the Third Week after Easter
Click to donate today!
Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
Ephesians 2:1
Life from the dead
Read John 11:25-44
What is the new birth? It is nothing less than a resurrection from the dead! Three blessed truths are set forth in this text, in which the children of God can read their experience.
1. You were dead. Spiritual death, like physical death, may be more manifest in one than it is in another. For example, Jairus’ daughter looked almost as though she were still alive, but she was, in reality, just as dead as Lazarus who had been in the grave for four days. Many around us are morally upright, honest and good in the eyes of men, but spiritually they are just as dead as the harlot, the drunk and the blasphemer. All men are by nature dead in trespasses and sins. We died in our father, Adam. We are legally dead, born under the sentence of the law. Some are less corrupt than others. But all are utterly destitute of spiritual life. Sin brings forth death and death, sooner or later, brings forth corruption. The natural man’s corrupt heart corrupts his entire being. And being dead, we were utterly helpless and impotent.
2. But here is the marvelous intervention of divine grace: you have been quickened. God has, by almighty power, given you life from the dead! This is the new birth. It is not a decision of man’s free will. It is not a co-operative effort on the part of God and man together. It is a resurrection to life, accomplished by the life-giving voice of the Son of God! John 5:21; John 5:24-25.) God Almighty sovereignly interposes his love, grace and mercy to give life to dead sinners!
3. Now, children of God, you are alive! We were dead, but now we are alive. And we owe it all to the manifold grace of our triune God. Dwell no longer in the graveyard of sin. No longer be held in bondage by the fear of the law. Speak to God as a living child to his living Father. Are we alive? Then we are one with Christ! Let us, as living men who were dead, live to love and glorify our Savior.
