New.Demonstration

When you were thus dead in trespasses and sins, he quickened, or made you alive.

You lay, some of you a longer, and some a shorter time in the wretched state, which has been described, like the dry bones which the Prophet saw in the valley of vision, and there you had lain till now, had not sovereign grace interposed.

But he, who had from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, in his own appointed time, began to manifest towards you his eternal purposes of love.

The season approached, in which he determined, that the dead should hear the voice of the Son of man; and that they who heard should live. In preparing you for the great change, God dealt with you, not as machines, but as rational beings.

He sent someone to call to you, saying, O ye dry bones, hear ye the word of the Lord. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead.

By the influences of his Spirit, the call was rendered in some measure effectual. These influences were, however, as yet exerted only in operating upon your rational powers and faculties.

Your attention was roused, and turned to religious objects.

Your slumbering consciences were awakened, and began to review your past lives and present characters; to compare them with the divine requirements and to upbraid you with your numerous deficiencies.

Your understandings were convinced, that something must be done, and done speedily.

The new objects thus presented to your mind, and the new interest which they excited, weakened the influence of worldly objects, and rendered you less eager in their pursuit.

You began to read the scriptures, and other religious books, with something of a desire to understand them.

You felt disposed, you could scarcely tell why, to associate with pious persons, to hear religious conversation, and to frequent religious meetings.

You listened with more interest, than formerly, to the preached word; you felt yourselves personally addressed, and the truths which you heard; sometimes pleased, sometimes offended, and sometimes condemned and distressed you.

Thus your attention was more and more strongly fixed on religious subjects; and the interest which they had excited increased. But still you were far from being sensible of your true character and situation.

You did not know, or even suspect, that you were dead in trespasses and sins; that your minds were enmity against God, or that it was impossible for you, in your situation at that time, to please him. Ignorant of God’s righteousness, you went about to establish your own, and refused to submit to the righteousness of God.

While engaged in this fruitless attempt, your minds were agitated and perplexed by various and conflicting emotions. Sometimes you imagined that you were almost a Christian, and not far from the kingdom of heaven. Then some new discovery of the wickedness of your hearts seemed to put you farther from it than ever. In consequence of repeated disappointments of this kind, you were often strongly tempted to entertain hard thoughts of God.

You falsely imagined that you were willing to come to Christ, but could not; and that God refused you the necessary assistance. Hence you were often tempted to go back, and give up your religious pursuits in despair.

But this you found impossible.

The burden of guilt, and the deep anxiety which you now felt, would not allow you to rest, though you felt more and more at a loss what to do, or to conjecture the cause of your ill success.

By slow degrees, however, you begin to discover the cause. The commandment, as the apostle expresses it, came to you more clearly and powerfully; and as its light increased, sin revived and you died.

You began to perceive something of that spiritual death, of which you had not been aware.

You found, that in you there dwelt no good thing, that your hearts were impenetrably hard and insensible; that all your religious duties had proceeded from selfish principles, and were of course abominable in the sight of God.

Then you felt, more than ever, your need of a Savior; but, at the same time, more unable, or more unwilling than ever to come to him.

But at length you were made to see clearly, that the fault was your own; that you would not come to Christ for life; and that you were dead, utterly dead, in trespasses and sins, and that unless God interposed to save you, you should remain dead forever.

This led you to submit, unconditionally, to sovereign mercy, and prepared you to feel, that if ever you were saved, you must be saved by grace, and to give all the glory of your salvation to him to whom it is due.

Thus the preparatory work was accomplished, and he, whose work it was, saw that all obstacles to the display of his grace were removed; and then, as the apostle expresses it, by the working of that mighty power which wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, he breathed into you the spirit of life, and you became a living soul.

At first, however, you were perhaps scarcely conscious of the wonderful change, or at least, were conscious of it only by its happy effects. But these effects were such, as could result from nothing but the communication of spiritual life.

You found yourselves as it were, in a new world.

A new and interesting class of beings and objects, which had always surrounded you, but which you had hitherto never perceived, now presented themselves to your view; and the scriptures, which had heretofore seemed like the earth, at its first creation, a mighty chaos, without form and void, now appeared to you full of beauty, order and harmony.

This was the consequence of your possessing those spiritual senses, which ever accompany spiritual life; and which enable the possessor to discern both good and evil.

You now began, for instance, to possess and to exercise spiritual sight. The eyes of your understanding were opened to see wondrous things out of God’s law.

Among these wondrous things, one object appeared preeminently glorious, beautiful and lovely.

This was Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.

The light, which flowed from him, rendered both himself and other spiritual objects visible.

The wondrous plan of salvation by him now opened to you: you began to know God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, a knowledge of whom is eternal life, and to understand something of the various offices, which Christ sustains with respect to his people.

At the same time, you began to hear God’s voice in his word and in the dispensations of his providence.

You could now hear him speaking peace to his people and to his servants, and the Sound was music to your ears.

You were also endued with spiritual feeling.

Your hearts of stone were transformed to flesh.

You became susceptible of deep and lasting impressions from religious objects, and felt a quick sensibility when they were presented to your minds.

Nor were you devoid of spiritual taste. You could now taste and see that the Lord is good; you hungered and thirsted after righteousness; and as new-born babes, desired the sincere milk of the word. And while you were thus endued with new senses, adapted to perceive spiritual objects, the new life, which God had given you, began to spread through all the powers and faculties of your nature, rendering them instruments of righteousness unto holiness.

—Richard Payson, The Dead in Sin Made Alive

Read the rest of this excellent sermon on the extents of man’s depravity here, of our depravity, of what we were prior to conversion, or of what you are right now dear reader if you have not been converted unto spiritual life by the grace of God—and of that grace freely given that saves to the uttermost. Surely it is a most humbling and spiritually profitable thing to reflect upon our wretchedness that we may look out from ourselves in all lostness and hopelessness on to Him whom all things have become new.