Zero to Hero

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Ephesians 2:4-10

Any of you remember these ads...

Charles Atlas promised Comic Book readers of the 70's quick and amazing transformation from Zero to Hero simply by sending away for his book and 15 minutes of work a day. How could a skinny boy resist the opportunity to morph into a tough, punch throwin' muscleheaded man? - particularly if the swim trunks were included :) Though I have never tried Charles Atlas' program - which is quite obvious for those who have seen me - I question if this sort of "too good to be true" promise of instant "before and after" transformation is even possible.

Physically...no - but Spiritually...thanks be to God...YES!

OK, here's the amazing "after" to yesterday's "before." Yesterday the Scriptures left us with a pretty bleak picture of the human condition - dead in our trespasses and sins. The rest of the passage describes the "after" state of our transformation in Christ:

- instantly made alive in Spirit - regenerated from death to life

- immediately raised up with Christ, where we (right now!) sit with Him in the heavenly places - in other words, upon being made alive we have been elevated to eternal life right now and already glorified in Jesus

- marvellously shown the exceeding riches of His grace

- the stain of sin which had previously tarnished and rusted the workmanship of God in us, has been completely removed to the point where we can now do what we were always created to do...good works

I mean this work of Jesus on the cross on our behalf is nothing short of an amazing undeserved spiritual transformation.

And how does on receive this new life in Christ? Not by anything we could ever do in our spiritually dead state (like we'd boast about that), but solely by grace through faith. Ultimately, it was the richness of God's mercy and His great love for us that raised us from death to life.

Thanks be to God for not leaving us to rot and rust in our sinful dead state, but for quickening us to new abundant life out of the depths and richness of His love for us in Christ Jesus.

Be God's, Scott