Oh, His Mercy Brings Life.

Ephesians 2:4-5 “ 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.”

Roadkill is something we’re sure to encounter if we spend any amount of time driving.  And roadkill in the summer...well, that is a whole other experience that is difficult to put into words.  It smells...no, it reeks.  It is pungent and awful and we can smell it long before we see it.  We might quickly put up the windows and hold our breath until we’re past the offensive carcass, but somehow the stink of death lingers and we remember it even when we are long past the location.  And somewhere, someone is tasked with cleaning that up, but it’s not a job to be envied and few would admit to doing it.

What if we took that roadkill and ‘dressed it up’?  It would still be dead and stinking.  Oh, we could put it on a pedestal, give it a title, but, even then, it would still be dead.  The process of decay would continue and the stench with it.  You see, it’s dead.  It is unredeemable.  No amount of effort, attention, accolades or affection will revive it.  It will just continue to bear the stench of death. It has no life and cannot mimic it.

Friends, that was us.  We were dead in transgressions.  We were rotting corpses of sin, stinking and decaying spiritually.  Oh, maybe we tried to dress ourselves up and go through the motions, but we were still decaying.  Perhaps we tried to give ourselves importance and align ourselves with others who could give us value, but death ruled and robbed us of any worth.  

And then came Jesus.  He was and is bold and brave enough to step into our death and misery.  He could tolerate our stench because He already faced death and won.  He paid the price for our sin.  Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.  He loved us when we were unable to love Him. He made us alive in Christ when we had no power to embrace life on our own.

He wasn’t afraid of our stench.  He wasn’t repulsed by our rotting souls.  He could have swept us aside, scooped us up with the refuse or walked away to a cleaner, more pleasant experience. But He saw our worth despite the death that surrounded us and He took hold of us and redeemed us.  He gave us a new name and called us His child.  Now, we bear the fragrance of Christ, the fragrance of life. 

2 Corinthians 2:15-16 “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.  To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.”

God’s mercy is powerful.

Today, let’s pray that our sons and daughters are the aroma of life to those around them because of God’s mercy in their lives.  Pray that they fully grasp the greatness and beauty of God’s mercy and all it has rescued them from.  Pray that they have a heart for the lost, to pray for and share the gospel to those who are dying.  

Pray without ceasing.