30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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LUKE 19 1-10 SEEKING TO SAVE THE LOST 23 Man’s condition of death
📖 Luke 19:1-10
07Dec2020 - *Man’s condition of death* - _Luke 19:1-10_ - SEEKING TO SAVE THE LOST 23 – Bible reading:
_Luke 19:10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."_
As we conclude this study on the Zacchaeus, seeking to save the lost, we see the reality that there are many in our world, who do not consider themselves to be lost. They are of the view that they are good by themselves and that they do not need a Saviour to save them from their lostness.
Sin is a common denominator for the entire human race. _Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—_
Man is therefore in a state of death, which is separation from God. God is the source of life. Separation from God is death.
_Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life._
Man’s inner person is the one who needs to be alive. This life, in the inner person, was received when God breathed His breath into the nostrils of man. Though the encounter with God was at a physical dimension, the person who was alive was the one within.
Our task is to nurture the inner man in an intimate relationship with God, in order to be alive at our soul.
When we sinned against God it was the inner person who died instantly and the outer physical person is in a gradual state of decay and death.
_Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it *you shall surely die*."_
God commanded man not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If man disobeyed and rebelled against God and ate the fruit, he would *surely die*.
So, when they ate the fruit of the tree of which they were commanded not to eat, *man surely died*. Relationship with God in the inner man, which is where we were alive, was now in a state of death.
Nothing that man can do can bring man back from death to life. Religion, good deeds or anything else cannot restore man back from death to life.
We say we are spiritually dead but physically alive. What we need to understand is that man is *surely dead*. This is the bad news for humanity. Even our physical existence is in a state of decay, leading eventually to death.
This is the lostness of man, which is the common denominator for every human being on the face of the earth.
This physical life that man is living here on earth, though in a state of sure death, is the very small window of opportunity that God has given man to either choose life or death.
Remember, life is the life in the inner man. This can be restored but only when a person comes back under the rule of God over his life or into a breath to breath relationship with God.
Jesus came to give man that opportunity to come back to life from the state of being surely dead.
_John 5:24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but *has passed from death into life*._
_John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. I John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (12) He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life._
If man rejects God now, while he lives for a very short period of time here on earth, what awaits man is the second death.
Our responsibility as the Church is to present Christ to people so that they will cross over from death to life.
*Thought to ponder*
```Evangelism is about bringing dead people back to life.```