True confession: For many years, I sensed a certain futility to life, even though living it as a believer in Christ Jesus. So we are born, raised to be aspirational, toil to “make a living,” raise our children to be aspirational, and then we die. And so it goes, generation after generation. But as I sat beside my step-father’s deathbed during his final hours, I sensed something completely different: it was as if watching a seed dying, waiting to fall to the ground and spring forth into something far greater, unimaginably glorious, and unfading in splendor. Baptized into Christ in his later years, his faith evidenced itself in growing humility, grace and peace. God had done a marvelous work in him, and now He was working through this dying man to grow me up a bit in faith, hope, and understanding.
The apostle Paul taught that, without Christ, we are, in a way, dead men walking: “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world.”1 “At that time you were separate from Christ,” he explained, “without hope and without God in the world.”2 People across generations and cultures sense not only a life beyond this one, but also the existence of an Authority over it, for we strive to earn a place in a world still to come, yet not knowing how. We are, in this sense, “held in slavery by [our] fear of death.”3 But praise God for bringing hope to our hopelessness and closing the gap that stood between us, for Paul continues, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”4 For the believer, separation from God is already a thing of the past, and our life in Christ is now and forever new.
Then what can we say about life that blooms where death once reigned?
Eternal life is a gift of divine love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”—John 3:16
Everlasting life begins the moment we entrust our soul to God through faith in His Son, who said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life.”—John 5:24
We enter into life as a people forgiven: “When you were dead in your sins . . . God made you alive in Christ. He forgave us all our sins.”—Colossians 2:13
We live with fresh purpose, “He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.”—1 Peter 2:24 NASB
These verses are words of truth; they are seeds of life. God, grant us the humility to receive them, the strength to trust them, and the honor to plant them. Amen.
1 Ephesians 2:1-2 ESV
2 Ephesians 2:12
3 Hebrews 2:15
4 Ephesians 2:13
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Paul Nordman—Author 