Goldfish in the Morgue Devotional
Day 2 - From Rot to Resurrection (Ephesians 2:1-10)
From Rot to Resurrection
Scripture Passage: Ephesians 2:1-10
Focal Verse: But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus... ~ Ephesians 2: 4-6 NASB
When we die, our bodies do some really weird things to let the world know that we are, indeed, quite dead. Once the heart stops and the brain ceases to function our bodies begin building up a protein bridge called actin-myosin that causes our muscles to stiffen, which leads to what’s known as rigor mortis. After rigor, the other cells in our body begin to break down. Gases are released. We bloat. We turn green, then brown, and eventually jet black before desiccation sets in. After that, it’s only a matter of time before the flesh is stripped away and we’re nothing more than a pile of bones in our favorite recliner with re-runs of Jake and the Fatman playing on the TV in front of us.
There is a vast difference in a living body and that of a dead one. Animation is the biggest difference. Living tissue moves. It grows. It flexes and flows with activity. Dead tissue does none of these things. Instead, the only thing it does is rots. It does that quite well, by the way. But it’s a one-trick pony and gets pretty boring real fast. And a bit gross. The point is, at one time, we were all rotting away inwardly. Spiritually. Due to Original Sin, we were, unfortunately, still-born. D.O.A. Dead on arrival. And we generally did nothing but decompose through most of our lives, contaminating everything and everyone we came in contact with.
Fortunately, God wasn’t satisfied with this. Frankly, there wasn’t enough Febreeze in all of creation to cover up the stench. Besides that, it was never part of His plan that His children exist in such a state. From the moment He decided to create us—knowing full well how badly we’d screw up right out of the gate—He had a plan to rectify this. A means to resurrect the Dead right from the start.
Don’t misunderstand. God was no Dr. Frankenstein, who merely tried to bring life back into a decomposing corpse. God was, after all, the very author of Life itself. He is the one who crafted man from the soil of the earth. He breathed life into Adam and Eve. Breathed life into each of us. Transforming Death into Life was simple enough for Him. Simple, yes, but by no means easy. And it wasn’t painless either. It required a sacrifice. But not just any sacrifice. God’s own Son was required. It required the Perfect Life of the only person to ever truly be Alive the way Life was meant to be lived. And He did all this for us. Because He loves us. Because He wanted to strip the rot away from our souls and give us new life! A new life with Him. A new life as part of His family. We were once dead, but now, thanks to Jesus Christ, we are alive again.
Father, thank you for raising us from the dead. For many of us, we were unaware of the rot that permeated our very existence until you held Jesus up as a mirror to our souls. When you showed us what true Life really was. Thank you for sending your Son so that we could truly live.
I hope you’re enjoying my new forensics-inspired devotional. If you are, please be sure to comment and let me know what you think. Restacks and shares are always welcome as well.
Also, if you’re interested in picking up the book, I Died Swallowing a Goldfish and Other Life Lessons from the Morgue, that inspired this devotional, you can pick a copy up here!
Powerful insights!!! Thank you!!!