"Look Alive Out There!"

Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

My dad was one of my baseball coaches growing up, and he always used to call out to the infield, where I was usually playing, "Look alive out there!"  Of course part of the reason was you needed to be ready for a line drive headed right at your head. Or, on other occasions he might say you "look guys look dead out there".  While this is somewhat of a trivial example, Paul says before we were shown God's grace in Christ, we were dead in sin.  What does that mean? 

We know the wages of sin is death.  Sin in its various forms brings death when those who are in bondage do destructive things to themselves and others.  We see death in the news all around us, and the unimaginable things people do to each other every day.  There is another kind of death ... spiritual death.  Our sin resulted in a broken relationship with God. Paul says we were, "dead in our trepasses".  Though God desired to have an intimate friendship with us, our sin caused us to turn our back on God and it created enmity between us.  Since God is life, the absence of God is death.  When you see someone walking around as if they were part of the cast of "Night of the Living Dead", is usually because they are devoid of the Spirit of God. 

Yet, today the great promise Paul makes to the Ephesians is that they have been made alive in Christ.  In Christ, the barrier between God and them had been destroyed.  They have been united with God and have peace with God through the grace he has given to them in Christ.  They now had access to the Father through the Son.  Meaning they could call on God anytime and He would hear them.  Finally, he says being made alive in Christ is God's testimony to the world of the incomparable riches of His grace.  

And what did we do to deserve all of these benefits of being "in Christ"?  Nothing.  All we did was trust in God's grace through faith.  Are you alive on the outside and dead on the inside?  What would others say about you?  Because of God's great love for you, He made you alive with Christ.  It is by grace you have been saved.  Trust in it!