YOU HAVE TO DIE FIRST
A little while ago I sent out a post about living for Christ. One mother wrote back and said that she felt condemned because she couldn’t fulfill all the Scriptures about daily living for Christ. As I continued to think about her, it dawned upon me that no wonder she felt like that. I omitted to give the very first principle about how to live for Christ. Without this principle none of the others work.
What is the first principle? To live for Christ you have to die! How could I forget to remind you of this basic Scriptural truth? To daily experience the new and abundant life of Christ who lives within us we have to first die. Too many people think they can live for Christ while they allow their “old man” to stay very much alive. I am guilty of this too.
Galatians 2:20 says: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself or me.” When Jesus died, positionally I died with Him. When He was buried, I was buried and finished. When He arose, I also rose with Him to walk a new life.
We have to “put off” the old man and “put on” the new man, which is Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:22-24). Every day we come to the cross and die to the “old man”--our flesh, our own way, our selfishness, self-pity and so on. As we leave it at the cross, we put on the “new man.” We yield to the life of Jesus Christ who lives within us.
The wonderful news is that Jesus died to save us, not only from the power of this evil world, but from living to ourselves. 2 Corinthians 5:15 says: “And that he (Jesus Christ) died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
When you are dead, you’ll really begin to live.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
P.S. I will therefore send to you my amended copy of HOW DO I LIVE FOR CHRIST?
http://tinyurl.com/HowLiveForChrist
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