WITHOUT GOD
..that at that time you were without Christ…
having no hope and without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:12
That statement was made by Paul concerning the Gentile people before they came to know Christ. Have you ever really considered what life would truly be like without Christ? There would be no one who has said He would not leave us, no one to pray to for help or guidance, and no hope for an afterlife or to see loved ones again. Just a bleak void awaiting everyone.
But the Bible does not give such a bleak picture for those who have Christ, who have God; only those who have not yet come to the realization that God is really the foundation of life and existence. The Scriptures go on to describe in a number of ways the state of those who are yet unsaved.
The Bible goes on to say that those without God are “dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1) and that they are never truly and fully alive as we were meant to be. Spiritually dead, so to speak, although physically and mentally still living.
The Bible also describes such people as being blind and not able to see the truth.
But even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing,
whose minds the god of this age has blinded…
(2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
Such people are also called slaves to sin - not really free but controlled by their own lusts and desires.
But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin…
having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
(Romans 6:17-18)
In addition, such people were called lovers of darkness because their desires were such that only darkness could cover them.
And this is the condemnation,
that the light has come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light…
For everyone practicing evil hates the light
and does not come to the light
(John 3:19-20)
The Scriptures consider such persons as sick:
When Jesus heard it, He said to them,
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
(Mark 2:17)
And also as lost:
What man of you, having a hundred sheep,
if he lose one, does not…go after the one which is lost?
…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over [those] who need no repentance.
(Luke 15:4,7)
If we fit into the above description, then we no longer fit into the image into which we were made, i.e., the image of God. And so we are called:
aliens…strangers from the covenants of promise…
and foreigners…
(Ephesians 2:12,19)
and
children of wrath…
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind…
(Ephesians 2:3)
All this if we have not accepted the one who
…has delivered us from the power of darkness
and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
(Colossians 1:13)
It certainly does give one a lot to think about.
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