You were dead in your
transgressions and sins.
—Ephesians 2:1
Unemployed, addicted, and deeply in debt, Ohio resident Donald Miller went on the lam in 1986, leaving behind a wife and two children. He was declared legally dead in 1994. He reappeared in 2005, discovered that he had been declared dead, and went to court to get the ruling reversed.
Judge Allan Davis found that death rulings couldn’t be overturned after three years; Ohio state law prevented him from declaring Miller alive. “You’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” he told him.
Are you dead or alive?
You weren’t sick, scared, and broke—you were dead: dead in your transgressions and sins (Eph 2:1).
But God did something from the cross that Judge Davis couldn’t do from the bench: He made you alive (Eph 2:5) and declared you righteous (Rom 5:1).
Earthly sojourn is from life to death.
God’s itinerary is from death to life.