Our Desperate Condition

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
–Ephesians 2:4-5

You have probably heard people say, “Humans are flawed,” or, “Mankind is defective.” But according to Ephesians 2, we are not flawed or defective–we are spiritually dead. Verse 1 says, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” The Bible says when we are born into this world, we are born spiritually dead. That is how desperate our condition is.

Look at what Paul said in verse 3: “Among them [the spiritually dead] we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” Have you ever heard people say, “We are all God’s children”? No, we are not all children of God. We are born into this world separated from God, deserving of God’s wrath. We are born into this world sinners, opposed to everything God wants for us.

Adrian Rogers put it this way: “We think a man is a sinner because he lies, because he steals, because he commits adultery, or because he kills. He is not a sinner because he does these things; he does these things because he is a sinner. A man is not a liar because he tells lies; he tells lies because he’s a liar. A man is not a thief because he steals; he steals because he is a thief. These things . . . come out of the heart.”

The fact is, we are sinners not because we sin; we sin because in our hearts we are sinners. And there is not one thing you or I can do to change that. We cannot say, “I do not want to live this way anymore. I would like to choose God.” Remember, we are dead spiritually. We cannot respond to anything on our own.

What is the hope out of our predicament? Verse 4 begins with these two words: “But God.” God is the one who took the initiative in your salvation. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” (vv. 4-5). It is not that God looked down on you and said, “This one is worth saving.” No, there was no reason for God to choose to save you other than the great love with which He loved you. That is God’s undeserved burst of generosity toward you.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “The Grace Escape” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2020.

Adrian Rogers, “Three Things That You Cannot Learn in School,” sermon,
https://www.lwf.org/sermons/audio/three-things-that-you-cannot-learn-in-school-1999

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org