“The Walking Dead, Conclusion"

 
CHARACTERISTICS OF WALKING DEAD
The characteristics of the walking dead are numerous. Various symptoms are more prevalent in some than in others, depending upon many factors including personality, vices, attitudes, experiences, and so forth.  According to this passage, the devil is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  The walking dead according to verse 3 are found to be following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.  In other words, the walking dead are following their “leader” and are exhibiting similar qualities and characteristics which are always self-centered and intended for self-preservation and/or self-gratification. 
Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT) gives us an idea of those who have not yet received the cure of life by listing a few examples of the attributes of the walking dead:  “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.” 
In our chapter of Ephesians (2:12, NLT) a couple of other traits are listed, “You lived in this world without God and without hope.”  There we go.  These symptoms will make it much easier to diagnose those in the world who remain contaminated and who desperately need our help.  We, obviously, are not the cure, but we certainly can direct them to the cure. 
These instructions affirm what our previous tests have revealed regarding the walking dead.  They are truly “without God.”  The contamination of their souls and spirits (their “imago Dei” or “image of God) has separated them from a pure and holy God.  Therefore, as a result they are not interested in “the things of God.” It is their nature.  They do not want to follow the commandments of God, or attend church, or worship God, or submit to His will, or love others, or serve selflessly, and so forth.  This is how we can easily identify and distinguish those who are still corrupted from those who are alive in Christ.  It is a difference between night and day.
 
NO HOPE
Notice also from this verse how the walking dead wander aimlessly on this earth with no direction and no hope.  Since they are not yet alive in Christ or led by God, they have no sense of purpose and self-esteem or “God-esteem.”  They carry around the continual, unbearable burden of hopelessness. 
They have no hope that the world could possibly improve.  They have no hope that anything will ever change for them.  They have no hope in a better future life beyond this world.  They have no hope that a kind, compassionate, and loving God would ever come and rescue them from their despair.  Like the zombies on various movies and televisions series, they amble pointlessly…to anywhere but nowhere, for no particular reason except to survive or pursue their own selfish needs and cravings. 
 
THE PURPOSE
Now that you are fully aware of the symptoms of the catastrophic contagion, you should be able to easily identify the walking dead in our midst whether it be the cashier at the local market or the teller at the bank or your neighbors or relatives or those sitting around you at the movie theater or your coworkers, and so forth.  Clearly the reasons for such a diagnosis are not to quarantine those infected, or eradicate them along with the threat, or ostracize them from society. 
On the contrary, our sole purpose for such a classification is to bring back to life the walking dead.  It is quite odd to me how so many who were once infected themselves but have since been resurrected from the dead fail to feel an urgency to distribute the necessary aid to these miserable creatures. 
 
THE CURE
There is a cure.  But the cure could not possibly emanate from humankind due to the fact that we are all infected.  We had to have the blood of someone not contaminated, yet there was no one on earth to be found because we are all tainted at conception.  We, like the Walking Dead (because “we” were “them”) had no hope…until…until the Son of God, a Lamb if you will, innocent, holy and spotless and never infected with the deadly disease stepped out of His glory in heaven to come to this earth.  The healing, life itself, is in His pure, clean, and uncontaminated blood.  He shed His blood, His life, so we could be raised to a new life now healed through HIS blood. 
We read several lines from our “Walking Dead Salvation Manual for Life” which I think we will call simply “the Bible” because it contains many publications from various authors who heard directly from God so that His words might be written in one book.  They are written for the sole purpose that those who have been healed may share the cure with others…so that the walking dead will be brought back to life. 
Let me leave you with further words of life from this same chapter in the manual of life…uh…I mean, the Bible.  “4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 4:2-6, NLT)