Dead in Sin

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Dead in Sin

Rev. Luke Powell

Uncle Bud Robinson’s book The Story of Lazarus showed us yesterday that Lazarus as a sick man is a picture of every child born into this world carrying the inherited disease of original sin. Today, let's consider how the death of Lazarus is a picture of our spiritual death caused by sin.

From Sickness to Death

Uncle Bud writes on page 21: "Lazarus, the dead man, is a type of the child when it comes to the years of accountability, and chooses sin and dies; and now the child is dead in trespasses and in sins; and just as truly as Lazarus was dead physically, the child is dead spiritually."

This is an important shift. The sick man was a sinner by nature - carrying the disease through no choice of his own. The dead man is a sinner by choice. He has reached the age of accountability, understood the difference between right and wrong, and chosen wrong. And in that moment, something within us dies.

Paul describes it in Ephesians 2:1-2: "You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world." And again in Colossians 2:13: "You were dead in your sins."

Paul doesn't say they were struggling or far from God. He says they were dead. Uncle Bud takes this seriously - the spiritually dead person is, he says, as dead as Lazarus was physically.

Dead, But Alive to the Wrong Things

And he sums it up this way on page 24: "He is dead to God and to holiness, to righteousness, eternal life, and to all that is good and pure; and he is alive to all that is bad."

In fact Paul, in 1 Timothy 5:6, says this of a worldly woman: "She who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives." So you can be alive physically, mentally, socially, financially - but dead to the things that matter. Dead while living. What a sobering thought.

Perhaps you know someone like this. Perhaps, if you are honest, this is you.

The Miracle That Is Needed

Here is what Uncle Bud wants us to grasp about the dead man: he cannot save himself. A dead man cannot simply decide to live He needs a miracle. Uncle Bud writes on page 24: "If that sinner ever gets out of that grave of spiritual death there will have to be a miracle performed, for he is a dead man - just as dead spiritually as Lazarus was physically."

This is not a problem that willpower or religion or self-improvement can fix. Only one thing can raise the dead – a miracle at the hand of the Saviour.

We will get to that miracle. But for today, consider the weight of what death in sin really means - and let it deepen your gratitude for what Christ does for sinners.

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