Chapter One:
An introduction to dying
Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain
At one point in our lives all of us are going to die physically, every one of us has an appointment with death that we cannot escape from. Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. The process of death is at work in all of us, the moment Adam and Eve sinned, death entered this world. The moment they ate of the fruit, they were separated from God; their relationship with God was destroyed in that one simple act of disobedience. Adams death was both physical and spiritual; it was physical because the moment he ate the apple death entered the world, his body that was created for eternity began to perish and die. It was a spiritual death because he was separated from God. Where he once talked with God face to face; and walked with God daily he found himself being thrown out of the Garden of Eden.
It is no coincidence that Adam lived until he was 930 years old (Genesis 5:5) whilst Moses only lived until he was 120 years old (Deuteronomy 34:7), but as we look to the bible we realise that our time is even shorter, Psalms 90:10: The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Sins nature is to bring forth death, death that is physical, and death that is spiritual. Dying is part of life, the moment you are born into this world the wheels of death are set in motion. Physical death will come to everyone of us whether rich or poor, whether strong or weak, whether famous or not. We can try to do many things to delay death but the fact remains that even if it is delayed it cannot be stopped, we are in truth only delaying the inevitable.
Physical death as we know it, is when this body that we have been given perishes and the clock in our life ceases to tick and we breathe our last breath. However physical death is not the end of life, but rather the beginning of life, it is the doorway to eternity. It is the gate to eternal life or eternal death. Physical death brings an end to our life here on earth, but begins an eternal life in heaven or in hell. Eternity is as real as death itself, eternity is for ever where as the life that we live here on earth is but a moment in time. James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. As we consider this, as we ponder this reality we realise that no matter what we do, what choices we make or what kind of life we live death is inevitable.
There is a second death that we must familiarize ourselves with and that is spiritual death. There is a natural death, which is when the body dies and goes back to the earth from which it was created from, but there is also a spiritual death. Revelations 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. There is a second death, which is spiritual, a death which comes about when we die without Christ as our Lord and Saviour, a death that takes place in all those who choose to reject Christ’s grace and mercy. It is not a physical death because that has already taken place; spiritual death comes after physical death. Spiritual death is in fact worse than physical death, for physical death is but for a time physical death is but for a moment, there might be pain, there might be anguish but none the less it will soon pass. But spiritual death is for eternity, time without end, the bible tells us in Matthew 13:42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Feel sorry for the man who experiences physical pain in his death only to feel eternal torment when he dies, feel sorry for the man who once knew Christ, who had once tasted of the fruits of grace and mercy only to die having rejected Christ, oh how bitter that taste will be to him.
Spiritual death takes place when a man or woman rejects Christ; spiritual death takes places when you and I willing reject Christ as our Lord and Saviour. We can live for God for a thousand years but if in our last day we choose to reject to Him, we too will experience this spiritual death. Revelations 21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Yes the first death is physical but the second death is spiritual it is dying that takes place in the pit of hell itself. It is a dying that is permanent; it is a dying that is continuous. It is dying whereby you shall not experience death itself, oh that death would come, but it shall not. No man can be saved from this death once he has entered it, no man can be delivered from this death once you have died physically. Luke 16:23-24 – here we read the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the bible makes note of how real hell will be in the following verse ‘Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in these flames’ The second death is as real as the first, just as you will die physically so too will you die spiritually if you choose to reject the love of God and the mercy of Christ.
It is with this in mind that we shall consider a third death, a death that must take place whilst we are alive. It is a death that must transpire in every Christian’s life if they are to truly become like Christ. It is a dying to self, a dying to lust and worldly pleasure. It is a dying to pride, anger, a dying to flesh and carnality and we shall look at this more closely in chapter two. If this dying does not take place then it is quite possible that we do not want to be like Christ. Christ Himself was willing to die so that we could experience eternal life, but the question remains, are we willing to die for him. Are we willing to give Him our life no matter what the cost? We find it easy to die to things that we know our sinfully wrong, but the real problem begins when Christ deals with something that you love. Many of Gods people willing give up the heinous sins, the sins that they feel are worse than others, such as fornication and adultery. But what we find is that when God deals with them for example about lust, anger, pride and gossip they don’t want to give these things up because they are things that we have come to love and areas that we do not want to give up or surrender to Christ. The reason why this chapter is called an introduction to dying is because so many of us have lost sight of the need to die to self. What do I mean when I say that we must die to self, well hopefully as you read this book you will begin to gain an understanding of what it means to die to self. But I will say these three things about dying to self:
