Dying to live

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:25 ESV

                This formulation is found in every gospel, Mark 8:35, Matthew 10:39, 16:25, Luke 9:24, 14:26, and 17:33. John 12:24 says, “Truly, Truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies it bears much fruit. One life must end so that a greater life may begin. You cannot have your own life, and have the life of Christ abide in you. The call to follow Christ as these verses tell us is a call to die to self.  This is exactly as difficult as it sounds. The more we are invested in this life, the more difficult it is to lay this life down.

                We want to eat our cake and have it to. We want to keep our lives, and gain the eternal life in Christ at the same time, but it cannot be done. As it is written we cannot serve two masters. Jesus did not die to save part us, or redeem a percentage of us. He wants all of us, such is the greatest commandment. There are so many ways we fall short of this, so many ways in which we withhold ourselves. We keep certain pet vices in our lives. We allow pride to remain in us. We cling to tightly this world, to its fleeting goods, to our little dreams, to health and to life itself.

                We come to a moment wherein we can serve God, but instead we go in another direction to preserve our sense of self-sufficiency, or safety, or to chase after some lesser thing. We start using the words my, and mine when we ought to say His. In perhaps the darkest form of this defiance we claim the right to determine our own end. In some way all of this is akin to suicide, for it all stems from the same root.

                Christ did not call us to lay down our lives before first laying down His own. He never insisted on His rights as we read in Philippians 2 He was the paragon of humility. He modeled the Christian life for us, the perfect obedience required by the greatest commandment. He gave much to gain what must be little; but He calls us to give little in order to gain much. This is not foolishness save to the world. We are not fools who give what must be lost to gain what we cannot lose. Jim Elliot and His fellow missionaries, and all the martyrs, and every believer now in glory I am sure will say the same.

Prayer

                Our God let us know what it means for us to proclaim You as God. Let us take up the new life more abundant and free, laying down the old without hesitation. For what Christ has offered and secured is far greater than what we knew before to such an extent as no analogy is sufficient. Where we would cling to our old lives, where we would retain the illusion of control ply our fingers away and teach us to know the truth of things. We thank You for Your patience with us, and praise You for Your steadfast love which endures forever. We ask above all else that Your will be done, and Your Kingdom come on Earth as it in Heaven. To You be all glory. In the name of Christ our savior and our Lord we pray all these things. Amen.

Songs

If I had to die for someone by Petra

Kingdom Land (I’m on my way) by Alex Mejias

Jesus I my cross have taken

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