Jill: “What is the point of life?”
Joel: “Dying to self.”
Jill: “Wait. The point of life is to die?”
Joel: “And then being re-born.”
Jill: “Okay. I’m really confused.”
I’ve heard unrepentant people say things like, “Don’t judge me,” and “God knows my heart.” I don’t need to judge anybody because God is already fully aware of their standing or failure before Him. God knows their unrepentant heart is full of wickedness and rebellion, but the question isn’t, ‘Does God know your heart,’ but do YOU?
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
Many lost people are performers (hypocrites) and they live double lives — a public persona and a private one. All mankind desperately needs a Savior. Our salvation decision boils down to one thing: will we acknowledge our sinful lives and seek God’s help or will we remain rebellious - pretending we don’t need God’s grace and mercy?
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Sometimes life seems to be a matter of “going with the flow,” but the Bible details how the life Jesus led was counter-cultural and He lived “against the current.” We can’t continue to live in the old life that led to death. Certainly, there has to be a clear change in a person’s life after they come to salvation.
“Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.”
There are very few topics talked about in churches less than the concept of dying to self. “Dying to Self” is the very basis of a true Christian’s walk with Jesus Christ and completely counter-cultural to the world’s system which is based on the devil’s standards of sin and death. If Jesus did it, then He expects us to do the same.
Being “born again” means a person who was without a savior, according to God’s righteous standard was dead in their sins, has come to the foot of the Cross and truly repented of their sins and has decided (without turning back to sin) to follow Jesus Christ, spiritually bringing that person back to life from being dead in their sins. This act of surrender to God is the official laying down of a person’s life in a symbolic ‘death to self’ manner of spiritually sacrificing oneself to the call/will of God.
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The disagreement of authority is the very conflict at the heart of everybody’s life. Peace with God only comes from a humble laying down of our personal desires of how we think/feel our life must turn out while simultaneously receiving the new life Jesus offers us as we follow Him into the destiny He has planned. When we follow Jesus — heart, soul, mind, and strength — and receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts, we will receive constant instructions from Him as to how He wants us to live our lives.
“Who do you truly follow?”
“Who’s in charge?” is the question we all must answer from when we’re old enough to exercise our free will. The questioning of authority usually happens around the age of two. You’re heard of “terrible twos?” That’s why it’s commonly referenced among parents.
However, temper tantrums don’t stop at the age of two. The daily news is rife with stories of people who have not matured past childhood. Psychologists commonly refer to the “willful child” as they describe this scenario. The self-absorbed (ego-centric/willful) child remains fully intact for countless adults around the world. There are plenty of elderly folks who have never grown up.
The willful child does not actually seek peace, it seeks to have its way believing the only way to inner peace is to have all one’s needs met — and in the way they want - now. Instant gratification is perceived as a good thing to such people because they aren’t concerned about long-term goals.
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The willful child concludes that if getting their way requires temper tantrums, pouting, lying, and manipulation, so be it! (Again, I’m not just talking about children here.)
Where, exactly, does this automatic selfish nature come from? Were we “born this way”? If you’re thinking about the sin problem, yes. There are behaviors, habits, and tastes we acquire as we experience life that are not genetic predispositions, though having a genetic predisposition to sin is proof of the sin curse. However, that does not absolve us from the repercussions of our sins. Why not? Because the wages of sin is death no matter how the sin originates.
This sin curse is a byproduct of mankind’s Meal Covenant with the devil (Satan). The people of the world remain within its confines until death (it’s a covenant) because of the original sin of Adam and Eve. All mankind is cursed by this unholy covenant unless a person is saved/released from it when they enter the Blood Covenant in Jesus Christ and live a Christian lifestyle based on a faithful relationship with God.
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy - the devil - prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
Satan seeks to distort our thinking so sinful humanity rejects the identity and image of God and conform to his identity and image. The sinful nature is Satan’s device to defeat us. As human beings — fleshly creatures — we can’t defeat it because in and of ourselves, we possess neither power nor authority over it. (Jesus gives us the power to overcome the devil in our lives.) The sinful nature initiates a spirit, soul, and body disconnection, intending to distort every human mind into a deformed sense of self.
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Satan wants nothing more than for every single human being to follow his desires on Earth and wind up in Hell with him. Because he forfeit his place in Heaven, he wants all humanity to do the same. All humanity who rejects Jesus as their Lord and Savior remain in the Meal Covenant and are subject to the same judgment of sin and death that the devil and his demons receive.
To be sure, our bodies will die one day, but our spirit (our true self) will carry on to either one of two places — Heaven or Hell — depending on where your allegiance lies. You can see clearly that the battle is for, and in, our minds. What is the answer to this battle over our minds? Knowing what we are is key. We are a spirit with a soul inside a body. To be sure, all human beings are eternal, spirit beings.
“I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Before anybody can truly be “born again,” they must first “die to self.”
In John 3:5-8, Jesus told Nicodemus the Pharisee, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Being born of the Spirit — reborn — means the person has died to self (the sinful desires of the flesh) and risen to life in Jesus Christ. Everyone born of the Spirit has the light of life and that light is Jesus; the Light of the World.
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”
In this life, you will either live for yourself (it’s actually living for Satan) and be sentenced to a mind-blowingly awful, excruciatingly torturous eternity of constantly living and dying for each and every sin you’ve ever committed (multiplied by the Law of the Harvest) in Hell with Satan and his demons OR you will die to self here on Earth then live with Jesus in a mind-blowingly wonderful, glorious eternity in Heaven. You must choose before you die.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
Repentance is the process of sacrificing the old ways for the ways of God. Sanctification is the ongoing process of following Jesus and being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Life requires things of us.
What are you willing to sacrifice for the life God has for you?
Prayer
Father God, after learning about dying to self, I choose, today, to make myself a living sacrifice. I want all You have for me and I am completely willing to lay down my old life, as Jesus did, to pick up the one You have for me. I am ready to follow You all the days of my life. Help me to live for You and fulfill the destiny of love, grace, power, and mercy You want for me. Show me the way to go throughout my life. Fulfill me by helping me live out that good plan you have for me. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and teach me Your ways. I am Yours, my Lord! In Jesus’ holy name I pray, amen!
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