Spiritual Suicide 1
For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; 2 Tim 2:11
Died With Him – Every Christian is called to commit suicide. To be a follower in the Way means to terminate life in this world. Jesus invites us to share in His suffering – and that means a voluntary climb onto the altar of sacrifice. If you thought that you could avoid death by becoming a Christian, you didn’t understand Jesus’ call. Jesus is asking you to die.
There can be no life with God until there has first been a death – mine! If you don’t have a death certificate in your past, you are not a citizen in God’s kingdom. He only accepts suicide cases.
Paul used the Greek verb sunapothnesko. How this verb is constructed is important. It is made up of three parts, sun (“with”), apo (an intensifier like an exclamation point), and thnesko (the root verb). Thnesko means to separate soul from body – to die. This combination means that Paul is emphatically connecting Jesus’ death with ours. We are to crucify ourselves in order to extinguish the old (already dead) man. Until we go into the grave, we will not experience resurrected living.
Most Christians focus their attention on the new birth. They place the emphasis on the day that they were forgiven and redeemed. But Paul knows that the miracle of resurrection, which is entirely in God’s hands, is preceded by an act of submission. That act of submission is in our hands. We decide to die. Until we do, God’s hands are tied. God does not resurrect the living, only the dead.
Did you notice that Paul does not stop with this emphatic declaration of self-termination? He says that our decision to die ushers us into another realm – the realm of living with Him. This truth is even deeper. Since life itself belongs only to the Son (see John 1), our existence prior to self-termination is really not living at all. Remember that God’s point of view is always eschatological. The fact that you seem to be alive means nothing. Until you die with Jesus, you are merely the walking dead. Only after you die with Jesus are you truly raised to actual living.
This is one of the greatest paradoxes of the world. I cannot live until I die. Instead of spending all my energy trying to stay alive, I should be doing all that I can to insure my death. Until I put myself in the grave, I will not know God’s resurrection power. Most of us worry and fret and barter and beg to stay alive, never realizing that we are depriving ourselves of real life in the process. Take those efforts you expend to keep body and soul together and let them die. Die with Him. Then rise anew.
(Before you pull the trigger, read tomorrow’s word. The grammar is also important!)
An article called “Dying Now” has been posted to the web site at www.atgodstable.com
