From Death to Life: The Paradox of Salvation

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Ephesians 2 describes all human beings as dead in trespasses and sins in need of life, and then Colossians 3 says we must die in order to have that life. That's a good question. So the answer is yes, yes, dead men must die if they are to live. [00:01:17]

All people, until God makes them alive in Christ, and here's the way Ephesians 2:1 and 3 describe it: "And you were dead in trespasses and sins and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." So it's not just a few people. Deadness is what characterizes all of mankind. [00:03:00]

Paul has several ways of describing our deadness. Here's one: Ephesians 4:18, "They are darkened, blind in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of heart." So darkness and hardness can't see certain reality, can't feel certain reality. [00:04:49]

What couldn't we see when we were dead? Second Corinthians 4:4 says unbelievers cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. And in this darkness, this blindness and hardness, we don't have the moral ability to gladly submit to God. [00:05:19]

So what does our original deadness mean? It means hearts hard and blind to the beauty of Christ and therefore in revolt against the will of Christ. Second, in what sense are those dead people, all of us before conversion, alive? Because Ephesians 2:2 also says they're very, very active. [00:05:52]

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. You're walking dead men walking, following the age of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves. [00:06:27]

They need to be united with Christ so that his death counts as their death. Romans 6:5, "We have been united with him in a death like his." And then Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ." Romans 6:6, "Our old self was crucified with him." [00:07:40]

This union with Christ in his death happens through faith. When we believe in Christ, God counts his death to be our death. This means that the condemnation owing to our sins falls on Christ, and because of our union with him, we are now counted free from punishment. [00:08:19]

Our old self, our old blind hard rebellious nature, is replaced by a defining new nature, a new person. This is what the new birth does, new creation. This is a real transformation. Paul describes the ongoing experience of this newness like this: you have put off the old self with its practices. [00:09:18]

The original dead person passes through two deaths on the way to life. The hard, blind, rebellious dead self is miraculously, graciously, freely, sovereignly by God united to Christ as God creates faith in the heart so that all the punishment that dead man deserved was endured by Christ. [00:10:15]

The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the new nature that God created in the new birth is a nature that has faith in the Son of God. It is a nature that believes it is not hard, it's tender to the truth and the beauty of Christ. [00:11:47]

It's not blind, it sees the supreme worth of Christ. It's not insubordinate and rebellious, it gladly submits to the lordship of Christ. So yes, Josiah, the dead must die in order to live, and what a glorious work Christ has wrought in his death and resurrection to make that happen. [00:12:18]

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