesus Christ by His Spirit.

PRAYER

Lord God, thank You that I do not have to stay spiritually dead. You made a way for me to have life through Jesus Christ by Your Spirit. Praise You!