On Death Row

Ezekiel 37:1-14; Ephesians 2:1-9

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at why we Presbyterians believe the things we believe and do the things we do. Well, today we come to the biggest problem that most people have with Presbyterians, the distinction that makes many people think we are downright kooky – the doctrine of Predestination. This is the sort of idea that makes most people start to twitch. How can it make sense for God to pick who is saved? Why wouldn’t God let us decide for ourselves if we want to have a relationship with Him? Predestination is un-democratic. It’s downright un-American.

I mean, sure – sin is a terrible problem. It messes everything up in our lives. It keeps us from thinking straight. But we Americans are very practical people. Don’t just tell us what’s wrong – tell us how to fix it. Don’t just tell us how bad sin is – tell us what to do about it. Give us a 12-step program or a five-year plan to clean up the mess sin has made. Give us some rules to follow, some behaviors to avoid. Let’s get busy fixing the world and its problems!

Such a desire for action is admirable, and it is understandable. After all, we know from the Biblical account of creation that God made human beings to be planners and doers, to exercise dominion over the earth. It is in the core of our being to try to fix things, to try to get things done.

And that’s why every culture all around the world has tried to undo the damage caused by sin. Every culture has developed rules to govern the way that human beings interact with one another, rules that thus try to repair the relationships that sin disrupts. Many of them are recognizable across space and time: no, you can’t marry your sister; no, you shouldn’t kill other people; no, you can’t take what doesn’t belong to you; yes, you have to obey your parents and other people in authority. The sorts of rules that we find in the second half of the Ten Commandments are more or less universal in all human cultures. Such rules are necessary to keep any society made up of sinful human beings from descending into chaos.

But, remember, sin doesn’t just cause problems by putting distance between people. Sin also puts distance between man and God. That’s why we have the first part of the Ten Commandments. Indeed, that’s why all human cultures have developed some sort of belief system about a god or gods, and about how men should interact with him or her or it or them.

And all of these belief systems except for Christianity have one thing in common – they are all aimed at people’s desire to fix their sin problems. All the other religions in the world teach that there are things you can do or keep from doing in order for you to close the gap with God, in order for you to restore the relationship with God that your sin has destroyed. All these religions are thus basically, self-help programs, listing the rituals that must be performed and the taboos that must be avoided in order for man to be pleasing to the gods. These religions teach that the quality of man’s relationship with the gods is thus in man’s hands, in one way or another. That’s the sort of thinking that appeals to Americans, right?

But none of that makes sense to us Presbyterians. Remember – the one common denominator of all our other eccentricities is our understanding of the sinful nature of man. The reason we have elders and presbyteries, the reason we worship in a subdued and humble fashion, is because we know that even after we have been saved, we continue to be subject to the deceptions and the temptations of sin. In short, even after we are saved, we don’t really trust ourselves to make good and wise decisions. Even after we have become Christians we are well aware of our weakness, of the fact that we continue to be sinners in need of a Savior.

And so, knowing what we know about the seriousness of sin and about the consequences of sin, there’s just no way we can believe that a person whose mind has been warped by sin and whose will has been weakened by sin could possibly reverse the consequences of sin by making the right choice for himself. We believe in the doctrine of predestination because of what we believe about human nature.

But we also believe in this doctrine because of what we believe about God. We know that God is the Creator of all things, the sovereign ruler over all the universe. We know that God is the source of man’s life because it was God Who first breathed the breath of life into man. And so, because sin separates man from God, sin must lead to death. Because God gave us our lives and because we refuse to use them for His glory, in His sovereign majesty, He has every right to ask for them back.

The situation of all human beings is thus in fact very similar to a person who is on death row. What can a prisoner do to save himself once he has been sentenced to death? He can be as nice to the guards and the other prisoners as possible. He can take advantage of the educational opportunities in the prison to improve and elevate his mind. But none of that can take away the debt that he owes to the state. None of that can reverse the death penalty.

And the sad truth is that none of the things prescribed by any of the other religions of the world can do anyone any lasting good, either. You might achieve more calmness by practicing yoga, but you are still going to die. You might conquer a big part of the world and make all the women wear a sack like Mohammed did, but you are still going to die. As Paul points out so clearly in verses 1-3 of today’s passage, all of us start out as children of God’s wrath, deserving nothing more than death. There’s nothing anyone can do to get himself off of death row.

Why not? Because if only the governor can issue a pardon to a criminal, only God can forgive sinners. Just as a convicted criminal can’t force the governor’s hand, there’s nothing we can say or do that can require God to forgive us.

In other words, we are just as helpless as convicted felons. Our salvation is completely up to God. No matter what we say or do, unless God does something for us, we remain helplessly locked up on death row. Because God is sovereign, we Presbyterians believe that only God can save sinners.

Of course, all Christians don’t agree with us. Many Christians, on the contrary, believe that every human being can take the initiative in his own salvation. Many Christians believe that every human being has it in his power to “get right with God.”

Now, such placing of faith in human actions takes different forms in different denominations. Some folks believe that sufficient power to save human beings lies in the sacraments of the Church. If someone gets baptized, takes communion, confesses his sins to a priest, and has the rites of extreme unction said over him, he’s guaranteed a place in heaven. It is thus these actions of men that guarantee man’s salvation.

