Chosen and Saved

I have seen this image a lot when people talk about sharing their faith with others.  It's a cute little diagram, and seemingly correct.  When I was reading Ephesians 2, I noticed that this diagram may not be entirely true.

"And you were dead in the 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..."  Ephesians 2:1-2

According to this diagram, the human is not yet dead in sin.  They are still alive with a choice to either choose God or sin.  The reality is that we have all chosen sin rather than God.  We are already dead in sin.

"...among whom we all once 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."  Ephesians 2:3

Another similar illustration: We are drowning in the ocean and God throws us a lift preserver, which is Christ.  It's true that Christ is what saves us, but again, we aren't drowning.  We are already dead at the bottom of the ocean.  People who are dead don't choose to raise themselves from the dead.

I heard a story of a seminary professor who took his students to a cemetery and asked each one of the students to proclaim to the graves to rise up from the grave.  Of course, nothing happened.  He said that it is the same with preachers preaching to lost souls.  The dead cannot raise themselves from the dead, and neither can anyone else.  The only one who can raise someone from death to life is the the One who defeated death.  

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."  Colossians 2:13-14

It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that God is able to pull us from our helpless and hopeless state of being dead in sin.

One last illustration comes from John Piper.  Imagine that God and Christ are walking through a graveyard and see your body rotting in the bottom of a grave.  It looks horrible beyond description and absolutely stinks.  God looks at your body and says, "I want him."  He looks at Jesus and says, "Will you die so that he can be with us forever.  Will you die so that you and I can love him and bless him forever?"  Jesus says, "I will do whatever it takes."  

It's nothing we've done or can do, because we are at the bottom of a grave, rotting and stinking.  We are disgustingly dead creatures who have chosen sin over God.  But God chose to raise us up anyway.  There is nothing more humbling and beautiful than this. 

"He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure."  Psalm 40:2