Alive part 2
You know how "religious folk" seem to make everything a heaven and hell issue? How what we do seems to be important only because of what it will mean in the afterlife? That's crazy to me. Bizarre. Life is not for making sure you take the elevator up instead of down after you die. (And just for the record, I don't believe in that idea at all.) Life is for living. We spend so much time sleep-walking through "life." Not even knowing what we're missing because we're so busy chasing something that we think we don't have. We've turned Jesus into a morality cop instead of seeing Him for who He is! Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE. He is the Way to the Father, the Truth about the Father, and the Life of the Father! He came to show us who God really is by showing us who WE really are. By bringing us out of the power of darkness and into His Kingdom. By bringing us out of death and into life! But think about that for a minute. Really think about it. If Jesus came to bring us out of death, that means that we were already dead. Which, by the way, is exactly what Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 2:13 says. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13). We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. Past tense. Before the cross. Adam ate from the tree of death and died. And since we were "in" him when he did it... we died. That's the first death. Then Jesus came, and drew us "into" Himself. Then HE died. That's the second death. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. Then sin died. Death died. And we were quicked together with Him. When Jesus died, we died. And when Jesus rose again, we rose again. Now we can RECKON ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Now we can take an inventory of the finished work of the cross and come to the conclusion that we live in Him because He lives in us! We can stop trying to earn something--the gift of God which is eternal life, which is living in the context of the Father/Son relationship of love--that can't be earned. A gift can only be received. And in order to receive that gift, we needed a love receptor. We needed the Holy Spirit. Which is why God poured His Spirit out on all flesh. He gave us what we needed in order to EXPERIENCE His love. See, the cross did not change us from "evil" to "good." The cross did not change us into something that God could (finally) love. He already loved us. Always has and always will. He IS love. No, the cross changed us into something that could RECEIVE and RELEASE His love. Jesus brought us out of death and into life. And not just any life. Not the life that Adam experienced. No, He made us partakers of the DIVINE NATURE. He brought us into HIS life. Abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life! And now, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren..." (1 John 3:14). How do we know that we're not the walking dead anymore? Because we know (and believe) the love of Christ! What's the difference between life and death? LOVE! If you know and believe that you are loved... then you are alive. Because if you know and believe that you are loved, you CAN love. To live is to love and to love is to live!