January 27
"And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins."--Ephesians 2:1 Death in sin is of course a figure, and must be
interpreted as such; for moral death is its meaning, and by moral death we
understand the utter absence of everything holy, heavenly, spiritual, and
divine--the entire lack of participation in, and conformity to the life
which God lives as essentially and eternally holy, pure, wise, and good, and
forever dwelling in the glorious light of his own infinite perfections. To
be dead, then, is to have no present part or lot with God; no knowledge of
him, no faith, no trust, no hope in him; no sense of his presence, no
reverence of his awesome Majesty; no desire after him or inclination toward
him; no trembling at his word, no reliance on his promise, no longing for
his grace, no care or concern for his glory. It is to be as a beast before him, intent like a brute on
satisfying the cravings of lust, or the movements of mere animal passion,
without any thought or concern what shall be the outcome, and to be bent
upon carrying out into action every selfish purpose, as if we were
self-creators, and were our own judge, our own lord, and our own God. O what
a terrible state is it to be thus dead in sin, and not to know it, not to
feel it, to be in no way sensible of its present danger and certain end,
unless delivered from it by a mighty act of sovereign power! It is this lack
of all sense and feeling which makes the death of the soul to be but a
representation of, as it is the prelude to, that second death which
stretches through a boundless eternity. |