Dead Man Walking

Dead man walking.  According to the Urbandictionary.com, the phrase has come to mean,  “A death row prisoner, on his terminal walk to eternity, inherits the unenviable title of 'dead man walking“. The haunting sight of a condemned man walking to his execution is sad to imagine.

 Up until now, I would have told you that I’d never witnessed a dead man walking, that is until God shared something with me.  He took me back to the “scene of the crime“, the garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve were innocent, at first, sharing the joy of paradise with their Creator, not having a care in the world, until that fateful day. Not unlike someone who breaks a human law, of their own free will, and is incarcerated,  these two made a bad decision, and the rest is history.  “But the LORD God warned him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden--except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die." Genesis 2:16-17. By their own choice, they rejected the truth of God, and by said action, were condemned, the punishment was the “Death Sentence”.  It wasn’t immediate, but it was final.  They lived out their earthly lives, separated from God, headed towards the grave, like dead men walking.

Death was never part of God’s plan for us, but the wrong was committed, and all of us, since, are born under that same condemnation. The only way to totally to be released from this eternal, spiritual  death sentence came centuries later in the form of Jesus, and his atoning sacrifice on the cross.  He alone offers that reprieve from the governor,  the 11th hour call that a condemned man waits for.  Yet, there are many people in the world who either choose to reject,  or are unaware that a pardon is available.  Remember, Jesus didn’t come to condemn us, we brought that on ourselves, but he does offer the writ of pardon penned in his blood.  "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17.