One of the "plausible arguments" with which we are deluded today is the notion that we can accept Jesus as Savior, but then go on living like the world does. Kind of like a get-out-of-jail-free card, our ticket has been punched so we're free to live how we want because at the end of the day, we're getting into heaven.
That's not saving faith. The analogy Paul uses in this chapter is that of someone who is dead. You can give a dead guy a bus ticket, but he still ain't gettin' on the bus. It's not until he's made alive again that he can do anything, let alone get on a bus to heaven.
So it is with us. We were "dead in our sins," but God made us alive having forgiven our sins "by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross" (vv 13-14).
God nailed our sins to Jesus on the cross, not so we could be dead people with tickets, but so we could be forever forgiven and changed! Just as we received Christ through faith, now we are to be established in the faith, and different because of it.
I challenge you to be put away the illusion that you can get a "Christ Stamp" on your heart and not be changed. How can a heart receive Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, and in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and not be changed forever?
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