Grace #1

Regarding the #1 thought yesterday...

Due to original sin, God would have been perfectly justified sending all of us humans to hell the moment we were conceived. We are all stained by sin to the point that we are disgusting even from the womb.

Here's a look of me, pre-Christ. Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV):

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Emphasis mine)

This Scripture actually says some pretty scary stuff! I (James) was by nature a child of wrath, like the rest of mankind. There was absolutely no difference between Hitler and I - we were both headed toward the same place. There was no difference between the pilots that caused the death of thousands in America on 9/11/2001 - we were all heading toward the same place.

It's not a very comforting thought to me that before God made me a live, I was dead. Spiritually, I was a rotting corpse. And if Ephesians isn't bad enough, check out what Romans says. Paul, making the distinction between Jews and Greeks regarding the law:

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Romans 3:9-12

How scary is that picture? If the Jews - God's chosen people - are not heads and tails above the Gentiles regarding God's law, where does that put me? I'd wager somewhere at the bottom.

So I know this much. Before God made me alive (I'm so thankful that he did), I was his enemy. I was not a friend of God's. From the womb, I was "by nature" a child of wrath. Quite simply, that's what I was. It's not that I somehow decided before I was born that I'd be God's enemy; that decision was already made for me (gee, thanks Adam). Thankfully, God did not wait until I decided to warm up to him to act. At the end of the nasty part (Ephesians 2:1-3), we hear the comforting part: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he love us, even when we were dead in out trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

So, it looks like this: We're dead in trespasses and sins, following Satan... BUT GOD. To quote one of my favorite authors (Mark Driscoll), "Indeed, the reconciliation of any sinner to God the Father through God the Son by the power of God the Holy Spirit occurs not when a sinner turns to God offering a hand of friendship but, rather, when he or she is still an enemy at war with God." (Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions, pg. 78)

How vile are we? Immeasurably.

How amazing is God's grace to those he chooses to love thought they are his enemies? Pretty darn.