In Dying We Live, So Die Willingly!
By Abraham Israel
To take on the cross that God has custom prepared for us and deny our self life is not a option that God gave in Christianity. It is the main thing that God wants us to do in order to experience God in deeper and fuller way day by day (Luke 9:23-26).
J.C. Ryle the man of God says, "A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown."
We are not saved just to go to heaven, but we are saved to serve God through our love for Him (Eph 2:8-10). Those who get saved to avoid hell are not seeking salvation with a right motive, though such motive is in itself a wrong thing, yet God overlooks and draws sinners who are His enemies close to Him in friendship because of His love for them.
A.W. Tozer the mighty man of God says, "The old cross is a symbol of death. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again in newness of life. God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It always stands at the far side of the cross."
Jesus Himself had no other way to experience the resurrection heavenly power of God apart from dying to himself and his self will through the Cross which was the will of God for his life (Matt 26:37, 38-39, 41-42). Out of His death came the life of God to Himself and through Him all men like us.
This is the reason Apostle Paul asks all believers saying, "3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." (Rom 6:3-5).
We need to keep our flesh at death moment by moment in order to experience the supernatural resurrection power each moment. If the flesh does not die, God cannot live in His power from within us and do His mighty works to use us as a blessing to many to fulfill God's purpose for our lives and for our generation.
Many of today's preachers who are deceiving people, are appealing and tickling the ears of all the people who hear them by appealing to their flesh. They are speaking to them what they want to hear rather than what they ought to hear to live in godliness. They promise that God will give them what they want if they give to the preachers what they need, all in the name of God these men go to all extremes to satisfy their appetite of covetous heart within them. These are con men who are deceiving people and are themselves being deceived by the flesh. These so called men of God have made godliness a means of gain and this will be judged by God. Many of them do not have a good character at all beside the show that is staged before the people, they have all kinds of sins that are entertained in their private lives without any repentance for what they do.
Again the man of God A.W. Tozer says, "Why do we build our churches upon human flesh? For we teach men not to die with Christ but to live in the strength of their dying manhood... If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it."
If we really are carrying the cross that God has given us to carry in our lives, it will slay us and we will lose self-assurance to depend on God desperately. The new cross which we hear in our generation promotes carnality, entertains fleshly indulgences, it amuses and tickles our sinful nature and encourages us to walk independently and command a wimpy god of the flesh to fulfill our carnal desires. O God save us o Lord!
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect... Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name... We want to be saved but we insist Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility."
Most of the so called spiritual Christian are actually weak in our generation because they do not know what dying to the flesh means. They live no godly lives for the glory of God, because they have never been guided rightly in to being a disciple of Jesus. Most of the people who seem to be spiritual are actually more religious than in any other previous generation because of the quality information and manifestation of the spiritual gifts they see, experience and manifest in their lives. What truly makes us spiritual is the life and character of God that we experience in and through our lives.
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "The man who is crucified is facing only one direction... He [cannot] look back. The crucified man on the cross is looking only one direction and that is the direction of God, and Christ and the Holy Ghost... The man on the cross... has no further plans of his own... Somebody else made his plans for him, and when they nailed him up there all his plans disappeared... When you go out to die on the cross you bid good-bye--you are not going back!
If we would preach more of this and stop trying to make the Christian life so easy it's contemptible--we would have more converts that would last. Get a man converted who knows that if he joins Jesus Christ he's finished, and that while he's going to come up and live anew, as far as this world is concerned he is not going back--then you have a real Christian indeed."
Beware of wimpy spirituality that will rob you of your heavenly reward and destroy the purpose of God for your lives. If Paul the apostles aim was to be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is through religious practice of a law based life, but that which comes from God through faith in Christ (Php 3:9), how much we also ought to desire for the reality of being found in Christ's righteousness? This righteousness of faith does not come to us unless we allow ourselves to experience the fellowship of Christ's suffering which is to suffer for doing good in God's will that God has previously prepared for us through our circumstances we face daily, so that we can be conformed to His death by His power acting through us from within (Php 3:10). When we live life in this way, we will come to know God personally and experience the power of His resurrection in our lives, and through our lives manifest the resurrection power before the world for the glory of God. But in case if we choose to give in to our fleshly ways in spite of knowing the truth, we will lose the once in a lifetime opportunity of what we cannot gain for ever in our eternity if we miss out now while living on earth.
