The Captives

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. Ephesians 2:1-3

What a revelation. We have all lived in sin, apart from God. No one was exempt (except Jesus) and we all deserved to die like convicted criminals in a spiritual court. We all have a need to be released from the state of guiltiness. Some of us lived in that state longer than others, believing that the pleasures of a sinful life would not lead to death and destruction of our life now and eternally. Didn't we start to get clues? Couldn't we sense that we were in way over our heads? The stress and pressure of trying to control every aspect of our future and present was sending us into depression, ruined relationships, addiction to idols and substances of every sort that gave a temporary hiding place but released us back into the chaos of trying to take care of ourselves and trying to find the rest that our inner souls told us was out there somewhere. We ignored our spiritual lives like it was a fairy tale which truly intelligent people just didn't fall for. And we were not in a neutral land where cause and effect determined our outcome, we were being manipulated without our knowledge like a maze where the pathways are constantly changing in order to bring confusion, madness and eventually a loss of hope that there is a way out at all. We gave in and determined that a confusing maze with no ending is not that terrible of a place for a worthless, accident of existence like me. Then......BOOM....we are locked into the prison.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:4-10

We were rescued, not by our own power, but by Christ who offered us freedom. By changing our allegiance from ourselves and the dark world to an allegiance to Christ and his victorious path. A gift from God for one who is not a worthless accident of nature, but a creation of the most high God for a purpose that reaches to eternity.

Christ did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people wonderfully alive and to set the captives free. To give life instead of hopelessness. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.