The Rebuilding of Our Life
The Rebuilding of Our Life
When teachers of the deeper Christian life mention that we must die to self, they do not always explain how to do this, what is involved, or what results from such a step of faith on our part. We must come to understand that this invitation is not directed toward the abolishing of our life but to the rebuilding of our life so that it is eternal.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— (Romans 6:6)
Deeper-life teachers often speak of dying to self, or entering the crucified life, or something of this sort. It is true that such death is prescribed in the New Testament, but it is not mentioned frequently, at least not directly. I would venture the major topic of the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, is that of directions for entering eternal life in the Kingdom of God, with death to self being an important aspect of these directions.
A few days ago, Colossians 3:1-4 came into my consciousness.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Now, I have preached this text numerous times. We understand that if we are abiding in Christ a firstfruits of our new born-again life already has been raised with Christ, being seated in Him at the right hand of God. No problem here. This is a fact we portray when we are baptized in water.
We are to set our heart and mind on Christ and God. This is difficult in America because of the emphasis on material wealth. Nevertheless, our mind and heart are not to be occupied only or even primarily with the things of earth. To maintain the scriptural attitude requires constant prayer, daily Bible reading, consistent fellowship with fervent believers (if we can find any). But the phrase that entered my thinking is, "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."
Although I have preached this many times, I had not given sufficient thought to precisely what this expression means. How did we die? What part of our life is hidden with Christ in God?
I asked the Lord to give me the meaning of Paul's words.
I thought about the sixth chapter of Romans, another of my favorite passages. There we find that our old life has been crucified so that the body of sin might be done away. Self is to be crucified. The desire to sin is to be done away. Obviously self and sin are two different factors, however intertwined.
I realize that when we are baptized in water we are to count that we have been crucified with Christ and now have risen with Him. We accept these two states as a fact, and then God makes them practical and true in our daily life.
So I suppose the main problem with my understanding is, precisely what is "life"? What is it about us that is to be crucified? How does God crucify it? And—importantly—specifically what results from our old life being crucified? Is our life being taken from us or restructured in some manner?
I then made a list of items that constitute our life. I am sure this list is not complete, and the reader may want to add some elements of personality to this list.
Our life is our:
Will.
Relationships.
Desires.
Memory.
Plans.
Hopes.
Dreams.
Treasures.
Ambitions.
Justice and judgment.
Pride.
Values.
Knowledge.
Wisdom.
Energy.
Awareness.
Perception.
Money.
Power.
Emotions.
Trust in the World.
Pleasure.
Decision-making.
Growth.
Movement.
The Drives of Sin That Dwell in Us.
Everything Else That Motivates Us.
Do the above pretty well define our life? I am sure there are factors I have not thought of.
When deeper-life teachers mean we must die to self, they mean we are to die to our will, our relationships, our desires, our memory, our plans, our hopes, our dreams, and so forth. The thought of dying to our life does not make the believers happy, particularly the young people. They may assent to the need to die to self, and promptly proceed to some other idea. Who can blame them? What mentally healthy individual wants to lose his or her life?
The problem here may be twofold. First, we do not know exactly how to die to our will, our relationships, our desires, our memory, and so forth. Second, we do not know exactly what will result from our doing this. From my point of view, our inability to understand these two areas prevents the majority of believers from making dying to self of first priority in their Christian life. Would you agree to this?
Let us consider how we die to these several areas of personality. How do we die to our will, our relationships, our desires?
One aspect of this process must be kept in mind: we are not to attempt to crucify ourselves. Self-crucifixion, practiced on occasion by zealous believers, results only in self-righteousness and a strengthened self-will. God will do the crucifying, if we tell Him this is the direction we wish to take.
Let us examine the most important factor—our self-will. We simply cannot move past the Pentecostal experience into the spiritual fulfillment of the remaining three feasts of the Lord until we cry out, "Not my will but Yours be done." Here is the linchpin of spiritual progress beyond the elements of redemption.
But how does God put to death our self-will? He puts us in one kind of prison or another. We are denied our most fervent desires over a period of time. We are required to perform unpleasant service. Suffering is necessary if we are to die to our self-will. We learn stern obedience to the Father through suffering.
How many believers in America are willing to yield their will to the Lord Jesus, when doing so deprives them of their most intense desires? Yet, spiritual maturity is not possible when we cling to our pleasures. We can claim grace, mercy, God's love, all we wish. The fact remains: spiritual maturity is not possible when we cling to our pleasures; when we cannot bear to have our intense desires unfulfilled.
I have believed for years that the Charismatic movement is at this very place, being symbolized by the Altar of Incense of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. We are familiar with Pentecost and the gifts of the Spirit of God. But in order to press forward toward the Veil and the Ark of the Covenant, to speak figuratively, we have to be willing to permit God to crucify our will. To seek the power of the Lamb without submitting to the crucifixion of our will leads to the False Prophet.
The same is true of relationships, desires, memory, plans hopes, dreams, treasures, and all the other factors of our life I have included in my list. When God calls for them they must be given to Him. There is to be no holding back, no hesitation. We are not speaking of sinful behavior, we are speaking of giving to the Lord Jesus that which is our legitimate life, our "Isaac."
There are three means by which we overcome the accuser of the brothers.
We conquer by means of the blood of the Lamb, which justifies us in God's sight.
We conquer by maintaining our testimony in accordance with the written Word of God.
But the most important means of conquest is by loving not our life to the death. Until we are ready to give all of our life to Christ, we cannot conquer the accuser.
The rich young ruler had kept the commandments of the Law. But money was an important part of his life. When Christ asked him to give away his money, the man went away sorrowful. What a loss! Wherever the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached, this individual is a dramatic portrayal of the utter folly of clinging to some part of our life when God calls for it. Where are he and his possessions now!
If we cling to any part of our life we will lose it.
Now we come to the second aspect of being "dead"—"For you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
It is this second part that is the central point of my thesis. Sometimes we are informed that we must be crucified with Christ, or we must take the "death route." But we are not always told what will result from our doing this.
The result is, we gain back our life in a vastly superior eternal form. Our life is restructured, not abolished. Better yet, it forever is hidden with Christ in God, just as Christ, no matter where He may be at any given time, always is in the very center of the Father's Person. So we are forever in Christ, as the various elements of our life die, and then are raised in Christ to the right hand of God.
Our will becomes razor sharp. But our will now is one with God's will. The only true, lasting freedom any human can experience occurs when God's will and his will are identical.
Our relationships are eternal. We now are one with all who are an integral part of Christ in the same oneness that exists in the Godhead.
Our desires are from God and fulfilled totally. We have fullness of joy. We have pleasures forever. After having been denied our most intense desires for so long a period, we now have received every desire of our heart. Otherwise, fullness of joy is not possible.
Every element of our memory brings joy and peace.
We do not ask God to bless our plans. Our plans now are God's plans, and God blesses His own plans.