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "Our uncrucified flesh will rob us of purity of heart, Christ-likeness of character, spiritual insight, fruitfulness; and more than all, it will hide from us the vision of God's face, that vision which has been the light of the earth and will be the completeness of heaven.
The man who takes his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is away from the sepulcher. Death is behind him and joyous and increasing life before."
Why miss the increasing abundant life of heaven, by the deceitful passing pleasure of the world which cannot really satisfy you? Why miss being a blessing when you can choose to take up your cross and deny the flesh? Why be a religious hypocrite when Christ have given you the power to overcome all death through his cross?
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "[Crosses] had only one purpose... to bring an end to an evil man! Those who were crucified had no life in this world beyond that point... This is what God does with evil people: he puts them to death. Thus, in the cross of Christ, God took all that we are in Adam, all our natural life with its dreams and hopes and resources and brought it to a crashing end by the dying of Jesus.
I must clearly understand that it is not up to me to put this natural life to death... I am only expected to agree with the rightness of that execution and stop trying to make it "live" again before God... Thus when I cease trying to justify myself and excuse the activities of the flesh and agree with God that it is rightfully under sentence of death, then I ...'carry in my body the dying of Jesus.'"
May God help us to put to death all our sinful passions with its evil desires through being found in Christ. God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21). Having been made the righteousness of God in Christ, may we allow the Christ's righteousness to rule through our soul as we keep the flesh at death through willingly carrying the custom designed cross of circumstances surrounding our lives in the will of God. God breaks us to build us with Himself which cannot be destroyed for eternity. O what a assurance and eternal foundation in Christ to enjoy the rest of our eternity!
If I welcome the cross and see that it has already put to death the flesh... then I find myself able to say no to its cry for expression. [We must] agree with the implications of the cross in terms of actual experience." — Ray Stedman
J.C. Ryle the man of God says, "A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown."
We are not saved just to go to heaven, but we are saved to serve God through our love for Him (Eph 2:8-10). Those who get saved to avoid hell are not seeking salvation with a right motive, though such motive is in itself a wrong thing, yet God overlooks and draws sinners who are His enemies close to Him in friendship because of His love for them.
A.W. Tozer the mighty man of God says, "The old cross is a symbol of death. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again in newness of life. God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It always stands at the far side of the cross."
Jesus Himself had no other way to experience the resurrection heavenly power of God apart from dying to himself and his self will through the Cross which was the will of God for his life (Matt 26:37, 38-39, 41-42). Out of His death came the life of God to Himself and through Him all men like us.
This is the reason Apostle Paul asks all believers saying, "3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." (Rom 6:3-5).
We need to keep our flesh at death moment by moment in order to experience the supernatural resurrection power each moment. If the flesh does not die, God cannot live in His power from within us and do His mighty works to use us as a blessing to many to fulfill God's purpose for our lives and for our generation.
Many of today's preachers who are deceiving people, are appealing and tickling the ears of all the people who hear them by appealing to their flesh. They are speaking to them what they want to hear rather than what they ought to hear to live in godliness. They promise that God will give them what they want if they give to the preachers what they need, all in the name of God these men go to all extremes to satisfy their appetite of covetous heart within them. These are con men who are deceiving people and are themselves being deceived by the flesh. These so called men of God have made godliness a means of gain and this will be judged by God. Many of them do not have a good character at all beside the show that is staged before the people, they have all kinds of sins that are entertained in their private lives without any repentance for what they do.
Again the man of God A.W. Tozer says, "Why do we build our churches upon human flesh? For we teach men not to die with Christ but to live in the strength of their dying manhood... If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it."
