We really only think about death in physical terms, not spiritual. But we are told that we are born spiritually dead, we were born with a broken relationship with God. We all need new life, we all need salvation. In this 5-part series, John North looks at what it means to need Jesus.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Subscribe to the ‘Time With God’ Podcast
- Explore more on the topic of Jesus
- See more of John North’s Devotions
Transcript
Each weekday I bring you a short message from God’s word, the Bible to help you in your life.
And we’re talking this week about the question, who needs Jesus? It may be that you’re listening and you don’t have a living relationship with God.
You don’t know Jesus Christ personally, you are not what Christians call saved, and you think, well, why do I need to be saved, what do I need to be rescued from?
- And we looked Monday at the fact that we are spiritually dead. That we don’t have a living relationship with God, we’re cut off from God, and if we want a relationship with God, we need Jesus to give us spiritual life.
- We looked yesterday at the fact that that damaged nature that is in us that makes us spiritually dead gives us a tendency towards living for ourselves, rebelling against what we know God would want in our lives, and we can’t overcome those tendencies towards wrong. We desire to live even more sinful lives than we do live and though our society restrains that to some degree we still find ourselves pulled towards lives that are more and more destructive both to ourselves and to the people around us – we need what only God can do for us.
Today we want to read the passage again.
Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by
It says in Ephesians chapter 2 in the Bible verses 1 through 3:
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.
Well, did you catch that last thing he said?
We were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.
What does wrath mean? Well, it means the righteous anger of God.
God justly punishing our sins against Him. And you know, when we have disobeyed God and dishonoured Him, which we do constantly in our lives, that disobedience puts us under the wrath of God. And according to this verse, we all lived by nature as children of wrath.
And that means that every one of us faces the wrath, the righteous judgement of God. Nothing we do can undo that. Doesn’t matter how good you are for the rest of your life, you can’t undo the ways you’ve broken God’s moral laws, can you?
We can’t escape the sentence we face when we face God’s judgement at the end of our lives. Our only hope of escaping that judgement is if God Himself does something for us, and He has done something for us.
Jesus Christ says.
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus Christ makes it possible for God to accept us. You need Jesus in your life.
I’m John North.
To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.
Feature image: CanvaPro
Get daily encouragement delivered straight to your inbox
Writers from our Real Hope community offer valuable wisdom and insights based on their own experiences!
"*" indicates required fields
Subscribe + stay connected with all
our latest stories
"*" indicates required fields
Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by
More from Devotions
