"Dead" Is an Awful Idea

Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins.  Ephesians 2:1

Alive or Dead? 

• This question deserves a thousand thoughts. 
• Look at it carefully, and ponder it well. 
• Search your own heart, 
• and do not lay aside this question without solemn self-inquiry. 
• Are you among the living or the dead?

First then let me tell you that we are all by nature spiritually dead.

• "Dead” is a strong word, 
• but it is not my own coining and invention. 
• I did not choose it. 
• The Holy Spirit taught Paul to write it down about the Ephesians: 
• Once you were dead...Ephesians 2:1

The Lord Jesus Christ made use of it in the parable of the prodigal son: 

• This my son was dead and is alive again (Luke 15: 24, 32). 
• You will read it also in the First Epistle to Timothy: 
• She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives (1 Tm 5:6). 
• Shall a mortal man be wise above that which is written? 
• Must I not take heed to speak that which I find in the Bible, and neither less nor more

“Dead” is an awful idea, 

• and one that man is most unwilling to receive. 
• He does not like to admit the whole extent of his soul’s disease; 
• he shuts his eyes to the real amount of his danger. 

Many will allow us to say that naturally most people are not quite what they ought to be: 

• they are thoughtless, 
• they are unsteady, 
• they are giddy, 
• they are wild, 
• they are not serious enough.

But dead? Oh no! 

• We must not mention it. 
• It is going too far to say that. 
• The idea is a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.

But what we like in Christianity is of very little consequence. 

• The only question is, What is written? 
• What saith the Lord? 
• God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts, and God’s words are not man’s words. 
• God says of every living person who is not a real, thorough, genuine Christian, 
• be he high or low, rich or poor, old or young—
• he is spiritually dead.

Adapted Excerpt From

Alive or Dead?

J.C. Ryle