Verily, Verily, Dead Men Tell No Tales

“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…” – Ephesians 2:4-5

One way to test if someone is really saved is to either ask them what it means to be saved or what they were saved from or how they even got saved in the first place. If they cannot give a clear and Biblical answer, chances are that they are not born again of the Spirit and they are still dead in their sins. Spiritually dead people do not struggle with sin, neither do they lament for it. They are unable to see how much they have offended an infinitely holy God because they are not alive to righteousness.

Contrary to popular thought, it is impossible for men to come to God, much less to obey him unless God by some miracle of His grace grants them the ability to do so. Decisional Regeneration (i.e. the sinner's prayer) is a variant of the 5th century heresy of Pelagianism, which tells men that they have the inherent freewill to fulfill the perfect commands of God’s law and to freely choose between good and evil, without having an inherent inclination towards the wrong. This is contrary to Scripture, since it teaches that men cannot manifest the fruits of faith before actually having it.

We cannot choose God unless God grants repentance (John 3:27-29, 2 Timothy 2:24-26). The repeated, fundamental error made by many in the modern church is that they do not understand how much freedom they actually possess. Human beings are not as free as they think. This is yet another reason why the sinner’s prayer is unbiblical and deceptive.

And if one is dead in sin and trespasses, it is therefore impossible for a spiritually dead person to bring themselves to life by their own strength being spiritually dead. This would imply no need for the Holy Spirit’s regeneration and that man is not helplessly lost in his sin. Following this to a logical conclusion, it would also be reasonable to infer from such a fundamental error, that man’s works have some part to play in salvation and in a sense share a part in God’s sovereignty.

Given the initial passage of Scripture and many others (Jeremiah 17:9, John 8:34-38; 42-46, Romans 5:12-15, 7:13-20, 8:7-8, Galatians 5:16-17, Titus 3:3-7) man is incapable of pleasing God by his own efforts. In effect, if one has not heard the one, true and only Biblical Gospel, they are not born again, but dead in their sin and trespasses; because the preaching of the Law and Gospel is the ONLY means by which people can be born again. This does not include personal testimonies, inspirational words or positive advice; God has given a means by which He draws men to Himself and saves them.

Being dead in sin and trespasses means that one cannot love God keep his commandments or appreciate the things of God, even to the minutest level. Therefore if there happens to be people sitting in your church that show little to no proof that they are Christians, sleeping through church service, not participating in church activities, complaining about everything they see in the church, showing no reverence for holy things or finding more pleasure in worldly things than the things of God;  you just may have a spiritual corpse among the living assembly of saints. The remedy for that you may ask? The preaching of the Law and Gospel - peradventure God will grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

“Those who are living a carefree and struggle-free life are generally living a repentance-free and God-free lie.” – Burk Parsons