Romans 6:5-11

Matthew 16:24-25
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.(ESV)

One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride. There’s a scene where one of the main characters is continually using the word “inconceivable.” The events that to him are “inconceivable” keep happening. His concept of what is impossible keeps running into the brick wall called reality. At one point, another character says “I do not think that word means what you think it means.”

“Dying to Self” is a phrase I often hear spoken by my friends at church. My department even offers a class with that title. It’s a deep and meaningful phrase but sometimes I wonder if it means what we think it means. The phrase “dying to self” doesn’t appear in scripture. We are to “deny self”. We are to “take up our cross”. We are to “consider ourselves dead”. We are to “lose our life”. All of these are ways, I think, of expressing the same idea and “dying to self” is a great way to express this idea. But I’ve noticed a tendency to misunderstand a key aspect of what it means. I often hear “dying to self” used to indicate a need to die. Used this way, dying to self is something we ought to do that we haven’t yet done.

But the Bible is clear. In Christ, I have already died. I’m dead. Buried. Crucified. It’s already happened. It’s a present reality because of a past occurrence. Hence Paul’s instruction in Rom 6:11 that we should “consider” ourselves dead. Another translation says we should “reckon” ourselves to be dead. This is an accounting term. His point is that since we are already dead, we should accurately account for this reality, considering ourselves dead, reckoning ourselves dead, marking ourselves in the “already dead” column of the account.

The point of “dying to self” isn’t that I need to die, but rather that I need to align myself with the truth that I am already dead.

2 Corinthians 5:16-17

In my last post I discussed the previous two versus. Paul states that he is controlled by Christ’s love because 1) Christ died for him and 2) When Christ died, Paul died. A revelation of the sufficiency of the Cross changes everything. Because Christ died for me, my standing before God has changed. I have been made righteous. I have been included in the convenant family as a son. Because I died in Christ I have been given a new nature. I am a new person. The old me has been removed.

In these verses Paul continues to develop this idea. A revelation of the sufficiency of the Cross transforms the way I relate to other believers. Because Jesus died for them, because when Jesus died they also died, they too have a new status before God and a new nature. They too have had their old nature removed. They too are righteous. They too are sons. They too are carriers of the divine nature.

So Paul says we are to know no one according to the flesh. This is so very important. Here we clearly see that Paul understands that what we see in someone’s flesh is often incongruent with what is true about their identity in Christ. We must see beyond that which is observable with our natural eyes and choose to see people as heaven sees them. The old things really have passed away. If we only observe the flesh we will not think the old things have passed away. We will relate to people on that basis, as if the old things were still present. But if we understand the sufficiency of the Cross, then we will see others through the lens of His perfect provision.

What if we were to determine to shift the way we see others in light of this truth? What if we were to choose to relate to others solely on the basis of their identity in Christ rather than their current attitudes, behaviors, or shortcomings? What if we were to begin to relate to our children this way? Our spouses?

I believe there is something powerful and redemptive released among us when we choose to see one another as God sees us – in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Paul here declares that he is being controlled. But what might this mean? The Greek word tranlated “controls” means to “hold together”. In Luke 8:45 Jesus is “surrounded” by a crowd, pressing in on every side. In Luke 19:43 enemies “hem” you in on every side. In Luke 22:63 soldiers are “holding” Jesus in custody. Men “covered” their ears in Acts 7:57 as they rushed to stone Stephen. Christ’s love “controls” us in 2 Cor 5:14. The basic idea seems to be surrounded and thereby limited. Paul is saying that he is surrounded by and limited by the unconditional love of Christ.

This isn’t the kind of control that removes Paul’s volition. Paul isn’t claiming to be robotic and mechanical in his response to God. He is not claiming that his capacity to choose has been removed. Rather, the options available to him have been reduced because every direction he turns he runs smack into God’s unconditional love. Why is Paul surrounded by and limited by the love of Christ? The next statements make this clear by beginning with “because.” He is surrounded and limited by Christ’s love “because” of what follows.

1. Because we have concluded. Paul has made an internal judgment between alternatives. He has concluded something. This verb indicates that there was a moment in the past when he actively made a determination that resulted in his experience of being surrounded and limited by God’s unconditional love.

2. Because we have concluded that one died for all. The first thing Paul concluded was that Jesus death was substitutionary. Jesus died in our place, as our substitute. We will never be surrounded by and limited by Christ’s unconditional love until we actively conclude that Jesus died for us.

