You Can’t Be A Little Bit Dead

Seeing as we are right at the start of another new year, which always represents a fresh start, optimism, new beginnings and starting over, I thought I would talk about death. Yes. Death. I know, I know…what a bummer of a subject to be pondering as we once again pass ‘Go’ and round that end-of-the-year corner to start around the board of another 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds of mean solar time. Let’s talk about death and being dead. Is it possible that there are varying degrees of deadness, or is one state of death the same as another? Can I look at one corpse and say, “Yep. He’s dead.”, and look at another one and say, “But, this one over here is really dead!”? If a doornail is dead…is it actually possible to be deader than it? What is a doornail, anyway? Can a dead person utter the words, “I’m not dead yet!”, as in Monty Python’s ‘The Holy Grail’?

Okay. Hopefully you get the point. And hopefully we can all agree that dead is dead. Now that we have that straightened out, I would like for us to ponder what a dead person does and does not do. Let’s see…dead men tell no tales, and according to Steve Martin they also don’t wear plaid. Seriously, though, a corpse has no pulse, no respiration, no movement, no conscious thought, and no ability to alter his status from being one of the dead to being something else. The only thing I can think of that a dead person actually does is decay, and that is not even something they do on their own…it is done to them. I know, that is morbid enough. But you get the point (by the way…if anyone reading this wants to take exception with my conclusions thus far concerning the dead, I would love to hear from you). Interestingly enough, the spiritually dead; 1. Walk (in their trespasses and sins – Eph. 2:1-2) and, 2. They die again (in the second death – Rev. 2:11, 20:6).

I guess the next logical question is, how closely are we to compare physical death with spiritual death, particularly with respect to our condition prior to salvation? What exactly is the point of Paul’s analogy in Ephesians Two of our dead condition prior to salvation intended to convey? Does he really mean we were merely sick as we walked in our trespasses and sins? Were we on our deathbed? Why does he use the word ‘dead’ to describe our state of sinful depravity? I believe it is because, for one thing, verses four and following of Ephesians Two make absolutely no sense unless we were dead prior to being born again. Paul says in 4&5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)”.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but, a sick person doesn’t have to be made alive. A person on their deathbed – while surely having need of being made well – has no need of being given life. Paul didn’t state that God made us well, or gave us strength, or improved our condition or granted us the ability to make a choice. He said that God MADE US ALIVE. Why made alive? Because dead men don’t make choices. Because you can’t be a little bit dead. Because, when you’re dead, you’re dead…and until God makes you alive…you are going to remain dead.

The beauty of this truth is not in the reality of your condition prior to Christ, but in the fact that – if you are a child of promise – you have been made alive! Praise God! What a glorious thing to ponder and be thankful for, and what a wonderful reason for which to show gratitude to our Creator (and Life Giver) as we start this new year. No. You can’t be a little bit dead…but if God has made you alive, then you are alive forevermore!

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul

And all that is within me, Bless His holy name

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul

And forget none of His benefits.

Who pardons all your iniquities

Who heals all your diseases

Who redeems your life from the pit!