People often paint the picture like this:
They were on the edge about to fall, maybe even falling, when someone snatched them up and took them out of harm's way. They were stranded in the middle of the ocean with no life preserver, no way out, when suddenly, the light shines down from heaven and the lifeboat appears. But that's not what happened. You weren't about to die, you were already dead. Not even fresh dead, like "oh-no, maybe we can fix this", with the breath of life and a Dr. Sexy hair flip. You were long dead. Like in the ground, dust and bones. You've been dead longer than you've been around. You were already dead when Adam ate the apple, you were dead when God made the world. But He made it anyway, and He made it all just so that He could come down to earth, become dirt and dust and death, take your rotting head in His hole-punched hands, kiss your gross corpse forehead with his bloody lips, and say
"Get up and walk."
