“Once you were dead . . . ” is some of the best news I have ever heard. Sound strange? Let me explain.

When I first read that phrase in Ephesians 2:1, it was hard to take in, but it resonated with what I felt was true. I knew that before I met Jesus, my sin made me feel good for the moment, but it left me aching ­inside—­like I was dying.

Then I read the rest of this passage, and the next sentence that came alive to me was “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that . . . he gave us life” (Ephesians 2:4-5). God doesn’t leave us dead in our sins. He has made a way for us to be ­redeemed—­or, to put it ­another way, remade.

These words about God’s character changed my life. God took my sinful, dead being, and in return, He gave me a new spirit, a new mind, and a new hope for a sinless body (2 Corinthians 5). God is a redeemer of spiritually dead people. This changed my whole worldview. Let it change yours, too.