1. To die self is to be willing to sacrifice any and every area of our life to Christ and His purpose.
2. To give up the sin and the unrighteousness that is unpleasing to God.
3. To be willing no matter what the cost, to take up your cross and follow after Christ.
Let me pose a question to you, have you become so accustomed to God’s love and grace that you have lost sight of His judgement and His wrath? Have you become so accustomed to God’s loving-kindness that you have begun to think that you don’t need to give up or die to your sin? God is a jealous God, Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Yet we find that we place so many things above Him, we put so many things in His place. He is jealous when our lust is put before Him, when we put our lying before and when we put our gossip before Him. Have we lost sight of the need to die? Do we think that we can still live a life that is in opposition to Christ and His word and be pleasing to Him? Death is not pleasing; it is a sad and solemn occasion when someone passes away. Do we shun death because it is hard, difficult, or do we simple love the life that we are living too much to give it up? Remember I said earlier that there are three types of dying
1. Physical death
2. Spiritual death
3. Dying to self.
Physical death is when the body dies and you enter eternity. Physical death is the death that everyone must and will experience, whether young or old, whether rich or poor. Spiritual death is when you die in a physical state of sin and unrighteousness and you enter eternity separated from God. You enter hell, separated from God for all of eternity. The third death is the dying to self; it is the crucifying of the old man, the putting to death of the carnal nature, the sinful nature that seeks to rule and reign in the place of Christ.
There are many of us that need to be reintroduced to the reality of dying, the reality of self-denial and the reality of crucifying the flesh. How many of us can truly say that we have died, how many of us can honestly say that we are willing to pay the price of being a true disciple? Christ said many hard words, have the words ‘die to self’ become hard words to you? Will you be numbered among those who once they heard those harsh words of Christ gave up following Him? John 6:60; 66: Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it? From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Dying has become a hard word for many Christians; they do not want to die to self, to lust, to gossip or to anger. Self-denial has become self-centered. I will touch on what it means to be self-centered later on in this book. So many Christians feel that they can give up what they want, when they want rather than doing what the word of God commands. Self-denial is not denial any more it has become self pleasure, people doing whatever they want in the name of Christ. When was the last time you were wiling to die to self, when was the last time you were willing to pick up your cross. We need to go back to the basics of Christianity, of being a Christian who prays, fasts, reads the word of God and puts God first. The basics of being a Christian have been forgotten because we have overshadowed them with things that do not matter. We have exalted things that God Himself has not exalted.
When we look at the disciples, when we look at the lives of so many men who have gone before us we see an example of self-denial and of sacrifice. Although Peter willingly denied the Lord three times, we find that he was also willing to repent, he was willing to change. We need to go back to the days when self-denial was part and parcel of Christianity; we need to go back to the days when Christ walked the earth, for it is here that we see true self denial. Too many churches want to take this word out of the church and out of discipleship. They preach the gospel of self pleasure, the gospel of give me, give me, give me. They preach a message that contradicts the word of God and the lifestyle of Christ Himself, His lifestyle of holiness, His lifestyle of righteousness and obedience to His father.
Christ did not come to this world for Himself; He came for you and I, we read in John 3:16 that Christ came for the world that he came for every living man and woman. What makes His example any different from the life that we should live? We want to live a selfish life, whilst He lived a selfless life; we want to live a life of sin whilst He lived a life without sin. He was willing to give up His life, even if it meant death, even if it meant being crucified and treated as a criminal. We want to live in a way that pleases self, that pleases man whilst He was willing to please His father; He lived to please the will and purpose of His father. He was willing to give up eternity and heaven to dwell amongst men to save them. John 1:1;14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. Christ has shown us what it means to die to self; Christ has left the example for us to follow and example of self-denial and self sacrifice.
When there is willingness in us to die, Christ can live in us, when there is a willingness to die to self, Christ is able to live in us fully. Christ died upon that cross not because he wanted to, but because he knew that only His blood could redeem you and I and purchase our precious souls. What are you willing to give up for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of Christ? Is your sin too costly to give up, is your lust to costly to give up, are you withholding things from God? Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Do we want to live, if we do then we must by and through the spirit put to death the deeds and works of the body.
The dictionary says this about self-denial ‘a sacrificing of one's own desires or interests’. (www.dictionary.com). We are to put to death our own desires our own interests, we are to put to death the deeds of the body, the carnality, the nature of sin, lust, greed, pride, anger, slander and gossip. We are to put to death the malice, hatred, bitterness and the envy. In the text that we read it declares live after the flesh and you will die, put to death the deeds of the body and you will live. Do we want to live according to the flesh or are we willing to die to the flesh and live through the spirit? Are we willing to lay our life down for the sake of Christ and for the gospel? What is there that we need to put to death in our lives? This is true self denial; this is what is meant by sacrificing your own desires and interests. There is a simple choice to be made either we choose to live according to the flesh, or we choose to die to the flesh and live according to the spirit which brings life.
