Holy Monday- The Bad News

At the beginning of Holy Week I find it helpful to remember what I am without the Gospel.  In order to appreciate the Good News I must know the bad news.  Below are a few things the Bible says were are/were before Christ's sacrifice for us.

Blind

"I will keep you and make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind," Isaiah 42:6b-7a

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Corinthians 4:4

Captives

..." to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." Isaiah 42:7b

Dead

"As for you, you were dead in all your transgressions and sins," Ephesians 2:1

"For the wages of sin is death," Romans 6:23a

Objects of Wrath

"... Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."  Ephesians 2:3b

Enemies of God

"For if, when we were God's enemies..." Romans 5:10a

Slaves to Sin

"When you were slaves to sin..." Romans 6:20a

Hopeless

"remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." Ephesians 2:12


Before Christ paid the ultimate price to remedy the bad news we were in dire straits.  We had no hope, we were enemies of God, we were objects of His wrath, we were slaves to sin, we were blind, we were captives and we were dead.  But thanks be to God that the events of Holy Week happened.  Thanks be to God that these verses and fragments of verses are accompanied by good news that more than offsets the bad news.  Thank God that Jesus didn't just fix the bad news but He went above and beyond and gave us great news that could never be outdone.

On this Holy Monday let us begin to prepare our hearts for what God will reveal to us by taking a good, hard look at the bad news that needed fixing and couldn't be fixed by us. 

Remember what you and I were before Jesus intervened today.