Life out of Death.

Gain from loss. Sometimes hard to comprehend. Even more mysterious: life out of death.

How does a Christian grapple with Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I don’t act dead. Don’t look dead. Don’t smell dead…well! What about me is dead? And, if I’m dead, than why does Romans 8:13 tell me to put to death the misdeeds of the body and I’ll live? What is all this death stuff for the Believer in Christ? And how does life come out of death? And, am I too foolish to think I can articulate an explanation in one short posting? Allow me to take a stab at it.

Life out of death is to me, one of the most dynamic concepts in Scripture. It is the basis for victorious Christian living, no matter the circumstances. Romans 6:6 is a corollary of Galatians 2:20 and tells us that our “old nature” died with Christ. I believe that means that the person I was before beginning my walk in faith with Christ is dead. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells me that I am a new creature, the old is past, the new has come. Everything about me is the same after initiating my commitment to Christ – personality, body structure, habits, social propensity – but there is a new source of empowerment for living. It is not me running my life in my own strength, but Christ providing the wherewithal to live supernaturally. (Glory be to God who by His mighty power at work within me is able to do far more than I would ever dare to ask or even dream of – infinitely beyond my highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.) Ephesians 3:20 TLB

Sixty one years ago, I felt that Jesus was knocking at my heart’s door. I invited Him in and have walked with Him since – usually close, periodically at a distance. The life I operated in my own strength before I committed to Jesus is gone, dead. I’m a new creature in Christ. Christ is alive in me and I am in Him. “…I no longer live but Christ lives in me.” I can now ask Him to live, love and give through me. He is my life. What peace! What contentment! What joy! What strength! What hope for the future!

Then, why do I have to “put to death the misdeeds of the body?”

Though I am a new person in Christ, there still dwells within me a propensity to run life myself – selfishness, call it the “flesh.” Instead of being yielded to obedience to Christ, there is a flesh that would be self absorbed, that would tend to worry, to resent, to fear, to lust, to have life take care of me, to not trust God’s love and grace. When I find myself “in the flesh,” I must ‘kill it.” Put to death the deeds that would be contrary to what Christ would direct.

It is easier to remind oneself of this dynamic, when you’ve saturated your mind with supportive Biblical passages like Romans 6-8, Ephesians 1-3, Philippians 2-4 and Colossians 1-3.

During the height of one World War II bloody battle, it is reported that an older American soldier counseled a young private who was petrified with fear as he witnessed the carnage of dead and mangled soldiers strewn all around him. The young man feared an almost certain, similar fate for himself in the days ahead. The older soldier’s counsel was chilling but poignant: “Accept the fact that you are already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function. All war depends upon it.”

And so with the Christian. You are dead to the old life operated by self. You are alive in Christ. Christ is alive in you desiring to live His supernatural life through you. Think like it. Act like it.