Double fatality

But God’s mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved. In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up to rule with him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus. (verses 4- 7)

Read Ephesians 1:15-2:7

Death has a number of dimensions. First, there is the death of the body. Whether earlier or later, slow or sudden, death is inevitable. It is sad and appalling and robs us of the life we were born to have and enjoy.

There is another kind of death that affects our spirit. Strangely enough, we are born this way. Because of humankind’s inherited traits of selfishness and rebellion against God, we are spiritually dead and don’t know God. We struggle in the grip of darker powers, inclined towards evil.

God, however, wants us to have life. In the person of Jesus he conquered physical death when he raised him from the dead. As a free gift he has also fixed it so that, at the end of the world, we will live with him forever.

By the power of his Spirit, God also overcomes spiritual death. For those who accept it, he breathes life into our dead souls, nurtures faith and hope, and makes us his forever.

Lord, thank you for the gift of life and the beautiful world I live in. Thank you also for awakening my spirit and giving me faith and hope in you for the life to come. Amen.

By Richard Hauser, in “God’s Peace for each day” (LCA, Openbook Publishers (2005)

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