You can’t undead someone.

Someone dear to me is a pathologist and performs autopsies regularly. He serves the families and community by investigating the cause of a person’s death and letting them know what happened. When he’s performing this process, he knows that nothing he does has any effect on the person. They are no longer living. They have no awareness, no feeling, no consciousness, no life. They have no power to fix themselves. They are totally and utterly incapable of changing from dead to alive.

Despite his vast skill (and he’s pretty talented), there is nothing a pathologist can do to change the “deadness” of this person. Only a miracle could do that.

The bad news.

Our identity before we place faith in Jesus for salvation is darkness and death itself. We are not “doing darkness” or surrounded by darkness, or just act dark sometimes. We ARE darkness and dead. 

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. (Eph 2:1-2)

This is hard for most of us to accept because we don’t see ourselves as all that bad. You might be thinking that as well. “People are basically good and I’m obviously not dead. I’m walking and talking…” “And I’m reading your blog, though not for long.“

The Bible clearly says different. This darkness is core to who we are and nothing can remove it from us. We are spiritually dead with no power to change it.

Now for the good news. We ARE light. 

Once we place our faith in Jesus, we are fundamentally changed by God. 

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light  (Eph 5:8) 

The glorious truth is that we were once darkness, but now we are light. God miraculously changes our spiritual state. We are full of and embodying the light, life, and righteousness of Jesus. When God looks at you, He does not see a former sinner. He does not see who you once were. He sees you for what you now ARE; redeemed and a new creation that has been made whole.

J. H. Evans puts it this way, “It’s not that you have some light, or there’s a little light in you, but positively declared, "You are Light.”

Just consider the promise here. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. This should give us encouragement and joy. This isn't the easiest thing to wrap your head around. We can't see the full picture yet. But trust me, we will experience something that the world cannot hope to offer – something more brilliant than the sun. You will have The Son.