Dead or alive – or maybe comatose?
by Pastor Steve Liersch
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In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).
Comatose comes from the Greek kōma, ‘deep sleep’. When you’re in a deep sleep, your body is still, and you don’t respond to things around you. Being comatose means being in that sleepy, unresponsive state and being unable to get out of it.
What causes this? A coma is a state of prolonged unconsciousness that can be caused by a variety of problems — traumatic head injury, stroke, brain tumour, drug or alcohol intoxication, or even an underlying illness, such as diabetes or an infection. A coma is a medical emergency. Swift action is needed to preserve life and brain function.
These explanations suffice to say that humans can be alive and yet ‘dead’ to other stimuli with no external awareness. That’s me at times. Maybe even you at times.
Our sinful nature (the original sinful state we’re born into) means we are spiritually dead. The world we live in certainly doesn’t help as it encourages us to come ‘alive’ with specific products, lifestyle choices and certainly a broad selection of religions and philosophies.
Through these, the world around us can make us numb – even comatose – to the real effects of our sin, depravity, ungodliness, apathy and self-centredness. The reality is that we are naturally dead in our sin. We are a ‘spiritual emergency’, waiting for God’s intervention so that we become alive again.
Thank God for Jesus! Thank God for the work of the Holy Spirit!
May we never stop thanking God for adopting us into his family through the waters of baptism and enabling us to come alive as the Holy Spirit empowers us. Isn’t it great to know that God wants everyone to become truly alive in his Son Jesus? In John 10:10, Jesus says he has come that we might have life to the full. I want that. I hope and pray you do, too.
Reflect on some of the ways you have become numb to the effects of the world on your life.
Ever-living God, by the power of your word and Holy Spirit, increase in me an awareness of the effects of the world in my life. Forgive my apathy to recognise what these do to my thoughts, words and actions. Help me to become more alive in Christ each day. Amen.
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