7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is a wonderful truth - we were born in spiritual death, and destined to spend eternity apart from God. As humans, we carried a sin debt, a penalty we could never pay. But, Jesus died in our place, become our perfect substitute and the perfect sacrifice for our sins. When God said there was nothing we could do to erase that death sentence, Jesus said that His blood shed and His life given are enough. He is enough - to pay that debt, and to be our abundant source of life and godliness, enabling us to leave behind dead works inconsistent with our new identity in Him and living daily in the power of His Spirit - bless His holy name!
Ephesians 2 reminds us that a merciful God has made us alive in Christ, transferring us from death to life, darkness to light:
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
One further reflection on this whole celebration of Halloween, which has unfortunately become a month-long party season, rather than a one-night costume and candy event. In the expression of the macabre that has long been associated with this commemoration, you have seen such dark characters as vampires and zombies become rather popular. The zombie craze has continued to proliferate, with TV shows such as "The Walking Dead", zombie parades, and other expressions.
Russell Moore of Southern Seminary has an interesting commentary on BaptistPress.com, in which he says:
Zombies are horrifying not simply because they're mean and aggressive. They are horrifying because they represent what ought to repulse us: the rotting decay of death. But they still walk. And, beyond that, they still crave. In their search for human brains, they are driven along by their appetites, though always under the sway of a slavemaster's will.I think the zombie craze can be thought-provoking as we evaluate our own spiritual life. One aspect, as Moore writes, is that zombies are a representation of our story - before Christ. The Bible tells us that we were once dead in sins, but we have been made alive by Jesus. Before we were saved, our hearts were turned away from God, we were dead on the inside, and our dead souls were placed in decaying bodies - we were on a trajectory of death and decay, no doubt, but our life-giving God made a way out. But, so often, we remain satisfied to pursue dead works that are inconsistent with our new nature - that's where we have to allow the life of Christ to become preeminent.
That's our story.
The biblical story of the Fall of humanity is one of a humanity that comes under the sway of death by obeying the appetite. God places a fiery sword around the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3 tells us, so that the primeval humans wouldn't eat of the Tree of Life and live forever. Why? It's because God didn't want to consign humanity to a never-ending existence of this kind of walking death. He sentences us to the curse of death so that, ultimately, we can be redeemed.
And, another thing about zombies - there is a tendency in pop culture, on TV, and in movies to mix life on earth with the afterlife...you see depictions of the afterlife interjected into life. The immensely popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" films have this notion of the "undead". The Bible is clear - it is appointed once to die, and after that to face judgment - after judgment, if you have not accepted Christ's free gift of salvation, you experience the second death - eternal punishment. There is no blurring of the lines between life and the afterlife - the Bible is clear on that, and clear on how you can be transferred from death to life, through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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