The Really Good News about Eastsr - Jerry Bridges

It is difficult for decent, upright Americans to accept the fact that we are by nature hostile to God, that we cannot please Him.


This is because we have confused general American morality, plus a dose of Sunday church attendance, with obedience to God's Law.



Most Americans have never been seriously confronted with the exceedingly high standard of God's eternal Law. When they are, they typically reveal their hostility to it.



...We were spiritually dead, enmeshed in a culture totally opposed to God, under the dominion of Satan, and slaves of our own sinful natures.






Apart from the supernatural work of God in our lives, we were helpless to do anything about our condition.


When Lazarus lay dead in the tomb he could not decide to come to life again.


In fact, Lazarus could not even respond to Jesus' call, "Lazarus, come out!" unless with that call Jesus gave him life (see John 11:1-44 for full story).



Lazarus' condition, as he lay dead in the tomb, is a picture of our spiritual predicament. We can hear the call of the gospel a hundred times, but unless that call is accompanied by the life-giving power of the Holy Sprit, we can no more respond to it than Lazarus could respond to a vocal call from Jesus.





I know it is difficult for us to accept the fact that we could not just decide to trust Christ in much the same way we might decide to buy more life insurance.

The truth is, we did decide to trust Christ, but the reason we made that decision is that God first made us spiritually alive.

This is part of the good news.

God comes to us when  we are spiritually dead, when we don't even realize our condition, and gives us the spiritual ability to see our plight and to see in Christ the solution.

God doesn't just come partway to meet us in our need. He comes all the way.

When we were dead He made us alive in Christ Jesus.

And the first act of that new life is to turn in faith to Jesus.
 
  -- From The Gospel for Real Life, Chapter 11,
              by Jerry Bridges