You Are Dead
Donald Miller Jr. was declared legally dead in 1994. He
had vanished from his home eight years earlier. Miller, 61, told Hancock County
Probate Court Judge Allan Davis, that he disappeared in the 1980s because he had
lost his job and he was an alcoholic. His ex-wife claims that he vanished
because he owed $26,000 in overdue child support payments. Miller lived in
Florida and Georgia before returning to Ohio around 2005.
He said his
parents told him about his "death" when he came back to the state.
Miller
went to court this week to ask the Probate Judge to reverse the 1994 ruling that
declared him legally dead. He wants to obtain a driver's license and reinstate
his Social Security number.
But Judge Davis, admitting that this is a
"strange, strange situation," turned down his request, citing a three-year limit
for changing a death ruling. "I don't know where that leaves you, but you're
still deceased as far as the law is concerned," the judge said.
*
Consider...
Because of our sins, YOU and I are dead! The
Apostle Paul diagnosed the condition of those in Ephesus before God saved them:
"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" (Ephesians 2:1-2).
Even so, WE are dead in our transgressions
and sins - separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), under the condemnation of death
(Romans 6:23), and completely unable to resurrect ourselves!
Despite our
sins, however, God loves us and has provided the Way for us to have eternal
life.
To those who were dead in their transgressions and sins, the
Apostle Paul wrote: "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" (Ephesians 2:4-7).
Because of His great
love for us, God sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sins (John
3:16). Jesus "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless
deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works"
(Titus 2:14).
He suffered the "death penalty," so that you and I can
have eternal life! "He died for us so that... we may live together with Him"
(1 Thessalonians 5:10).
God has promised to raise those who are dead in
their transgressions and sins when they place their faith and trust in Jesus
(Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for
the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16).
The Apostle Paul explained to
Christians in Rome how God had raised them up: "Do you not know that as many of
us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we
were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life" (Romans 6:3-4).
We are dead in our transgressions and sins but
God provides eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son.
Won't YOU submit
to the Savior so that He can give you new life?
David Sargent
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