…you were dead in your trespasses and
sins,
in which you formerly walked...
Ephesians 2:1-2
“Hey,
can you help me a minute?” called Mr. Branch, the funeral director. “I’m trying
to get Mrs. Watkins to volunteer with the Salvation Army this afternoon and she’s
not cooperating. Being rather stiff about it.” His assistant raised a brow.
“Uh, boss? Mrs. Watkins is…um, dead. She died two days ago. That’s why she’s
here. Are you okay?” Mr. Branch frowned at his “client” and dropped her back on
the table. “Hm. Guess that would explain her resistance. In fact, that explains
all of them. Couldn’t get a one to sign the charity pledge or come to Volunteer
Day. Yeah, okay, maybe I should go back on my meds.”
As
ridiculous as that sounds, we try to do the same thing that Mr. Branch did. We
try to get our sinful flesh to align itself with God’s word and it can’t
happen. The Bible says that we are dead before we surrender to Christ. Our
self-worshiping natures have no ability to please God. We don’t even want to.
Every time we prop ourselves up, teach our sinful selves a few manners, and try
to act like Christians without the power of the Holy Spirit, it’s wasted
effort. You cannot make a corpse act alive and you cannot give yourself a new
spirit. Only Jesus can do that. He did not die on the cross to reform our flesh;
He came to kill it. Until we are willing to die to our old lives, we cannot
have His new one.
Jesus did not come to make bad people good;
He came to make dead people alive.
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