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DEAD!
Spurgeon, "The Mighty Power Which Creates and Sustains Faith"
By nature we are spiritually dead.
We were dead in trespasses and sins.
Try to stir the natural man to spiritual action,
and you cannot do it.
Lift up his hand to good works, he has no power to
perform them. Try to make the feet run in the ways
of righteousness; they will not move an inch.
The fact is that the heart is dead.
Neither can the eye perceive any beauty in Immanuel, nor
can the nostril discover the fragrance of the Lord’s sweet
spices, nor can the ear hear the voice of the Beloved.
The man is absolutely and entirely
dead as to anything like spiritual life.
There he lays in the grave of his corruption,
and must lay there and rot too, unless divine
grace shall interpose.
"As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins,
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this
world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit
who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us
also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings
of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved."
Ephesians. 2:1-5
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