the ultimate guide

This week in New Testament, we took one scripture out of the Bible and broke it down into the different greek words and their original meanings. I think it is interesting to see and just goes to show not only how many different interpretations there are, but also how easy it is to apply the Bible to any situation in life. And if we really dig deep to study it out, we can learn so much! The scripture that I would like to break down is Ephesians 2: 5 which states that “even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace we are saved;)” There is so many good things in this simple verse! Let’s start at the beginning, a very good place to start. So I love the analogy between death and sins and life and Christ in the beginning. Quickened means to make alive or revive. So the beautiful imagery is that in our sins we are dead but through Christ we are made alive again. I also like the connotation of quickened meaning to revive as well because even when we have become completely dead through out sins, when there seems like there is no hope at all for us, Christ is the one that can bring us back again. Next I want to talk about the phrase “by grace we are saved.” As Latter-Day Saints, we believe that we are saved through the grace of Christ after all that we can do. After we have completed as many righteous works in this life as possible, then Christ comes in to make up the difference. The original greek work for grace has a root in the word Charisma which means the ability to guide or direct. The greek translation for the word saved means to deliver, protect, heal, or make whole. So if we put those two together, the verse is saying that through Christ’s ability to guide us, we are able to be healed. Christ is going to be there to guide us through our life and our trials, but he isn’t going to complete them for us. And if at anytime, we step away from our guide and need to be revived, He is always going to be there with a defibrillator in hand to keep up going. Christ is always going to be there to keep us alive or to revive us whatever it may be. He will guide us in every aspect of our lives if we let Him, but we are the ones who have to take the steps in the right direction. He can’t take them for us, He can only show us what is right.