Dead People Don't Make Decisions

By Matt Rose
http://www.mattrosewritings.net/
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show us the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10, ESV)

And you were dead. You were not alive. If someone is dead, do they have desires? Do they desire to eat or drink? Do they desire more money? Do they desire to be alive? Do they even know they're dead? I feel sure they don't.
As much as this is true physically, I believe Scripture says it's true spiritually as well. Those who are spiritually dead have only one desire: sin. And sin leads to death. How many people around you are physically alive but spiritually dead? How many people around you are following desires that will only lead them to death? And how often do you pray--desperately--for God to open their hearts through His Holy Spirit?
The truth is this: you and I cannot raise the dead. Try it. Go to a cemetary and tell those bodies to rise. Or, more realistically, buy those anti-aging creams and rub them all over yourself. Pay for that surgery to fix your wrinkles and tighten your skin. Obsess about eating all the right foods and exercising every day. Take your vitamins and get eight hours of sleep a night. You can do all of those things, but one day you too will die. And if you are powerless against physical death, what makes you think you have the power to take what is spiritually dead and bring it back to life? That is the work of God's Holy Spirit.
I may be talking a little bit out of emotion here, but I am sick of hearing about those who try to convince people to become a Christian. Jesus never asked us to sell the Gospel. Why not? Because when you sell something, you tend to talk about how much better life would be with your product. You would tell them all the good news and never tell them anything negative--even if it's true. So you would tell them about a God who blesses abundantly, but you wouldn't tell them how most of God's blessings are spiritual and not material, like a new car or a new house or a ton of money. And how we might not taste those blessings until we get to Heaven. You would tell them about a God who offers grace upon grace, but you would skip the part about how grace is not a license to sin. You would sell them a cross-less Christianity. You would sell them a Christ-less Christianity. You would sell them a lie. You would sell them death. Also, it's been my experience that if you can talk them into it, someone else can talk them out of it. Salvation is about the heart--not about the mind.
And then there's the other side of the coin. I'm just as sick of hearing about those who try to scare people into becoming a Christian. It's safe to say that no one wants to go to Hell. And if you scare them enough, they'll repeat any prayer you lead them in. But let me warn you: manipulating someone's emotions is not following the example of Christ. And getting someone to repeat your words in the hopes of changing their eternal destiny is more like witchcraft than Christianity. If that's your method, I can tell you this much: as soon as the fear fades, so will their "faith." Salvation is about the heart--not about the emotions.
These are the sorts of errors we make when we believe that salvation is totally up to us. When we believe that we can have faith without it first being given to us by God like the Scripture says. We quit praying for the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do, and we begin trying to persuade people. We stop focusing on God, and we start focusing on mere men and women. We stop resting in the fact that we are pleasing to God, and we start trying to please people. Call it seeker-sensitivity. Call it relevance. But don't call it biblical Christianity.
1 John 4 tells us that God is love. If we know God, we will love people. And if we don't love people, we prove we don't know God. It's that simple. God is love. If we know Him, we love others. Pardon me for thinking, but how does that love get inside of us--unless God puts Himself into us? Well, it just so happens that those who are saved, those who are His children, have the Holy Spirit inside them. God the Son, Jesus Christ, has given the Church (both corporately and individually) the Holy Spirit (who is fully God) to the glory of God (the Father). In fact, Ephesians 1:14 calls the Holy Spirit a "deposit" or "guarantee" in the life of a believer. But that same word in the original Greek was also used to describe an engagement ring. So God the Father has willed for His Son, also fully God, to love--and be loved by--the Church, and to prove His love and His intention to marry us for eternity, He has given us His Holy Spirit! It's incredible!
It's worth mentioning that 1 John 4 also tells us we love God because He first loved us. And in John 15, Jesus reminds His disciples--though it's true for us as well--that they didn't choose Him, but He chose them. So you would never choose God--you would never recognize Him unless He awakened your heart to see Him as He is. Lovely. And loving. You would never love God unless He, being love itself, put Himself--put His Holy Spirit inside you. After all, if God is love, how would you have love in your heart for Him unless He gave it to you? I know we call lust love all the time, but how would you have true love--God's unconditional, 1 Corinthians 13 love--inside your heart unless He gave it to you? And if you were dead--and you were dead in your sins--how would you love God unless He brought you to life first?
You see, it's all up to God. And it's all designed to bring Him praise and glory. We can't brag or boast. We've done nothing to earn salvation, because we were dead until God gave us life. We didn't choose Him; He chose us. And we didn't have love until He gave it to us. So in the end, all we are and all we have is from God! He alone deserves the credit for any good in us! He alone deserves praise and glory and honor!
I know what labels I could get and what names I could be called for writing this. But I wonder if maybe those who are so busy looking for people to label shouldn't be spending more time with their Bibles. I wonder what would happen if they dared to read with an open mind. If they dared to lay down their preconceived ideas and the things they've been taught all their lives. If they simply prayed for God to teach them by His Spirit.
I know. I'm judgmental, unloving, and full of pride, right? Honestly, I approached this subject from a purely cerebral direction. I studied the arguments, and I studied the theology behind it all. It didn't take long to realize that there was no way to cut through the years of arguing from both sides in order to see the truth--unless I just read the Bible for myself. And wouldn't you know? It was when I stopped looking for the answers that I began to see them.
I haven't picked the side I liked the best or the side with the people I liked the best on it. This isn't about sides of an argument. This isn't about debating. This is about praying to the Spirit of Truth--asking Him to shine His light on the Scriptures so that they make sense. So that God's truth might find its way into my heart. That's my prayer for you also. That you would follow God's Holy Spirit as He leads you into the truth. That you would worry more about what is right than about who is right.