OUT OF SPIRITUAL DEATH “And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves.” Ezekiel 37:13
Out of spiritual death; the doctrine of the “New Birth” (being born again) is so misunderstood in our day of religious confusion that it is most difficult to know where to begin. When questioned on the subject ministers and laymen alike begin by citing certain conditions in order to “be born again.” Granted there are conditions that must be met with in order to be saved, those conditions are found in grace. The new birth, or what we refer to as regeneration, is a spiritual operation; it is what the scripture speaks of when it speaks of the circumcision of the heart. “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” … “but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Philippians 3:3 & Romans 2:29). In the framework of experimental grace (salvation) there is what we call regeneration and conversion, distinct yet inseparable. Regeneration is in the passive sense, conversion the active. Regeneration is first in order, it being of necessity; the scripture teaches us that a person, by nature, is in a state of spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1-2). The state of the human race is illustrated to us in Ezekiel 37 by a “valley of dry bones.” That illustration shows us just how passive sinners are. The only hope for Ezekiel’s dry bones was the “Breath of God” (the Holy Spirit) to come upon them and make them active: this being regeneration. Indeed it must be so: those who receive life from the dead are sure to recognize the hand of the LORD in such a resurrection. This is the greatest and most remarkable of all changes that a man can undergo – to be brought out of the grave of spiritual death and made to rejoice in the light and liberty of spiritual life. None could work this but the living God, the LORD and giver of life: this is conversion. My dear ones the only hope for sinners in our day is for the “Breath of God” to come upon them. They must be converted; that is they must repent and believe the Gospel, but they are helpless to meet these conditions until the Spirit of God enables them to do so. The illustration in Ezekiel 37 also illustrates our part in the salvation of sinners. Ezekiel could not give the bones life, but he could preach to them, and pray for the Breath of God to blow upon them. How well do I remember when I was lying among the valley of dry bones, as dry as any of them! Blessed was the day when free and sovereign grace sent the man of God to prophesy upon me. I will sing a new song unto Thee O God, for granting me the gift of repentance and belief in the Gospel.
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