Dead is dead! End of story.

And you who were dead in trespasses and sins… (Ephesians 2)

I remember some years ago in my youth chiming in on a remark made by a friend of mine. He said that Easter was the day when Jesus was raised from the dead. My comment firmly countered his, “when you’re dead you’re dead”. At the time I was an atheist (confirmed or unconfirmed, I don’t really know). These were my atheist days, when science (evolution, more particularly) was my god. My comment was a consistent conclusion of evolutionary theory, when you die, they dig a hole and put you in, and that’s the end of that, you rot. How comforting and hopeful!! NOT! Having arrived at a trust in Christ, I know this NOT to be the case. Christ has destroyed sin, death and hell, and raised me to newness of life. If this be so, what of my sin?

Recently, I was at a Bible study and we were discussing “deadness”. We discussed how dead and sinful we were before we came to Christ and then how rich God’s mercy was. People had varying degrees of conviction about deadness to God, bondage to sin and God’s wrath. But one point that came up was that if we gave any credit to our ability to earn God’s favor, we were selling His mercy short. The other half of that premise, is that if we give ourselves any credit we are not only selling God’s mercy short but also our sinfulness.

Just how dead and sinful are we? Who would you imagine is the worst human being who has ever lived? A few years ago, we would all probably have said Adolph Hitler. Since 9-11, Hitler has been knocked off the pedestal (at least in the eyes of many Americans), and Osama Bin Laden has risen to take his place. But seriously, do we think of ourselves as being that evil? Should we? I’m sure many of us would say, I’ve never killed any one (as they have), but haven’t we? What defines murder in God’s eyes is hatred. How many people have we hated? Or been angry with in an unjust way? Without going through all ten commandments, I think we can easily arrive at the conclusion that all of us are guilty of breaking each one, numerous times. Our hearts are no better than Hitler’s or Bin Laden’s. Maybe, we should camp there for a bit, and let it sink in just how dark our minds and hearts are. Maybe we haven’t killed six millions jews or three thousand Americans, but all of us are guilty of breaking all of the commandments everyday (even as Christians!!). To use a bit of Evangelism Explosion mathematics, 365 (days in a year) X 10 (each commandment broken if done only once in a day) X how many years you are=degree of sinfulness. If you are one than you’ve sinned 3,650 times, at least. How old are you? Are you feeling a little bit more like Osama? Shouldn’t we all? NOW, isn’t God’s mercy rich and abundant that His spotless, righteous and perfect Son should come for you and for me!! The right question which needs to be asked is "why does He love me so?" He does, and He's displayed that love at the cross for you, having taken our cloak of dark sin, treachery (Benedict Arnold style), and rebellion, and worn it for those three days and nights. Having then been raised from the dead, He has given us His perfect robe of righteousness (if you will, the coat of the Father's favoritism) and marked us as His own, in the Beloved. WOW!!