What was our spiritual condition before God before we came to him?
Spiritually, we stood before God stark naked, with no hope of obtaining help anywhere. Like a naked person caught in a predicament who cannot look for clothes, we were utterly helpless and hopeless in ourselves, having done nothing on our own behalf.
Les explains that before coming to God, our spiritual condition was one of stark nakedness before Him. He illustrates this with a naked person caught in a predicament: such a person is not going to go out and look for a set of clothes, but can only hope for the best. That, Les says, is exactly where we were spiritually—we were naked before God, with no hope of getting help anywhere. This underscores that we did nothing; everything God did was on our behalf. The sacrifice that was killed, Christ, was put to death on the cross, and the death we now die is a substitutionary death in the person of Christ. We were put to death in the mind of God on the cross of Calvary; we died when Christ died, yet we are alive. In light of all God has done, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is our duty, not a command.