One More Thing with Pastor Tim Burchill 4.09.2023

Not Mostly Dead, Completely Alive in Christ

     In Ephesians 2:4-8 it says that because of God’s great love for us, he made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions. You and I are saved from sin—we are raised from death into new life—BY Grace, THROUGH faith, which comes to us as a gift. What we could not earn, did not deserve, could never hope to accomplish on our own has been generously given to us by God on account of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

     Let’s be crystal clear on this. The Bible says as far as impressing God, living morally and spiritually virtuous lives, earning a spot in the Kingdom of Heaven, becoming the woman or man God created us and intended us to be—we are as good as dead. It is as likely that we will save ourselves from brokenness, weakness, and sin—as well as the consequences of that sin—as it is for a dead man (or woman) to resurrect himself.

     We resist the whole idea, thinking that it’s not like we’re dead, dead. It’s like we’re sort of dead, or sick unto death. We’re on the side of Miracle Max [if you’ve seen The Princess Bride you get the allusion]—maybe we’re just mostly dead which means slightly alive.

If our #1 To Do List is to live like Jesus, love like God, and be filled by the Spirit then blessed are you, because your mind & heart are pointing in the right direction. The problem is with your will—well even more than your will, the problem is with you—you’re dead. You can’t live like Jesus, love like God, or be filled with the Spirit if you think you can do it on your own—like ticking off a list of the day’s activities. The dead don’t have 'To-Do' Lists. They just have their transgressions, their weaknesses, and their self-defeating behavior.

     The image or symbol which defines who we are and what we are about is the cross. Anyone who had any contact with the Roman Empire understood immediately what it stood for: it stood for a surrendering of hope in the face of certain death.

     Let’s be clear about this Easter holiday we’re in the midst of here. Jesus dies on the cross. He isn’t mostly dead, he’s unequivocally dead. And when he’s laid in a borrowed garden tomb he does not pull himself up by his own bootstraps. In the darkness of that tomb, behind that massive stone the Son of God is totally dependent on God the Father to raise him from the dead.

     We tend to think that once long ago the resurrection of Jesus holds for us the promise of our own resurrection in what we hope is the far distant future. But when Jesus said, "If you want to find your life you have to be willing to lose it." He wasn’t talking about pie in the sky when you die. Jesus was saying if you want to be everything God intends you to be then the first thing you’ve got to quit—cold turkey—is being the person others think you should be, or the person you always dreamed you could be, or the kind of person the world holds up for all its adoration and acclaim. Everyone knows you can’t fill a cup with coffee if it is already full of milk. You can’t live for God if you’re living for yourself. It is most assuredly an either/or.

     It sounds like bad news, I know. You simply can’t be raised with Christ until you first die to self-centeredness and sin. But think about it—is there really any future living in self-centeredness and sin? The good news of Easter is that we don’t have to wait a minute longer. Through the risen Christ we can live resurrected lives beginning right now and forever.

   We are a resurrected people who put our whole trust in the power of our God to do for us what we couldn’t possibly do for ourselves. Easter is the celebration that God stands ready, willing, and able to bring us from death to life—right now. Praise God for our new life in Christ Jesus—filled with abundance and echoing through eternity. Amen.