From Death to Life

                                         "Jesus didn't come to make bad people good,
                                           but to make dead people live."
                                                                                      Ravi Zacharias



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          NO ONE DOES GOOD

          No one is good without God's grace.


                                           "As it is written:

                                                      'There is no one righteous,
                                                       not even one;
                                                       there is no one who understands,
                                                       no one who seeks God.

                                                       All have turned away,
                                                       they have together become worthless;
                                                       there is no one who does good,
                                                       not even one."
                                                                                 Romans 3:10-12


          Some may say that they can do good deeds without having God's Holy Spirit,
     but when a person is not reconciled to God, then nothing he does is good in God's
     eyes.  Compared to God's holy standard, deeds that we think are good are like
     filthy rags.  They pale in comparison to what a holy and righteous God can do.


                                                     "All of us have become like one who is unclean,
                                                       and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags."
                                                                                  Isaiah 64:6a


          A Christian is righteous only because Jesus has mercifully saved him, and taken
     the Christian's sin upon Himself, and imputed His righteousness to him.


                                                    "God made Him who had no sin
                                                      to be sin for us, so that in Him
                                                      we might become the righteousness of God."
                                                                                  2 Corinthians 5:21



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          WE WERE DEAD IN SIN


          Before conversion, the Christian was dead in sin, separated from God, and following
     Satan.  We were under God's wrath because of our disobedience.


                                                   "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 spirit who is now at work in
                                                     those who are disobedient.

                                                     All of us also lived among them
                                                     at onetime, gratifying the cravings
                                                     of our sinful nature and following
                                                     its desires and thoughts. 
                                                     Like the rest, we were by nature
                                                     objects of wrath."
                                                                              Ephesians 2:1-3


          GOD MAKES US ALIVE WITH CHRIST


          Though we were objects of God's wrath, because of His love for His people,
     He miraculously saved us by His grace.


                                                     "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 transgressions - it is
                                                      by grace you have been saved."
                                                                               Ephesians 2:4-5


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          LIVING BY FAITH

          Now that we belong to God, we want to live for the One who died for us.


                                                     "I have been crucified with Christ
                                                      and I no longer live, but Christ lives
                                                      in me.  The life I live in the body,
                                                      I live by faith in the Son of God,
                                                      who loved me and gave Himself
                                                      for me."
                                                                               Galatians 2:20

          (Only a Christian can say this).


          We live because Christ, even though He died for His people, arose and lives.


          This is how we should live.


                                                    " ... we have not stopped praying for you
                                                      and asking God to fill you with the
                                                      knowledge and wisdom and understanding.

                                                      And we pray this in order that you may live
                                                     a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him
                                                     in every way:  bearing fruit in every good work,
                                                     growing in the knowledge of God, being
                                                     strengthened with all power according to His
                                                     glorious might so that you may have great
                                                     endurance and patience, and joyfully giving
                                                     thanks to the Father, who has qualified you
                                                     to share in the inheritance of the saints in
                                                     the kingdom of light."
                                                                                              Colossians 1:9b-12