The Living Dead
“Even when we were dead” has many implications. What can the dead do? Do the dead have any inherent value? Are the dead worthy in any way? Is there any beauty in a corpse? Is there any reason not to dispose of the dead? The answer for all these questions isn’t very good for us. We can’t do anything in our state of death. Everything we do is death from God perspective. There is no inherent value or worth in us, regardless of what we may think of ourselves. From God’s point of reference, that of perfect holiness and sinlessness, even our best is no better that a blooded rag used by a woman during her menstrual period which would have been ceremonially unclean (Isaiah 6:6). Even the slightest touch of such a rag would have kept a person from entering the Temple. If the menstrual discharge a woman would have been repulsive to a priest serving in the Temple, how much more repulsive are our transgressions to God who can’t allow sin into His presence? There is nothing in us that would have compelled God to do anything for us. As seen in the previous verse, the answer lies in Him not in us. He interrupted our deadness and “made us alive”. This is His doing not ours. Left alone we would remain dead. It was His initiative, His desire, His ability, His will, His power, and His choice that changed our state from death to life.
Created over 2 years ago
