27/52 jumpstart

Dead car batteries can't come back to life on their own. Dead people can't come back to life on their

own, either. The significance of Ephesians 2 never sank in until recently. Like most other Americans, I love independence. The thought of needing to rely on someone else makes me cringe. (Another reason why I'm not marriageable.) While my friends were praying for their studies, I was just studying. I didn't need God to get good grades. Maybe it would have been fine if my self-sufficiency ended there, but it didn't. I believed that if I worked or tried earnestly enough, I could do almost anything-- including fixing my relationship with God and with others.

Ephesians 2:8-9 are two of the few verses that my memorization-averse mind has managed to retain. And though they do highlight the fact that our salvation is not of our own doing, I don't think it is quite as powerful out of context. (When is anything taken out of context ever good?
) The preceding verses paint such a poignant picture of our natural, utter helplessness. 

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and your sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom f the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient...

Finally the realization hit with full force. No, you weren't just injured or maimed or seriously crippled. You were dead. Dead! Full blown rigor mortis dead. Not even useful as a body shield dead. Dead people can't mend broken relationships. Dead people can't even want to effect reconciliation. It was only because of God's perfect love, that his one and only Son stepped down from his throne in heaven to not only enter and dwell in a broken world, but to die so that we might live.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even while we were dead in our transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Eph. 2