3. Because we have concluded that one died for all, therefore all  have died. Not only has Jesus died for us; we have died in him. When He died, we died in Him. Not only did Jesus die in our place, Jesus’ death is the place where we died. We will never be surrounded by and limited by Christ’s unconditional love until we conclude that we ourselves are dead because Christ has died.

4. Because we have concluded that he died…that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Because Jesus died for me and because when Jesus died I died too, I no longer live for self. For my “self” to die in Christ is to no longer be ruled by what I think, feel and want. It is to no longer live for self.

So there are two ways to live. On the one hand I can live for self, pursuing what I think, feel, and want. On the other hand, what I think, feel, and want can be hemmed in, surrounded, held captive – controlled. But this control is not a control by rules or law. It is not a control from obligation or fear. It is a control flowing from Christ’s unconditional love. The clear conclusion is that if I am living for self, unconstrained, uncontrolled, it is because I do not clearly see Jesus’ death on the cross and my place in relation to His death. On the other hand, if I rightly view the cross and my relationship to the cross, I will discover that I am surrounded by an unconditional love that, though limiting me from being governed by what I think, what I feel, and what I want, is the only way to truly live.

Good Friday is good for us. It wasn’t so good for Jesus.

The brutality of crucifixion cannot be overstated. The scourging itself was beyond imagination, then nailed to a piece of wood, searing pain rushing in waves through the body, taking in gulps of air, pressing down against the nails in the feet to free his diaphragm to allow each exhaled breath, each time dragging his back, turned hamburger meat by the Roman whip, across the center beam of rough wood, naked, surrounded by mockers, bearing the full suffering of sinful humanity and broken creation in himself, rejected, forsaken, alone, hour, after hour, after hour.

God hung on a stick for me. It is no wonder the earth shook and the sun turned away its light.

Today I’m reminded that there is no brokenness that has not been fully carried. No provision that has not been fully made. No healing that has not been purchased. Adam disconnected from God in order to rely on himself. This is death. Jesus fully entered into this forsaken death that I might be connected again to the source of all life.

I am struck in these verses with the mysterious interplay between a man’s will and God’s. This is a powerful example of the partnership that exists between God and man in the salvation process. God has sovereignly given light to every man (vs 9). None of us could hold any hope apart from this truth. No amount of lifting my sail will result in the movement of my boat unless the wind is blowing. No amount of choosing to look will avail if there is nothing to see. God has given light to every man.

There are some who reject him. Some people who have light choose not to see. But some see. Some receive. Some believe in his name.

And what is God’s response? He authorizes them to become his children. Man responds to God’s light, choosing to see. God responds to man’s faith, authorizing him as a child. But when a man chooses to receive and believe, he is responding to God’s sovereign initiative in giving him light. So though a man exercises his will to receive and believe, his salvation is not by his own will, but by the will of God. God’s will is the cause of my salvation. My choice to receive and believe is the necessary condition. God’s grace and mercy expressed through the finished work of Christ on the cross is the cause of my salvation. My faith is the necessary condition for his provision to be appropriated in my life. The wind moves my boat, but only if I lift my sail. His light enables sight, but only if I choose to look.

In the end, I will take no credit for my salvation, for I am born by his will, not my own. But for those who refuse to see, who refuse to receive and believe, it will be the exercise of their will that excludes them from his grace. If I refuse to lift my sail, I cannot blame the wind when my boat is dead in the water. If I refuse to open my eyes, I cannot blame the sun for my blindness.

I want to ask you to follow me through another way of looking at things that might be nearer to the truth and more helpful.

Colossians 1:15 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.(ESV)

In this passage, Paul is speaking about Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. We cannot see God, but in Christ God has fully revealed himself.

Colossians 1:19 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,(ESV)

Paul goes on to say that Christ is not only the image of the invisible God, but is in actuality the fullest revelation of who God is and what God is like. In Christ we discover the fullness of God.

John 14:8-9 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?(ESV)

Jesus here essentially makes this same point about himself. Do you want to know who the Father is and what he’s like? Just look at Jesus.

Now here’s the thing about allowing Jesus to inform us about God’s nature and character, allowing Jesus to authoritatively determine for us the fullness of our understanding about who God is: In Christ we discover that God’s goodness is better than we might otherwise have thought. We can’t ever find one sick person that came to Jesus for healing that didn’t receive it. We can’t find one funeral Jesus attended and didn’t ruin.

