ALWAYS DELIVERED TO DEATH

We have a friend, a dear sister in the Lord, who is going through a very difficult spiritual battle.  She has endured false accusations, lies, cursing, and isolation from a family member whom she loves.  This is one who has professed love for her in times past.  We have encouraged her the best we can with words of comfort and hope.  I know that in her mind she knows God is doing a work; but the heart, of course, would like to see a much quicker victory.  Her family member calls her from time to time only to swear at her and tear her down.  She has been tempted to reason with her loved one to try to vindicate herself in the face of the unjust accusations raised against her, but each time the Lord only gives her one thing to say: “I love you.”  After a recent episode, our friend was tempted to get on a plane, fly across the country to where her family member lives, and wrap her arms around them when they came to the door.  The Lord let her know that it would be a mistake to do so just now.

 

Our friend can’t fix this situation - only God can change hearts and save souls.  I know how helpless she is tempted to feel at times, but then she is encouraged by the hope that God is at work.  She has a vision of His will.  We have experienced similar situations and have felt that if we had said or done more, it might have made a difference.  Again, only God can change hearts and save souls. 

 

As we were at supper with our friend and her husband recently, I had a strong feeling to tell her that just as God allowed His own Son to suffer rejection at the hands of those who should have loved and received Him, He was allowing our friend to suffer rejection also.  Such suffering is not without purpose.  Jesus’ suffering and His great love for the children of the world, brought the possibility of salvation to all of mankind.  Our friend’s suffering and her great love for her family member, will also bring life and the possibility of salvation.  Without death, there can be no resurrection; and without resurrection, there can be no hope of eternal life.  It’s a wondrous truth that as death (dying to self) works in God’s children, divine life (the life of Jesus) can work through us to others (2 Corinthians 4:11, 12).

 

Later, as I meditated on the principle of dying to self, the Lord reminded me of Paul’s words to the Corinthian Church.  He wrote, “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:11).  If salvation can only be found in Christ, then in order for His life to be poured out from me to others, I must be “delivered to death for Jesus’ sake.”  To the Romans Paul wrote, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Romans 6:5).  I must die to myself and relinquish my self-centeredness to God altogether if I want the life of Jesus to be manifested in me.  Paul couldn’t have expressed this principle any more clearly than when He said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).

 

Jesus said, “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25).  At the time, this concept was somewhat vague in the minds of Jesus’ disciples.  They had a surface understanding of it, but that only went so far.  Yes, they had given up many things in order to follow Jesus: their jobs, their possessions, their comfort, and their future plans, but this was nothing compared to what the Lord intended ultimately.  They were going to need the grace and power of the Holy Spirit in order to go deeper and embrace this unconventional truth. 

 

Hating our life and dying to self was such a basic foundational teaching that the Gospel writers included it at least six times in their accounts of Jesus’ sayings.  It is the very essence of discipleship.  Paul beseeched the Gentile believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices to God, and referred to it as being merely their reasonable service to God (see Romans 12:1). 

 

The Apostle Peter also wrote about the crucified life in his first epistle, “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.” (1 Peter 2:19).  Once more, the principle of suffering for Christ’s sake and dying to self comes to the forefront.  The phrase, “…if a man for conscience toward God...” implies that it is a choice, an act of free will, and an exercise of conscience.  God does not force suffering on us.  It isn’t something that we must reluctantly endure against our will.  It is something that we learn to willingly accept and embrace at times in order for Christ’s divine life to be seen in us.  Just as Jesus had a choice to take up the cross and follow His Father’s will, we, too, have a choice.  Without the cross, however, there can be no redemption, and without accepting our daily crosses, we cannot truly portray Christ to the world.  “And He [Jesus] said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23). 

 

In the 26^th chapter of St. Matthew, we find Jesus asking His heavenly Father to remove the cup of suffering that He was about to experience.  “Nevertheless,” He said, “not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39).  The flesh will always prefer the easy way out, but God’s path often leads us through the valley of the shadow of death.  We can be encouraged, though, knowing it is but the shadow of death.

 

Peter continues, “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” (1 Peter 2:20).  I have witnessed believers complaining about the persecution that they go through at the hands of unbelievers, but sometimes it is their own overbearing attitude and self-righteous nature that has invited that persecution.  They expect a heavenly reward for this from God, but they are only suffering because of their own faults.  On the other hand, I have seen believers who are badly treated and evilly spoken of for their good example of Christ-like love and patience, yet they endure it in silence and hope.  These are surely laying up treasures in heaven and leaving a witness for Christ. 

 

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: [Guile is the quality of being good at deceiving people in a clever way, of saying one thing but meaning another].” (1 Peter 2:21, 22).  Jesus is our example in all things.  We can never go wrong when we choose to walk in His steps.  As He embraced His Father’s will even to the death, so we must also surrender our will to God.  We must be willing to allow the love of the Father (that deep love that sacrificially gave His only begotten Son so that we might be saved) to dwell and to mature in our hearts.  “Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:19-24).

 

The surrendered life that we are talking about is what Paul referred to as “…the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:13).  There are those who name the name of Christ who sadly have no concept of the higher calling that God is asking us to embark upon.  They are very shallow in their faith and in their knowledge of the Lord Jesus.  Paul foresaw the days when this type of Christianity would be prevalent.  He said this about them: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous [lovers of money and the things that it buys], boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent [lacking self-restaint; uncontrolled], fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady [rash; reckless], highminded [blinded by pride], lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).  Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters at the same time.  Either we will hate the one, and love the other; or else we will hold to one, and despise the other (see Matthew 6:24).  If we love ourselves supremely, how can we fully love God?

 

Of course, this self-sacrificial lifestyle doesn’t happen all at once.  It is step-by step, and day-by-day.  It is a big victory here, a lot of little victories there, and sometimes a step backward (see Isaiah 28:9-12).  This is why Paul said, “I die daily.” (1 Corinthians 15:31).   This is also why he said “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14).  We are constantly asked to make choices: either our will, or God’s be done. 

 

I think Paul sums it all up pretty well in the fourth chapter of 2^nd Corinthians.  He writes that we are, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.   For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.  So then death worketh in us, but life in you…for which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:10-12; 16-18). 

 

We must remember that we are not fighting against flesh and blood no matter how real that battle may appear.  It is principalities and powers in the invisible realm that are our enemies, and they can only be defeated with the help of all the spiritual armor that God has provided for us (see Ephesians 6:13-18).

 

We are confident that the Lord is doing a wondrous work in our friend’s family, and that in due season they will reap the rewards if they faint not.  God is always faithful when we choose His ways over ours!

 

“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:27).