Dead Person Walking

We all handle death differently. Some of us laugh. Some cry. Others take many years to recover from losing a loved one. But one thing that is universal is that a dead person shouldn’t walk around. At least outside of Hollywood. However, if we were to read and understand the Scriptures well, everyone is, or was, a dead person walking. Because of what we call original sin, mankind has been plagued with eternal death. Inescapable really. Paul writes to the Romans that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a NIV). It’s a bleak picture for the future when you end the conversation there. The good news is that this isn’t the end of the story. We serve a God who works miracles. And the truth is, He’s done it before.

Way back in the time of the prophets, God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel to share His message. But it wasn’t a message to the people of Israel this time. God sent Ezekiel to a field of bones. These bones were so old that they had dried. We’d consider them fossils today. Yet God sends Ezekiel to the field of dry bones to deliver a message. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord’” (Ezekiel 37:4-6 NIV). God declared that He would bring these old, dry bones to life. And guess what? That’s exactly what God did. Out of death and decay, God raised those bones to life again with the promise to bring everything under one king as Ezekiel went on to declare. It would be hundreds of years before God would fulfill that prophecy in the person of Jesus Christ. And it’s through the work of Jesus on the cross that our old, dry, and dead bones can be made alive again.

The Holy Spirit continues to fill believers with new life. You may feel like a dead person walking. The weight of sin and shame at the forefront of your mind. You may feel at the end of your rope. The future may be uncertain and you may not know how to act through it. You may feel like everything is falling around you. These are all places where death reigns. But the truth and hope that we have in the gospel message of Jesus Christ is that out of the death and decay, new life can begin. Dry bones are still coming alive. Our bones and spirits are being called forward into motion. Given renewed strength for the day through the power of the resurrection. 

Check your pulse today. Are you still a dead person walking or do you hear the call that brings dry bones to life again?