On "Black Friday" (the name refers to the after Thanksgiving Day sales that propel merchants into a profit for the year) 2008, a tragedy occurred in a Wal-Mart. A worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store. The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the store opened at 5 a.m. What inside that store was worth a life? Materialism and commercialism has revealed the depth of the depravity of man. Without the grace of God, man is capable of extreme evil. Ephesians 2:1 describes the spiritual condition of the lost: "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins...." (NKJV) Man's depravity did not impair his ability to come to God, it made it impossible. Man without the grace of God is dead. Praise be to God that He did not leave us in that condition. He sent Jesus to die for our sins and then He raised Him from the dead. In the same way, when the grace of God comes into our hearts, He raised us from being spiritually dead. The people that trampled that poor man to death are the walking dead. They cared more about saving a few dollars on a TV or camera than they did a human life. That is evidence of depravity.
The Barnes New Testament Commentary explains this deadness: "It is affirmed here of those to whom Paul wrote at Ephesus, that before they were converted they were "dead in sins." They were dead in relation to that to which they afterwards became alive---i. e., to holiness. Of course, this does not mean that they were in all respects dead. It does not mean that they had no animal life, or that they did not breathe, and walk, and act. It simply affirms a fact--that in relation to real spiritual life they were, in consequence of sin, like a dead man in regard to the objects which are around him. A corpse is insensible. It sees not, and hears not, and feels not. So with the sinner in regard to the spiritual and eternal world, he sees no beauty in religion; he hears not the call of God; he is unaffected by the dying love of the Saviour; and he has no interest in eternal realities. In all these he feels no more concern, and sees no more beauty, than a dead man does in the world around him.
Today, be grateful for the grace of God that made you spiritually alive. You are no longer insensitive to the gift of God found in Jesus Christ. If you encounter some that are dead around you, remember that if the grace of God could do a work in you, it may do the same in them. Remember, it is the grace of God that gets the glory and not you yourself.
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