BUT GOD

Ephesians 2:1-5 | NASB

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  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)”

But…. That has to be one of my favorite words to come across, especially in scripture.  It tells me that I need to pay attention; there is a change from the previous tone or thought that is important.  Here it is a most wondrous change.  This is a familiar passage to me, one that I’ve committed to memory in the past, and I have always been struck by the “but” here, and was this morning once again.  You were dead.  Not sick, not ignorant, not just needing knowledge or a little help.  There was no tiny spark of life in us that just needed to be nourished, no flame that needed to be fanned, no seed that needed light and water to grow.  YOU WERE DEAD!  Those who are familiar with dead and dying individuals know that there is nothing that a dead person can do to bring themselves back to life again.  They cannot move their lungs to breathe, they cannot make their heart beat once again, they cannot even form an intention or thought to try and do so, no chemical or neurological communication to start breathing or living again is taking place, there is nothing.  There is no glimmer of hope, there is no flicker of light, there is no way to live again apart from outside intervention.  There is not a more helpless and total state of inability that could possibly be described.  That is us, we were dead, unable to do anything to be alive again.  And then comes the “but”!  BUT GOD… you were dead, completely unable, hopeless, helpless, total inability to do anything… but God…. Made us alive together with Christ!  Alive… the complete opposite of being dead, alive, able, hopeful!  Because He is rich in mercy, because of the greatness of His love for us, He made us alive when we were dead, by grace through faith in the power of Christ’s atoning work for us on the cross.  We are now ALIVE!  I am so thankful for the “but” here!  Here my life was over, I was walking according to the world, a child of wrath, dead in my trespasses and sins, BUT GOD!   This illustration that God gives of the total transformation that we must undergo, that we are unable to perform (dead.. remember?), that we lie helpless, hopeless, rotting, becoming more and more putrid in our transgressions and sin, requiring the outside divine intervention  of a merciful and mighty God to transform our dead, rotting, stinking and putrid flesh to be made alive in Christ!  To be transformed into the new man, to be sanctified day by day, to be glorified with Christ on that great day!  all because of one thing, all because of "BUT GOD"   Amen.