If we really are carrying the cross that God has given us to carry in our lives, it will slay us and we will lose self-assurance to depend on God desperately. The new cross which we hear in our generation promotes carnality, entertains fleshly indulgences, it amuses and tickles our sinful nature and encourages us to walk independently and command a wimpy god of the flesh to fulfill our carnal desires. O God save us o Lord!
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect... Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name... We want to be saved but we insist Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility."
Most of the so called spiritual Christian are actually weak in our generation because they do not know what dying to the flesh means. They live no godly lives for the glory of God, because they have never been guided rightly in to being a disciple of Jesus. Most of the people who seem to be spiritual are actually more religious than in any other previous generation because of the quality information and manifestation of the spiritual gifts they see, experience and manifest in their lives. What truly makes us spiritual is the life and character of God that we experience in and through our lives.
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "The man who is crucified is facing only one direction... He [cannot] look back. The crucified man on the cross is looking only one direction and that is the direction of God, and Christ and the Holy Ghost... The man on the cross... has no further plans of his own... Somebody else made his plans for him, and when they nailed him up there all his plans disappeared... When you go out to die on the cross you bid good-bye--you are not going back!
If we would preach more of this and stop trying to make the Christian life so easy it's contemptible--we would have more converts that would last. Get a man converted who knows that if he joins Jesus Christ he's finished, and that while he's going to come up and live anew, as far as this world is concerned he is not going back--then you have a real Christian indeed."
Beware of wimpy spirituality that will rob you of your heavenly reward and destroy the purpose of God for your lives. If Paul the apostles aim was to be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is through religious practice of a law based life, but that which comes from God through faith in Christ (Php 3:9), how much we also ought to desire for the reality of being found in Christ's righteousness? This righteousness of faith does not come to us unless we allow ourselves to experience the fellowship of Christ's suffering which is to suffer for doing good in God's will that God has previously prepared for us through our circumstances we face daily, so that we can be conformed to His death by His power acting through us from within (Php 3:10). When we live life in this way, we will come to know God personally and experience the power of His resurrection in our lives, and through our lives manifest the resurrection power before the world for the glory of God. But in case if we choose to give in to our fleshly ways in spite of knowing the truth, we will lose the once in a lifetime opportunity of what we cannot gain for ever in our eternity if we miss out now while living on earth.
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "Our uncrucified flesh will rob us of purity of heart, Christ-likeness of character, spiritual insight, fruitfulness; and more than all, it will hide from us the vision of God's face, that vision which has been the light of the earth and will be the completeness of heaven.
The man who takes his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is away from the sepulcher. Death is behind him and joyous and increasing life before."
Why miss the increasing abundant life of heaven, by the deceitful passing pleasure of the world which cannot really satisfy you? Why miss being a blessing when you can choose to take up your cross and deny the flesh? Why be a religious hypocrite when Christ have given you the power to overcome all death through his cross?
A.W. Tozer continues saying, "[Crosses] had only one purpose... to bring an end to an evil man! Those who were crucified had no life in this world beyond that point... This is what God does with evil people: he puts them to death. Thus, in the cross of Christ, God took all that we are in Adam, all our natural life with its dreams and hopes and resources and brought it to a crashing end by the dying of Jesus.
I must clearly understand that it is not up to me to put this natural life to death... I am only expected to agree with the rightness of that execution and stop trying to make it "live" again before God... Thus when I cease trying to justify myself and excuse the activities of the flesh and agree with God that it is rightfully under sentence of death, then I ...'carry in my body the dying of Jesus.'"
May God help us to put to death all our sinful passions with its evil desires through being found in Christ. God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21). Having been made the righteousness of God in Christ, may we allow the Christ's righteousness to rule through our soul as we keep the flesh at death through willingly carrying the custom designed cross of circumstances surrounding our lives in the will of God. God breaks us to build us with Himself which cannot be destroyed for eternity. O what a assurance and eternal foundation in Christ to enjoy the rest of our eternity!
If I welcome the cross and see that it has already put to death the flesh... then I find myself able to say no to its cry for expression. [We must] agree with the implications of the cross in terms of actual experience." — Ray Stedman
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