I See Dead People

Remember this film? Bruce Willis investigates the strange case of a young child who claims to see "dead people". The boy says he can see them walking about all over the place and the thing is, they don't know that they're dead. The speaker at my church referenced this film on Sunday when speaking from the Bible. He compared the dead people that the boy could see to so many people today. He said that there are many people walking around today who are dead and don't know it!

What's going on, you might ask. How can there be dead people walking about, surely that would have made the news! Well, what the speaker meant, and what the Bible means, is not that there are people who are physically dead that have got back up again and are walking about but that we are all born spiritually dead.

Ephesians 2:1 says:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world...

The person writing is Paul, the Apostle. He is writing to people who have become Christians and he says that before they got saved they were like dead people. This is pretty extreme language! He is not pulling punches. This is very important because it applies to all of us. The Bible was not written for an obscure people thousands of years ago. It is relevant to all of us today.

1. We were dead to God

Paul tells them that they were dead in their "trespasses and sin" (trespasses is another word for sin). Because of their sin they are dead to God.

We are created by God, for God. He makes us and loves us. However, each of us, by our nature, turn away from Him and reject Him. We live lives that are offensive to Him. We do whatever we want. Each of us have a conscience. It tells us that we do things that are wrong. Wrong by our standards and wrong by God's standards.

We are so far in our disobedience that we do not know, love or seek God. We are dead to Him.

This is not a very popular idea today. Many hate to hear it. However, the truth hurts and is not always popular. We don't like to be told that we aren't perfect!

2. We don't know that we're dead

Because we are so far in disobedience to God, we don't know it. Our consciences get hardened. It no longer bothers us that we are completely separated from God. We are so far away we don't care. We don't even realise that we are dead. We think that we're 'good people'. We make up our own standards of goodness that aren't the same as God's and ignore it when we fall short of them. We are like the dead people in The Sixth Sense, we are dead and we don't even realise it.

3. We are heading for death in death

This is the scariest part. Not only are we dead to God now, but when we die we will still be dead to Him. To put in bluntly, if in this life we sin against God and reject Him, in the next life He will reject us and we will face the penalty for our sin. The Bible says that "the wages of sin (or the due payment for sin) is death."

This all sounds pretty gloomy. And it is. However, there is a but! A few verses after Paul reminded the people that they were dead in their sins he also reminded them of another truth. He says:

But God...

Paul explains to them that, although they were dead to God and that they didn't care, God sent His Son into the world to die on their behalf. Jesus died so that they could live. They were dead in their sin. Jesus, on the cross, took the punishment for their sin so that they would not have to face it. He did this for them and He did this for you. For anybody who comes to Him and acknowledges that they are sinners. That they are dead and they need Him to bring them to life.

When this happens we have a moment like Bruce Willis had in the movie, sorry to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it. We realise the truth about our past life. However, better that what Bruce did, we can embrace the future that God offers. Please don't be dead in sin. Live in Jesus. Forever.