The Rockies were playing the Diamondbacks but the only thing on my TV was an error message: “searching for satellite signal…”  The help screen suggested my receiver needed to be reset.   There it is, folks, a great metaphorical description of the human condition!  We need to be reset.  We are dead, disconnected and searching for the signal, searching for the Spirit of God.  That’s what makes Isaiah 57:15, where God says He will “revive the spirit of the lowly,” such great news.  To revive means the same as to reset – to do what is necessary to connect the signal and bring us back to life. (If you don’t follow this, check out “Dead Man Walking”) 

John wrote of Jesus: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).  The thing that was different about Jesus was that He had life.  He was not spiritually dead, like everybody else.  Moreover, He was “The true light that gives light to every man” (John 1:9).  Jesus taught that this life and light is in the Spirit: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63).   

Jesus knew we were spiritually dead, but could be reconnected.  He said:

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24  

He came to reset us.  Now, if getting my TV working were only that simple…