Friday, September 21, 2007

Why Salvation is Cause for Celebration


Imagine that you’ve been in a car accident. When you come to you’re on a hospital table and you’re not having surgery but rather an autopsy! That’s what happened to Carlos Camejo, 33, of Venezuela.

Camejo had already been declared dead and he woke up in the morgue in excruciating pain as examiners were performing an autopsy. In the photo you see him holding the medical document that ordered his autopsy.

Camejo’s grieving wife showed up at the morgue to identify her husband’s body only to find him in the corridor alive.

Can you imagine the emotion of Camejo’s wife who thought he was dead but then found out he was alive? That is something close to the emotion that many of us feel when we discover that a friend or loved one has become a Christ follower.

The Bible declares that all of us, every person ever born into this world, are “dead” in trespasses and sin. That means that even though we might possess physical life we are dead spiritually. The act of becoming a Christ follower is referred to as a second birth precisely because the individual becomes alive spiritually or alive to God.

In my church it is common for people to shout or clap when they discover that someone has come alive. Baptism is the picture of a dead person being raised up out of a grave to a new life. We applaud and celebrate each baptism.

If you are uncertain about your own “life” in God then perhaps this would be a great weekend to take some of your questions to church

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