As Christians many of us believe that we were mostly dead before we got saved. We believe that when Jesus came into our life he encouraged us a little bit and made us feel better, but the truth is we were completely dead in our sin. We were in total depravity, with stony hearts, incapable of hearing or responding to God, deserving of His wrath. But God in his mercy and love sent Christ to be our redeemer. Through Christ the dead are made alive and our stony hearts are made flesh. Our salvation and faith are not of our own doing, but a gift from God. We tend suppress these truths in one of two ways. Either we don’t acknowledge how completely lost we were before Christ, or we don’t fully understand that the imputed righteousness of Christ has totally set us free from death.

Paul describes dramatic life altering realities. He does not argue dry doctrine or have unnecessary theological debates but simply tells his experience of being captured by God’s amazing grace.