More Than Mostly Dead

“You were dead in your trespasses and sins.”  Ephesians 2:1

One day, way back in college, my car battery died, so I purchased a new one, popped the hood, and started the swap.  About halfway through the exchange, a young man drove down the street, saw what he perceived to be a maiden in distress, and whipped over to save the day.  Though his chivalry was appreciated, let’s just say engines weren’t his expertise, so I spent the next half hour asking carefully crafted questions to guide him through the process and make him think he knew what he was doing.  (“Do you think if we possibly connected this cable to maybe this post, it might sort of work?)  Since batteries have some weight to them, the helpful guy was handy for the heavy lifting, and before long, our combined brains and brawn had the car cranking again.

As we settle into this season of preparing our hearts for Easter, we must begin by realizing that when it comes to our souls, the above story does not apply.  We are not merely stuck on the side of life’s road with minor issues we pretty much know how to fix.  We have not started the repair ourselves and reached a place in the process where some heavy lifting from the Lord is now helpful, and we cannot offer advice which would ever assist the Almighty.  In other words, our salvation is not a combined effort of God’s good ideas and our good intentions.  As my pastor so aptly proclaimed several Sundays ago, salvation is not mostly God and partly us.  It is 100% God and 100% grace. 

If my tale of automotive woe holds any application, it is that we are like the battery—dead.  We have nothing in us that can affect change—not even the desire to do so. We are powerless to transform our lifeless state, and we are completely dependent on outside intervention.  However, we don’t just need a mechanic; we need a miracle—and a miracle is what we got.  “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sins—it is by grace you have been saved”(Eph 2:4-5).

Our celebration of this grace should start with an accurate assessment of our need because the more we realize our desperation, the more we appreciate our salvation. “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”