John 10:10 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.(ESV)

In this passage Jesus makes an important contrast between himself and Satan. Contextually, Jesus is talking about the difference between the good shepherd (Jesus) and the robber (Satan). The question essentially is, how can we know the difference? This verse above is essentially Jesus’ answer. How can I tell when Satan is at work? When the result is theft, death, and destruction. How can I tell when Jesus is at work? When the result is abundant life.

Now in my life, when I have faced painful loss that touches the core of my being, dare I take what Jesus is saying seriously? Dare I interpret my experience through the filter of the truth Jesus is presenting? Many refuse to, and I can understand why. The implication is that if Satan, rather than God, is the author of my loss and pain, then some things happen in this world that are not God’s will. God doesn’t exercise control over everything. The thief comes. This way of viewing things can be very uncomfortable if our security lies in the idea of God’s sovereign control over all the details of life. But what if that’s not the best way to find security in God?

Let’s think for a minute about a world in which no creature was able to violate God’s will. It would certainly be a much cleaner, neater, and nicer world, wouldn’t it? We would definitely have much better behaved creatures. But if God had created a world in which it was impossible to violate his will, we would have a world of well behaved robots, and definitely a world without love. The thing about love is that choice is essential to its nature. Freedom is an essential component of what love is. Love that is not chosen is not love. You can have loving behavior without choice, but you can’t have love without choice. To be love, it must be chosen. To be chosen, there must both be the capacity to choose and alternatives to choose between. There must be two trees in the garden. There must be a choice. To be able to choose love I must have the capacity to genuinely choose “not love”. Angelic beings have the capacity to make this choice. Humans have the capacity to make this choice. Satan, a powerful angelic being, has chosen “not love”. He has chosen pride and selfishness. He has rebelled against God. He had a great capacity to love. This means he had a great capacity to “not love”. He has chosen to not love. His choice to not love finds expression in his selfish pride that works to undermine and oppose God’s purposes and the love and life God wants to give.

Humans also had a choice. Adam had a choice. Adam chose to rebel against God, to unplug from life and plug into Knowledge of Good and Evil instead. Much of the loss and suffering in this world is simply due to the choices of other people who have chosen to not love. Much of the loss and suffering in this world is simply due to the choices of angelic beings to not love.

Could God take control? Could God put a stop to all this? Of course he could. He’s God. But at what cost? If God did that he would remove love from Creation. So, God’s answer to the pain and suffering caused by sin is not to turn us into robots. God’s answer is the cross. He answers our suffering by himself making a choice. He chooses love. He chooses to enter into the hurt, pain, suffering, loss, and death rampant in our world. He chooses to take it upon himself and there extinguish it. I believe God’s choice to sacrificially love through the obedience of Christ on the cross is a much firmer basis for comfort and healing in the midst of loss and pain than is the view that God sovereignly controls all things. He could of course, but he doesn’t. Love would not be possible otherwise.

Isaiah 53:4
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.(ESV)

The fear of disappointment can be paralyzing. Many fail to aggressively, courageously, and intentionally launch into their future because to do so would be to risk loss. To love is to risk rejection. To try is to risk failure. We serve a good God who wants and does good for us. But God has created a world in which grief and loss are realities we must face. The goodness, nearness, and power of God do not gaurantee for us a life free from pain. We all face a future that contains some measure of that which we would avoid given the chance.

How do we move forward into an uncertain future which will certainly bring us toward pain and loss? God’s answer is the Cross. Jesus has carried all my grief and sorrow – past, present and future. All of it. Great and small. The question is this – is God’s provision on the Cross sufficient for every possible future grief? Yes it is.

So if I find myself fearful about the future, this is a simple indication that my view of the Cross is insufficient. Perhaps this fear simply surfaces the reality that I believe there are some losses ahead for which the Cross is not enough. If this is what I believe, then I have already disagreed with God’s own valuation of Jesus’ sacrifice by saying in my heart that Jesus should have done more than He did in order to sufficiently provide for the grief in my life. If I am convinced Jesus’ passion is insufficient for future griefs I have not yet experienced, it is simply because I have  judged His provision inadequate for the griefs I have experienced already.

If you, like many, face your future with fear, I encourage you not to rage against fear, but rather to ask for deeper revelation concerning Jesus’ provision for you on the Cross.  You will find perfect love there. Perfect loves casts out fear (1 John 4:18).