Death to Self
“Death to self” is a phrase that has hit home for me for this past year. There are three types of death. There’s the physical side of death, which is the separation of body and soul. There’s spiritual death which is where we (human beings) are separated from God. There’s then this death of our self, which is the separation from our desires. Luke 9:23-24 says, “The he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” We as followers of Christ must take up our crosses daily. Matthew 10:38 says, “and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” It is right there in the word. Christ did not just die on the cross for you to go to church and be happy. Christ died for you to die as well! Yes, Christ loves and want to be happy, but in Him and for you to live a radical life. Tozer tells it well in this quote, “Among the plastic saints of our times, Jesus has to do all the dying, all we want to hear is another sermon about his dying.” We leave the dying up to Christ. That’s what the majority of us do, not live radically enough for Christ. We are not truly dying to our earthly desires. So pick up your cross!
Galations 5:24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
Colossians 3:3-7 “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.”
Romans 6:11-14 “ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
The entrance to Heaven should be a grave. We will then truly be made alive in Christ. “Let the appeal of sin strike you like it would a corpse.” I mean, what’s appealing about a corpse? Nothing! It’s dead. That’s what sin lead to. Does that make since? We have to be a living sacrifice. Romans 12:1-2. There is life after death. When you’re against God, you’re born once, and die twice. When you are with God, you’re born twice, and only die once.
We also, like in John 12:24, die so that we can reproduce seeds for Christ. Planting seeds is vital to discipleship.
Pray that we as followers of Christ can put away our earthly desires and start living our lives accordingly to what His holy word says. Like what Paul says, let fight the good fight and run the race.