STAYING ALIVE

All sinners are dead in sin. As long as

a person is living in sin, committing sin, in bondage of sin, he is
doomed and heading for hell, because the wages of sin is death. The
soul that sins will die. Jesus came to take away the sins of the
world.

Jesus sets the captives free. Those who
receive and obey Jesus, who repent and are baptized, are delivered
from the bondage of sin so that they can live holy and righteously,
free from sin. They are made ALIVE, no longer dead in sin.

It is written: “1And you were dead in
your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of
disobedience. 3Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts
of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and
were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4But God,
being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved
us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised
us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the
surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10.

As long as we stay IN Christ, live in
obedience to Him, we are ALIVE, but if we sin, we die again. Those
who go back to sin and do not repent will die in their sin. Sin
separates us from Jesus. Without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Our salvation depends on our relationship with Jesus, our obedience
to Him. If we guard and build our relationship with Jesus, through
prayer, listening to Him and obeying Him then we will bear good fruit
and lead many to Jesus through our testimony. Every branch that does
not bear fruit, that sins and does not produce other followers of
Jesus, is ready to be cut off and burned. Sin destroys and kills our
relationship with Jesus. If we are not ALIVE for Jesus and producing
fruit that brings glory to Jesus and produces more followers of
Jesus, we are dying, or already dead in our sins.

Our relationship
with Jesus, our obedience and service to Him, our fruit, will
determine whether we have eternal life or be cast into hell. Many are
saved by grace and then they die in sin.

Are we staying alive, in Christ?

May Jesus bless you.