Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

 Made us alive together with Christ:

 

Ephesians 2:5

5     even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

     

Colossians 2:13-14

13     When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

     14     having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

     

            Before Jesus came into our lives, we were dead in our sins. We had no hope for the present or the future. But when we did ask Him to come in, we began experiencing the life He provided for us two thousand years before. We didn’t have to earn anything. There was a certificate of debt against us … an impossible IOU. Only Jesus was able to not violate any of the commands of God. When He was nailed to the tree, it was also nailed with Him. Like the song says, “I owed a debt I could not pay … He paid a debt He did not owe.” Hallelujah! The IOU has been paid.

 

If you could hear God speak to you, I believe this is what He would say:

            "Once you were dead. You were dead in your sins and were slaves of the devil. But now you are victorious in Christ Jesus. When you believed in Him, you were made alive to Me. You were dead to all My ways, but now you are alive forevermore. You cannot walk in unbelief and expect to be victorious, but you shall reign in life as you trust Me to do in you what I said I would do. There is nothing that you have done in the past that can be held against you once you are Mine. You cannot be accused by the enemy of those things that you once delighted in. But now, you are free from those things and are victorious in Me.”

 

            67. Even before I knew Christ, He made me alive in Him. I didn’t have to do anything to earn it. He forgave all my transgressions and canceled out the certificate of debt that I owed and could never pay.