No Longer Hopeless

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1 Think of the most hopeless situation you can imagine—being stranded, alone, in the middle of Antarctica, the most foreboding continent on earth. Antarctica is approximately 5.5 million square miles of ice, snow, and sub-zero temperatures. It is an island continent, surrounded by icy, gale-whipped oceans on all sides. What if, by some horrible circumstance, you were stranded there alone? Wouldn’t you call that hopeless?

It would not be as hopeless as the situation of someone living apart from God. At least in Antarctica you would be alive. Apart from God, Paul says, you are “dead in trespasses and sins…Having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:1, 12). Sounds like being stranded in Antarctica, but worse. Being apart from God not only means no hope in this world but in the next, eternal world as well. Thankfully, we are not without hope: “But God, who is rich in mercy…made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Don’t be lost, without hope in this world or the next. Accept God’s gift of mercy and grace and new life in Christ. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Edward Mote David Jeremiah