Alive Defined

Since I just explained "dead," it might be helpful to explain "alive," right? Paul says,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-7)

You see in that sentence that God "made us alive together with Christ" when we were dead in our trespasses. In what sense did God make us "alive"?

Clearly nothing changed in the physical. That is, when we were spiritually dead, our hearts were still beating, our blood was still flowing in our veins, we had brain waves -- we were physically alive. If we were physically dead, there would be nothing more to do but to "Go through his clothes and look for loose change." (Sorry ... a Princess Bride quote.) But we were spiritually dead. So what does this "alive" look like?

The first, easiest answer is "raised with Him" and "seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ." Kind of vague, though, isn't it? Well, in the first chapter of Ephesians those "heavenly places" were also significant. Paul wrote, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." (Eph 1:3) He goes on from there to describe many of these blessings, but note that He has blessed us -- past tense -- and those blessings reside "in the heavenly places" -- the place the text says He has seated us in Christ. So this "alive" includes those blessings.

Still a little vague? Well, let's try this. If "dead" was described in Ephesians 2:1-3, then "alive" in this context would be the opposite of "dead." What is the reverse of "dead" in this context? Well, it would mean that we no longer walked in trespasses and sins. We might stumble across them, perhaps badly sometimes, but it would not be our direction, our aim, our life's arc. (See, for instance, 1 John 3:9). We would not follow the course of this world. Remember, the course of this world is set by the prince of the power of the air (Satan). So 1) this world by definition is opposed to God (Rom 8:7; 1 John 2:15-17), and 2) our new life would not be informed, directed, or following the world. Here's a real bit of good news: this "alive" means we are no longer disobedient in our spiritual DNA. We seek instead to please our Father. "Dead" in this context included the concept of living in the passions of our flesh, so "alive" in this context would mean we are not living in the passions of our flesh. Our passion would no longer be for sin. Our deepest desires would no longer be informed by body and mind -- pure human nature. The deepest desires of this living person is God and His glory, not "me and what makes me feel better." This "alive" is, at its core, a change of nature. We are no longer "children of wrath" but children of God.

I don't think we have a good grasp on "dead in trespasses and sins" and, thus, we don't really have a good grasp on "made alive." I think if we can get a glimpse of it -- its scope and magnitude, the differences between the two -- we would be permanently changed. Jesus said, "He who is forgiven little, loves little." (Luke 7:47) But He also said, "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35) Maybe, just maybe, if we had a better grasp on our sin condition -- dead -- and God's act of making us alive, we might be much better at loving one another as His disciples should.