Others believe that all a sinner has to do is walk down the aisle at a church meeting, say the sinner’s prayer, get baptized, and then he’s good to go. No matter what else he may think or say or do in his life, he doesn’t have to worry. His action of confessing Jesus Christ as his savior has saved him.

But all these actions are just as pointless and futile as the ravings of Mohammed, and for the same reason. Because man is a weak sinner and because God is a sovereign king, there’s nothing that a man can say or do to get himself off of death row.

But wait a minute, preacher. Doesn’t a Christian’s knowledge of the gospel count for something? If it doesn’t, why do we spend all that time and effort on evangelism and missions?

Now, it’s true that Christians may have one leg up on the rest of the world’s religions in that we know that there is in fact a way to get off of death row. We may know the names of some of the other prisoners who have been released. We may know the correct name of the governor. We may even have his cell-phone number.

But just knowing those things can’t open the doors of our prison cells any more than doing all those weird rituals can save people who believe in other religions. Why not? Because knowledge alone can’t save anyone.

Think about Adam. He knew a lot about God, didn’t he? In fact, Adam knew God pretty well. They talked one-on-one on who-knows-how-many occasions before Adam’s sin. But none of Adam’s knowledge about God stopped him from sinning. And because Adam sinned, he was sent out of the Garden, away from the presence of God. Because Adam sinned, he was condemned to death. Just knowing a lot of correct things about God didn’t save Adam, and all the orthodox theological statements in the world won’t save Christians, either.

No, our knowledge about Jesus Christ can’t save us. And in verse 1 of today’s passage, Paul tells us why. You see, we haven’t just been condemned to death because of our sins – we are already dead. In the same way that Adam kept walking around for almost 900 years after his sin in the Garden, so we too have physical bodies that will keep ticking along for some length of time. But spiritually, we all start out as dead as Adam, and for the same reason that Adam died. Every sinner is cut off from the source of his life, from God. Thus, it’s only a matter of time before our bodies catch up with our already dead souls.

Now, think for a minute about what Paul is saying here: how can a dead man possibly do anything to save himself? Can a dead man even trust Christ to save him? Of course not – no one is more helpless and hopeless than a dead person. If he is to place his faith in Christ, he must first come back to life. He must first be born again.

In other words, the reality of our situation is a lot worse than that of any prisoner on death row. We are actually a lot more like those dry bones in the valley of Ezekiel’s vision. What did it take for them to live again? Preaching alone didn’t do the trick. Ezekiel prophesied over them. Ezekiel spoke to them and they reassembled themselves and flesh grew back on them. But that’s as far as Ezekiel could go. No matter what Ezekiel said to those dry bones, they wouldn’t come back to life. They still didn’t have breath in them.

Why not? Because only God can breathe the breath of life into a man. Only God could breathe the breath of life into Adam, making him live for the first time. And only God can breathe the breath of new life into one of Adam’s spiritually dead descendants. The only way that the breath of life came back into those dry bones was for the breath or Spirit of God to breathe upon them and into them.

No, we must never forget that it is God alone who saves His people. For it is God alone in his sovereignty Who can give life to those who are spiritually dead. It is God alone Who can put the desire for salvation into a weak and helpless sinner. It is God alone Who can draw someone to place his faith in Christ. That’s what God made plain in the last verse of our responsive reading from this morning: “I will open your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it.”

And that’s the same thing that Paul says in today’s passage from Ephesians: it was while we were still dead in our sins that God made us alive with Christ – we didn’t do it, we couldn’t do it – God did it. It was by God’s grace that we have been saved through faith – and this saving grace doesn’t come from us. It is the free gift of God, an act of His free choice, of His sovereign majesty.

And so, yes, we Presbyterians believe in the doctrine of predestination. We believe it because we know how terrible and how pervasive sin is, how utterly it separates man from God. We believe it because we know that if God hadn’t taken the initiative to save His people, if God hadn’t first reached out to us, choosing to give new life to us, we would never have placed our trust in Christ. We would all have chosen to remain in our sins, helpless and hopeless and dead.

But if we believe this doctrine because of what we know of the helplessness of sinful man, we also believe it because of what we know about the character of our God. For if we know that it is only by the grace of our sovereign Lord that we have been saved through faith, we also know that the reason God has bestowed such a lavish gift upon His people is because of the richness of His mercy. We know that the reason God chose to save selfish, sinful, spiritually dead people like us is because of the greatness of His love.

And when we gaze upon the cross of Christ, how can we doubt either God’s sovereignty or His love? For none of His friends asked Jesus to die for them, did they? When He was arrested, most of them abandoned Him. And for those few who remained close by, His death was the last thing they desired. But God, in His sovereign grace, chose to provide the sacrifice that none of them chose.

And the nature of that sacrifice proves God’s love, doesn’t it? For He Himself was the sacrifice. He Himself was willing to suffer the pain of scourging and crucifixion. He Himself was willing to die so that we might have abundant life, eternal life. He Himself has provided everything necessary for the salvation and the redemption of His people. What greater proof of His love could we need?

So thank God for the good news of God’s sovereign choice! Thank God that He took the initiative to save undeserving sinners, in spite of our rebellion, in spite of our unwillingness. Thank God that He chose to pour out His love and grace and mercy on His people, bringing the dead back to life. And thank God that He offers salvation to all who place their trust in His power and His love, to all who depend on Christ alone for their salvation.