Truly Alive

This post is part of a devotional series based on our 2019 Bible Reading Calendar.

In a sense, every person is a “dead man walking.” Death is an inevitable part of the human experience. Yet, there is a spiritual side to this as well. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Or, as he said elsewhere, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, mankind was not meant to experience death. Within the Garden was the Tree of Life, representing our endless being. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God and were banished from the Garden, the way to the Tree was blocked.

Yet, when you get to the end of the present and the beginning of eternity in the final pages of Revelation, the Tree has returned to give life and to heal the nations.

When we come to Christ, Paul wrote, we are made alive (Ephesians 1:4-5). To know Jesus is to no longer be a “dead man walking” but to have passed from death to life. In John 11, Jesus went so far to say that even if we die, we still live.

To know and follow Jesus is to become truly alive. Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). To be alive in Jesus is to be with him and be lavished with the “immeasurable riches of his grace” throughout eternity (Ephesians 2:6-7). To be alive in Jesus is also to be a different person today while we wait for the riches of eternity–to be people of truth, reconciliation, peace, generosity, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, encouragement, and things like these (4:20-5:5).

To be truly alive in Jesus is to live the realities of eternity to our fullest in our lives today. If we are truly alive, let us live that life to the fullest.

All scripture quotations taken from the Christian Standard Bible.