BBC Reflections 10-19-20

The Walking Dead Do you remember the remarkable event that took place on Halloween night of 2010? On Oct. 31, 2010, the season premiere of the ever-popular television show “The Walking Dead” was released and premiered for the very first time to the public. Its popularity spread like wildfire and it became one of the top watched cable shows of all time. It is a show about a group of people who are in a fight for their lives, seeking to survive against a world full of zombies (walking dead). This is one of many shows and films that are fictionally based upon dead people walking and while the script can grab our attention and entertain us, the reality is, we are living those scripts. In a sense, everybody is or was at one time considered to be the walking dead. Of course, I am not speaking of physically being dead people walking around, but what I am saying is all of us, at one time or another, were “spiritually” dead, walking around and physically living life. The Bible tells us that we are all born sinners (Ps.55:1; Rom.3:23) and, in Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that, because of our sinfulness, we are dead in our trespasses. He says: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (v1-3). This passage makes clear that all humanity, are “dead” in their trespasses, and are deserving of wrath. But there is good news… Paul then goes on to tell how the dead can come alive. He says: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5). So, the only way “dead” people can come “alive” is only by grace through faith in what God did for us through Jesus Christ because of His great love. If we truly understand that; namely our deadness and our need for a savior, and truly believe that Christ died for us-taking our punishment and making a way for us to become spiritually alive, then we are no longer the walking dead, but rather, alive in Him!

Let's take some time and reflect on who God is and what He does… For His Name and Renown, Pastor Jonathan