In Christ: Know It, Live It - 28 (But GOD!)

There was a radical pivot point in the life of every one of us who has bowed the knees of our hearts to the saving lordship of Jesus Christ. We shared the same biography BEFORE Christ: we were spiritually DEAD, we were SLAVES to sin, and we were facing certain judgment under the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:1-2).

Then came the the glorious and blessed intervention of God. HE is the pivot point of our biography so that there is an AFTER.

Ephesians 2:4 introduces this radical change from death to life and from slavery to son ship and from hell to heaven with the most wonderful phrase in all of the Bible: "But God..."

We would STILL be laying in our spiritual coffin, alienated from God and His life, helpless and hopeless..."But God..."

We would STILL be shackled by sin and pulled ever deeper into sin and destruction by the world and Satan..."But God..."

We would STILL be hovering precariously over the dreadful dark and consuming flames of hell and God's unquenchable wrath..."But God..."

"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..." Ephesians 2:4-5

We were dead, enslaved, facing judgment...BUT GOD...made us ALIVE.

WHEN did God make us alive? "...Even when we were dead in our trespasses..." Not when anything had changed God ward. Not when we decided we had had enough of the world and Satan. Not when we decided to become a "seeker." Not when the long latent virtue that was buried in our hearts found its way to the surface. But it was WHEN we were dead that God made us alive.

What does this teach us?

• OUR SALVATION IS ALL OF GOD.

"But God..."