Long before Haley Joel Osment saw dead people in The Sixth Sense, God saw Adam and Eve hiding from Him in the Garden of Eden. They had disobeyed Him, and now they had the knowledge of good and evil. For that one trespass, Adam and Eve were banished from their home, they were separated from their Creator, and they received the death penalty.
Moreover, God imputed the guilt of Adam to every future member of the human race. We are separated from God - because of sin - when we come into this world, for God holds us liable for the sin of Adam. It is fair because if Adam had remained faithful, we would have shared in His reward. Since he was not faithful, we share in his punishment.
In this chapter, Paul's inspired words from God remind us that we are all born with this evil nature. We are born dead in our trespasses and sins. Paul wants us to understand this truth, which was our position in Adam before we received mercy and grace. As we come to understand how just God is and the pervasiveness of sin, we gain a deeper appreciation for the love of God and His unmerited grace. When we come to grips with our own human depravity, we can better understand the fact that only the power of God can lift us from our doomed state. That's why Paul says, "It is by grace you have been saved."
By grace, we are now in Christ because of what God has imputed to us in Christ, which is His righteousness. Any human righteousness, or goodness, that we bring to God to obtain His favor is unacceptable to Him. He will only accept that which He deems appropriate. And what God says is acceptable can only be found in Christ, for it is an absolute, divine perfection that we cannot attain on our own. Jesus is an indescribable gift!
As God imputed the death penalty to us because of Adam, He imputes eternal life to our account because of Christ. He made us alive in Christ, raised us with Him, and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ. God quickened us, or regenerated us, by exerting the same power He used to raise Christ from the dead. Because Jesus lives, we live also. As Jesus told Nicodemus, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again. That happens when God implants His Spirit within us. We were born minus His Spirit, but we are now in union with Christ. We are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. We are partakers of the divine nature. God resurrected us spiritually, and He will later resurrect our bodies. We have been passed from death to life and have become children of God. We are justified, being sanctified, and we will be glorified, for God has decreed it to be so. Amen and amen!
Mountain Time Moment
Even when we were dead in our sins, He made us alive, or quickened us, with Christ.
It is by grace you have been saved.