To live a successful spiritual life, the deed and works of the flesh have to be put to death. What are the works of the flesh, what is the carnal nature; it is the man that we were before we accepted Christ. It is the man that was governed by sin and controlled by every desire and passion of the flesh. They cannot live; if they live in us then they will eventually bring spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation from God Himself as explained earlier it is the death that comes to those that reject Christ.
Adam experienced separation when he was cast out of the Garden of Eden. His relationship with God suffered greatly and ours will too if we willing continue to live according to the flesh. Cain when he killed Abel experienced this separation (Genesis 4:8), King Saul when he disobeyed God experienced this separation (1 Samuel 16:14) and even Samson experienced this (Judges 16:20). If these men of God were separated from God, how much more you and I when we are unwilling to die to self. These men where destined for greatness, the call of God was upon their lives, God had chosen these men Himself, yet each of them were unwilling to die. Each of these men where faced with temptation, with carnal fancies and they gave in, they were not willing to die to self.
We need to be reacquainted with dying again; we need to be reintroduced to dying to self. As Christians however we have to be willing to die, if we refuse to die, can the spirit of God live in us? If we refuse to put to death the works of the flesh, can the spirit of God continue to reside in us? 2 Peter 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness. If there is a true knowledge of God in us then that will lead to self control, and discipline in our lives. However if we have no revelation of who God is we are less likely to discipline ourselves, and bring our bodies into submission.
Dying isn’t pleasurable at times death can be quite painful, and we have to understand this when it comes to dying for the sake of Christ. We are not giving up our lives for religion as so many others do. We are not dying for a God who does not care and will not take any notice. We are dying for a God, who died for us first; he was willing to pay the first price, now it is up to us if we are truly going to be His sons and daughters we will have to die for Him. It might not be a physical, but it will be a death of the flesh, a death of the carnality, a death of the things that work against and are in opposition to the word of God. The opening text says ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’, it is gainful for us if we are willing to die for His sake, it is gainful for us if we are willing to take on the nature of His death so that we can be conformed into His nature.
When something dies, its very nature, its very essence begins to change and transform. A flower when it is plucked from the ground will begin to wilt and its petals will begin to lose their colour. When a branch is ripped from the tree it begins to die and is unable to bear forth fruit. So we can only truly change when we are willing to die to all that is against God and His word. Death brings change, this is true for nature and it is true physically, but it is also true spiritually. Are there things in your life that you are just not willing to give up? Friend it is better for you to die to those things than to continue in those things alive. Friend it is better for you to die to the world and to live for the kingdom of God, than it is to continue living for this world and not make heaven you home. We need to learn to die; we need to learn self discipline and self control. We need to learn to put to death the areas of our lives that God is not pleased with. We need to give up and turn away from sin and immorality, if you want to be Christ like, then my friend you have to be willing to die.
Now that we have been introduced to this subject of dying I hope that your heart will be open to all that is written in the next few chapters. As a Church and as Christians we have a responsibility to live the word of God, to be more than just simple hearers of the word, but also doers. What separates you and I from being religious, from becoming a Pharisee or a Sadducee is through us responding to the word of God. It is through us living and acting out what is being preached, or written in the word of God. I am not saying that I have reached the point of perfection, but what I will say is that it is important for us to understand the principle of dying to self, of dying to sin and unrighteousness. As Christ Himself died upon the cross for us, so must we be willing to die for Him. It is something that we must do in our actions and in our lifestyle; it is something that we must do in our daily living. We must be willing to die at all times and at every occasion. It is not an easy matter nor is it something that is too impossible; by the help of the Holy Spirit and the power of God I believe that we can crucify the flesh. I believe that we can die to self. It is not something that someone can do for us, no one can die for us, and we must die ourselves.
So in closing I want us to understand that there are three types of death:
1. Physical death - this is inevitable and predestined, you can not change the fact that you are going to die. Many try to prolong their life, many try to hide there real age, but the simple fact remains that each and every one of us will die physically.
2. Spiritual death - this is a death that only comes to those who reject Christ, His grace, His love and His mercy. Only those that refuse to accept Him as their Lord and saviour will experience spiritual death.
3. Death to self - this is probably the one thing most, if not all Christians struggle with. This should not be ignored as it can cause us to lose our salvation. If you don’t die to things such as lust then you could end up committing adultery or fornication. If you are not willing to stop lying, then you could end up causing yourself and others great harm. We have a choice to make and that it is to choose whether we are going to die to self or not.