The enemies and the great reversal

The sermon this week focused just on the first six verses of chapter 2, and I am only writing today about the first three:

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

I was dead in my transgressions before I became a Christian. I was by nature an object of wrath. This is strange to think about in the context of the fact that we baptise infants and claim God's promises for our children at this young age. Is William, at 4 months old, a dead object of wrath (and, at the same time, a precious and loved child of God)? How can that be? The question I really don't want to ask is "If this precious baby died without having become a believer, would he go to heaven?" How can you say he's a dead object of wrath, and also maintain that God would bring him home to heaven? Or, what if I had been hit by a car and died a month before I accepted Christ back in 1969? What would have happened to me?

It makes no sense except for the glorious fact of God's sovereignty over the world, from the smallest child to the largest movements of nations. God protects the eternal life of ALL his children and brings them home to him at the time he has ordained. Even though we believers go through a time of being 'dead' as we become responsible for our actions and have not yet embraced Christ for ourselves, I think that even that time of deadness does not occur outside of the circle of God's providence, and is not our final state according to God's plan and promise. God's will and power supercede the possiblity of one of his own being lost. In other words, those people don't die until God says so. This is perfectly in sync with the FACT that 'the church is not peripheral to the world, but the world is peripheral to the church' (this phrase quoted from the sermon). God IS the final power. God's plan to make a people for himself IS the real reality and purpose within the stream of life, and all events need to be understood in relation to this reality. We need not fear that God will mess it up.