Back to the Basics

By Alexandra Moon

The veracity of the gospel message relies in the event of the resurrection. The Almighty God, Creator of the universe, became human flesh, died on the cross and defeated death on the third day.

The resurrection changed the history of humanity forever, but it also changed our individual lives and the lives of many people for generations.

This idea of the resurrection, coming back to life, needs to come with the realization that for there to be a resurrection, something had to be dead first.

This is the part that is hard for people to grasp in their own lives. Because to experience the resurrection that Jesus offers with His own resurrection, we need to come to the conviction that we were dead.

Since we are physically alive, trying our best to be good people, we are prosperous and healthy. Yes, we have our difficulties and troubles, but considering the rest of the world, we have little reason to complain if we are honest.

Living in such a prosperous land, it is hard to see and understand how we can be dead and in need of resurrection. It is hard to see our need of a Savior.

Faith where there is extreme physical need of the basic necessities — or where there is strong oppression and opposition because of what you believe — looks and feels very different than in places where the need is less physical and visible, but more inward and intellectual.

However, that doesn’t mean that the need for a Savior is not there. We all need salvation; we all need the miracle of the resurrection. It is just so much harder to identify that need when we think we lack nothing, or we haven’t done anything wrong.

“At one time you were like a dead person because of the things you did wrong and your offenses against God.” (Ephesians 2:1 CEB)

This verse reminds me of the phrase “you are dead to me.”

People usually use that phrase on somebody who has really hurt them or committed a fault against them, and they don’t want to relate to that person anymore.

That was our condition before the resurrection. We were dead in our sin, completely unable to relate or be close to God because of what we had done.

This verse also sounds very accusatory. To somebody who hasn’t realized their need for a Savior, the first question is: “But what did I do wrong? I have lived a good life. I haven’t hurt anybody. I am a good person.”

When we hear that we were like dead people because of the wrong that we did, we may have the impulse to justify ourselves and even do things to contradict this statement.

I believe it’s because we have the wrong definition of what is good and what is wrong.

Paul continues in the next verses giving us an image of what it looks like to live like dead people.

“You used to live like people of this world. You followed the rule of a destructive spiritual power. This is the spirit of disobedience to God’s will that is now at work in persons whose lives are characterized by disobedience. At one time you were like those persons. All of you used to do whatever felt good and whatever you thought you wanted so that you were children headed for punishment just like everyone else.” (Ephesians 2:2-3 CEB)

The first assumption that these verses are making is that if you are a follower of Jesus — who has accepted the resurrection in your life — you are NOT of this world.

We do not belong here. We should feel like aliens, immigrants, tourists, and temporary visitors.

Because the way this world operates is very different from the kingdom God has designed for His people.

And notice when it says, “you followed a destructive spiritual power.” This can be a shock to people, because nobody believes or even wants to follow a destructive spiritual power. But if we are not following God, this is the alternative … consciously or unconsciously, people are following a destructive spiritual power.

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“The only condition for our salvation was fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus, and the only thing we must do to receive it is faith.”

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The way that reflects into our daily living is that we used to live in constant disobedience to the will of God for our lives.

So that posture of the heart, again conscious or unconscious of disobedience, eventually translates into behaviors and conducts, but it starts inward — into not knowing what the will of God for humanity is, or knowing it and rejecting it.

And the basic mentality of this posture is: You do whatever felt good or whatever you thought you wanted.

How familiar is this mentality in our world? We are adults. We do whatever feels good in the moment and think about the consequences later. We think we know what we want, but we have no idea about our purpose, our identity, or who we are and why are we here.

This way of life and this mentality is what reflects our need for a Savior.

We might have food on our tables and a roof over our heads. We might live in the land of opportunities and freedoms, but as long as people continue living and doing whatever feels good and whatever they think they want, we have a responsibility to tell them that nothing in this world can fill their need for a Savior other than Jesus.

“However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace! And God raised us up and seated us in the heavens with Christ Jesus. God did this to show future generations the greatness of his grace by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7 CEB)

This is a very important however…

Paul is telling us that God has brought us back to life with Jesus while we were still dead.

We have a concept in Wesleyan theology called “prevenient grace.” It is the revelation of God in our lives before we came to know Him or accept the work that Jesus did for us on the cross.

It is the call of God, attracting us, showing us and revealing Himself to us before we came to believe in Him.

God does this in many ways, through nature, through family members or friends, through Scripture, through visions and dreams, through His voice.

It is in the richness of His mercy that He gave His only Son to show His grace to the generations that came after Jesus, and that is where we are right now.

God has shown Himself in the person of Jesus. He has left us His Word and His church to show the world His grace.

He has pursued us; He has done more than we can imagine revealing Himself to every person in this planet so that everybody can hear His message and be saved.

But there is a condition for our salvation, and this is very hard to understand, especially in a society of doers, go-getters and overachievers…

“You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 CEB)

We like to be proud of our accomplishments and how well we are doing, but this is not the case…

The only condition for our salvation was fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus, and the only thing we must do to receive it is faith.

That’s it…

And I like how Paul described salvation as a gift.

Because a gift is something we didn’t have before; we didn’t own before; we also did not produce it.

Also, a gift is something we either accept or reject.

I like the way Paul explains to the Romans how to accept this gift…

“Because if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and in your heart you have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9 CEB)

So there is an inward conviction of our belief in the resurrection, and that inward belief comes out in our open declaration that Jesus is the Lord of our lives.

The way we declare that Jesus is the Lord of our lives is not only with our words, or with being vocal about our faith, although this is definitely a very important part of how we testify our belief in Jesus.

It is by the way we live our lives.

We used to live like people of this world, but now we live as people who have experienced the resurrection, like people who recognize our need for a Savior and call that Savior Jesus Christ.

We cannot confess with our mouths that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and continue living lives of sin. That is not how salvation works.

Also, we cannot confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and make our lives an illusion of salvation, or play the appearance game that our society so very well has perfected to make our lives look perfect or OK.

This can play either in two ways … the “bad way” and the “even worse way.”

The bad way is to create the illusion of “Christian behavior” and hide under the Christian banner to hide our sin and make ourselves the savior of our own lives by living lives independent from how God says we ought to live our lives.

This is the common hypocrisy the world has experienced from Christians and from the church and that we are (sometimes rightfully) condemned for.

But I believe the even worse way we can create an illusion of salvation is by not living the life God has made possible through the resurrection — by not experiencing the freedom that His grace and His mercy offers.

The way we do this is:

• By condemning ourselves for the things God has already forgiven us for.
• By not experiencing the fullness of His love that can be experienced in the vulnerability and honesty of the community of believers.
• By staying enslaved to old habits because we refuse to confess our sins, and we refuse to seek transformative relationships.
• By staying babies in our faith because we don’t want to commit; we don’t want to listen to the voice of the Spirit that is calling us for more.
• By becoming overwhelmed by the state of this world and our country, by our situations and not fully trusting the God who raised Jesus from the dead.

We need to go back to the basics — to the recognition that we need a Savior.

We need to remember those moments of prevenient grace, that relentless pursuit of the God who loves us so much that He gave His only Son to save us.

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