“As for you, YOU WERE DEAD in your transgressions and sins, in which YOU USED TO LIVE when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air (the devil)…because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, MADE US ALIVE with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph. 2:1-9)
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3), they brought both physical and spiritual death into God’s perfect world (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). The moment they transgressed God’s law ETHAN, KATIE, “their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked”. For the first time, mankind tasted rebellion and was awakened to the difference between good and evil. They had experienced no evil, no shame, and no guilt until that moment. But, with one disobedient bite, their souls and bodies began to die.
Before we surrender to the Holy Spirit’s urging, our spirits are dead to the things of God, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; It is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh CANNOT PLEASE GOD.” (Rom. 8:7-8) We have no good within ourselves and no desire to submit to our Creator. We are dead spiritually and have NO WAY to make ourselves alive. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me DRAW HIM, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44) This is what is so wonderful, “God SO LOVED the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES in Him SHOULD NOT PERISH but have EVERLASTING LIFE. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world MIGHT BE SAVED THROUGH HIM.” (John 3:16-17)
Your Personal Pastor -Papa…