Alienation crucified

By: Alistair Begg – September 15, 2026.

Key points

• Governor announces first round of Rural Health Transformation projects totaling over $104 million.
• General Atomics confirmed second expansion this year, bringing 125 more jobs to Shannon.
• You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. – Ephesians 2: 1-2.
• Alistair Begg has been in pastoral ministry since 1975.
• C Spire expanding fiber network with new high-capacity corridor between Jackson and Olive Branch.

Stark though it may sound, confrontational though it may be, the Bible compares the unredeemed to the walking dead. Outside of Jesus Christ, men and women are "dead" in their trespasses and sins.

In practice, the Bible's picture of mankind ought to temper our expectations for what life can look like outside of God's kingdom. Education is vitally significant. Legislation is clearly necessary. But neither one, nor both of them together, is able to accord with the basic matters of the human heart. Worldly remedies only take us so far since they cannot address the greatest challenge: that our natural condition is that of being "dead in the trespasses and sins in which once walked. By nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2: 1, 3).

Meanwhile, the alienation that marks humanity outside of Christ is primarily vertical: an alienation from God. Yet the effects spill over in other directions. Paul goes on in his letter to the Ephesians to describe how this vertical alienation had affected horizontal relations between Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2: 11-12). The deep-seated hostility between Jew and Gentile in the ancient world was caused by nothing less profound than human sin. As represented by the curtain that hung in the temple, and both were separated from one another by the metaphorical wall that existed between them (v 14), both were separated from God.

Meanwhile, the truth is that such hostilities are bound to continue apart from Christ. Though it is good to invest in our communities and to labor for real change in our society and for the good of our neighbors (and indeed, God directs His individuals to do so-see, for example, Jeremiah 29: 7), this is not where a Christian ultimately focuses their primary energy in ministry or places their hope for renewal. In Jesus, and only in Jesus, God has created and is still creating a new society where divisive barriers are broken down by grace. When in a new heaven and in a new earth all He has purposed will be completed, god has provided in the authentic local church "the genetic blueprint" for "a broken world remade." When individuals encounter churches where that blueprint is seen, they will experience a taste of what God is planning to do when sin and tears and sorrow are no more.

Alienation-both vertical and horizontal-is inevitable apart from Christ. But in Christ, and in the society He is building and of which He is the head, such alienation has been crucified. Taking the reality of sin seriously means that you and I will invest in whatever way we can in our local church so as to ensure that it is a place where grace has torn down barriers and the blueprint of God's future kingdom is plain to see. Until we obtain there, we have the opportunity to work for, and enjoy, the foretaste now.

Regarding the Author(s).

Alistair Begg has been in pastoral ministry since 1975. After graduation from The London School of Theology, he served eight years in Scotland at both Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh and Hamilton Baptist Church. In 1983, he became the senior pastor at Parkside Church near Cleveland, Ohio. He has written a number of books and is heard daily and weekly on the radio program, Truth For Life. His Daily Devotionals are presented here via a syndication agreement. Faith Alistair Begg September 11, 2026. Considering God's grace should always move us to praise. More From This Author.

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In short, alienation crucified is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.