Quickened part 1
I think we need to get to the place where we really understand the difference between life and death. And not just life... but HIS life. Because that's the key. Look at Ephesians 2:1, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." I think that's kind of the whole thing right there. We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. Before the cross. God said, "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). And then Adam ate of it... and lived (in the natural) to be some nine hundred years old. So either God mispoke, or He was speaking of something else. Spiritual death. Being dead in our trespasses and sins. Being the walking dead, if I can say it that way. And you all know that my personal definition of sin is unbelief. So we were dead in our unbelief before the cross. Because it wasn't until the cross that we had something to believe in. SomeONE to believe in. Jesus. Love. Jesus said the greatest expression of love that a man can have is to lay his life down for his friends. And then He went to the cross and did that very thing. He didn't just say it. He put His money where His mouth was. He did it. He sacrificed Himself. For us. So that we could stop being dead. So that we could--well, He died so that we could die. I've Ranted on that at length. The second death. The death OF death. And then He rose again so that we could live. And not just live any life, but live HIS life. Experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as He lives it Himself in us, and through us, and as us. I think that's so key. So important. Because nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. We are not trying to live His life. We are not trying to follow in His foot steps. We're simply resting in Him and letting Him make His own foot steps in our feet. Its His life. We're just enjoying it as He lives it Himself in us, and through us, and as us. See, on the cross, when Jesus laid His life down for His friends... He didn't just give His life FOR us. He gave His life TO us. And He did that simply because He wanted us to have it. To experience it. Now let me use my other main memory verse for this Rant series. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death" (1 John 3:14). That's it that there. The difference between life and death... is love. No love, no life. Know love, know life. To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they're the same thing. God gave us His only begotten Son so that we might not perish, but live. Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. God gave us the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth, the love receptor--so that we might know His love. He quickened us so we wouldn't have to keep "living" in a dead state. He brought us back to life. HIS life. He gave it to us. We have it. He HATH quickened us. So we can stop acting like we're dead men (and women) walking. We can start to live. Truly live. By letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other. We were dead. Now we are alive!