Made Alive in Christ: Ephesians 2: 1-10

Dead.
And I don’t even know it.

I’m surrounded by darkness yet think it is light.
“I’m free! I’m free!” I tell myself louder and louder to drown out the roaring sound of my bondage.
Dead.
Those are my ignorant footsteps on that wide and easy road leading to forever destruction.
That is my body, naked, ashamed, scrambling to cover my exposure from His sight.
There I am, lying with the pigs in their filth after I have lived the way that seemed right in my eyes.
There are my hands, casting stones at those that I am convinced are less lovable than me.
That is my voice calling out “crucify Him!”
Dead.

The verdict is clear: guilty on all counts.

But God.
A breath before the gavel resounds its final conviction, Jesus calls out “this one is mine”.

A gift! A gift! A free gift!
A gift given without prerequisites. A marriage without a prenup. A freedom contract that is fulfilled by Him on both ends.
Even the faith to believe is a part of the gift given to me.

I am the blind man who cannot even recognize Jesus yet He gave me sight.
Grace.
I am the lame man who does not have the strength to bow nor even crawl to Him, yet He healed me.
Grace.
I am Mephibosheth, lame, low and expecting to be killed. I ask “who am I, that you should look upon a dead dog as I?” The King raises me up and replies “you will eat at my table like my son”.
Grace.

God, Your richness of mercy is relentless.
Mercy is the covering of animal skins in the garden to clothe our nakedness as we await Your final covering.
Mercy is the ark to save even one person from Your righteous judgement.
Mercy is the blood of the lambs on the doorposts to spare a home from death.
Mercy is the father running to embrace the son who has finally come home.
Mercy is the bleeding, agonizing, dying Son of God crying “it is finished”.

In ages past You have shown the exceeding riches of Your grace in Your kindness toward the world, toward me, over and over and over again. And You aren’t finished yet.

What can I reply? You are high and I am low. I lay my hand over my mouth, let my words be few. Move me, awake me, ignite me afresh with the magnificence of Your gift. Stale on my tongue may it never be. May my heart race in remembrance of Your lovingkindness.

Do as You please with what is left of these earthly days.
For I once was dead, and now I am free.