Zombie Apocalypse Now!

     The scene opens, in the distance the sprawling layout of a suburban neighborhood. The camera focuses on the front of one of the many carbon copy houses. The door opens and out comes a robed man in his mid thirties or early forties who lazily saunters out to collect his Sunday news paper. He opens it up and begins scanning the headlines in the early morning sun when, what's that? The smell of smoke touches his nostrils
.   He lowers his paper and looks around. A pillar of smoke rises over the houses, several doors down. He slowly begins to notice all is not right. There are several cars in the road yet they are not moving. The windows are broken and some smeared with blood. There are no lights or sirens urgently rushing to fight the fire that brought him out of his morning fog. He begins to back slowly to his house his eyes wide with uncertainty. What could possibly be going on? Was there a terrorist attack or some sort of invasion and he slept through it?
       As he approaches his door he begins to hear noises off to one side. It's a moaning or a low growling. He quickly turns to open his door to the safety of his home but  to no avail, some how he's become locked out his own house he pounds on the door yelling for his wife or child to let him in. As he shouts, from around the side of his house the source of the noise begins to come in to sight. Several horrifying creatures covered in blood, their eyes milky and dead. Their cloths torn and stained. He realizes as the come close, they're his neighbors, moaning and growling coming closer towards him.
     He's startled by a smack at the window, he turns it's his wife, her eyes milky white in her hands a lump of raw flesh she's ravenously gnawing on. Finally the synapses in his brain fire, forming a coherent thought, probably his last one...."ZOMBIES!!!" he shouts. Yes, the zombie apocalypse has begun.
      If you've ever seen a one of the numerous zombie movies this scene probably sounds familiar. An unsuspected and seemingly uncaused outbreak of flesh eating zombies, ravage and take over the world. These movies have been both cult favorites and near blockbusters for decades and recently even a highly popular cable t.v. show.  Even recently their has been an outbreak of very zombie like activity, one man nearly died when a man high on synthetic drug commenced eating his face and would not stop till a cop put a bullet or three in him.
     What is our fascination with these cannibalistic, voracious, mindless, base, vile, nightmare creatures? Is it the fear or the gore factor? Simply a symptom of a declining society? I would say that's a good analysis as any. Maybe it's more sophisticated maybe there a dark artistic theme or social commentary on commercialism or racism or a commentary on our society's decline layered in to the gruesome stories?
I think it could be any of those depending on who's doing the writing however I think more over the stories are simply about us. The human race ,in general, in our natural state.  (Actually if you can take a look at Ted Dekker's "Circle" books he does an excellent job illustrating this)
      The apostle Paul writes in the letter to the Ephesian;
    
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body  and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Eph 2:1-3 esv 

      We are zombies! We are the walking dead, spiritually anyway. We are not born good or even neutral as the world claims, we are born with Adam's sin. We are the stillborn children of wrath and death by our father Satan.  We are enslaved to the passions of our flesh like mindless beasts. Doomed to Gods wrath and given over to our depraved and debased mind (Romans 1: 18-32) We are not even born free no matter where you are born, you are born a slave!
        And I think we know this.  I know we know this or we wouldn't have things like religion, self help, psychiatry, and mood altering drugs to try and make ourselves seem alive or try to try and work our way in to life with God or on to Gods good side. God even sent us the law to show us this. Gods law was never sent to save us or bring us to life. It was sent to show us that we were dead and sinful creature. The law cannot be kept in whole because if you break one law it is as if you have broken them all. (James2:10) And this is the essence of human nature. We aren't dead and heading towards death because we sin. We sin because we are dead and walking towards death.
        So what is to be done about this state of ours. What can bring us out of our slavery to sin and our walking death? 

 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  Eph 2: 4-10 esv


     The wages of sin is death and in the days of the old covenant God gave us the sacrifice of bulls and goats and pigeons to cover the sin of the people. A covering of death so that God would not look upon their sin. Even with this the people were still dead, still slaves too their sin.  However these were still not good enough to bring the people to life. The sacrifices did not remove the sin and remove the death. Still however the answer to our problem of death was death. The perfect death, or rather the death of the perfect one, the death of God
      The answer was and is Jesus Christ.  Jesus came not conceived by a man but by the Holy Spirit and he did live the perfect life and kept God's  law perfectly and as the the Godman, both fully God and Fully man, he was the innocent sacrifice by both Jews and Gentiles at his crucifixion. The sins of man past, present and future were laid on him. He overcame this curse of walking death and the wrath of God by rising again and he now sits at the right hand of God as our perfect high priest. 
      Through faith in him and by the grace of God given to us  we can die to our curse of death in sin and rise to life with him. We can die to our old slave master of our flesh and bestial mind and become adopted sons and servants of the Living God and be zombies no more. 
       Their is one problem though but the problem is not with God or is offer or his plan. The problem is with us. Most of us don't know we're zombies. Especially in the western world, we are told that we are free, that we are mostly good that all we need is to be just a little bit better or that we just need to accept our selves as we are. But acceptance never comes...the "just a little bit better" is a carrot on a stick. What we need is the Holy Spirit to drag us kicking and screaming in to light and life. Because truth be told we don't really want to go.
        There is one sober realization in all of this and it's death.  While we are all born spiritually dead one day, two things are going happen. You are going to be physically dead and Jesus Christ is going to return to Judge the living and the dead. If you are in Christ you will be welcomed in to eternal life with him or you will condemned to eternal death. 
        So are you ready for this? Do you know where you will spend eternity? 


 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.6 But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down)7 or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  Romans 10 :5-13 esv