I distinctly remember the birth of both of my children.
Although they were born six years apart, I remember the preparation for
each trip to the hospital. The drive there. Escorting my wife to the
elevator. The rooms, the monitors, the nurses, doctors, and family
members. The anticipation and waiting. Most of all I remember seeing my
children for the first time and seeing the look on my wife’s face when
the nurses handed her this tightly bundled little person. I look up now
and see a photograph taken of me holding my newborn daughter twelve and a
half years ago. The birth of a child is truly an amazing and
unforgettable experience.
As amazing as the birth of a child is, it pales in comparison to the
miracle of spiritual birth. You see, my children were born physically
healthy, and for that I thank God. But they, like every descendant of
Adam, were spiritually stillborn. They were born spiritually dead, and
they are not alone. You and I and every other person were born dead —
dead in sin (see Eph. 2:1).
We were born dead because of the sin of our representative head, Adam.
The apostle Paul teaches us that “sin came into the world through one
man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all
sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
And spiritual death is not the end of it. Even if we are born
physically healthy, our spiritual death will be followed at some point
by our physical death: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). Continue at Keith A. Mathison
