And this death must take place in order for the new life, which is in Christ, to come to fruition. And in the Morning when I arise as a new creature in the presence of my Savior who died for me, and in whom I have been put to death, then I will share also in His eternal life. And every day is a step in that procession. Each time that I look to Christ in worship, and set aside the old nature to practice the new nature; the old nature dies a little more. And the new nature becomes a little more alive. I become a little more like Jesus.
In the beginning of chapter eight, book four of Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis tells us that this is the entirety of what Christianity is all about. He goes on to accurately paraphrases Christ as saying "I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it...I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours". He wrote, "[Jesus] never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment".
In chapter nine, book four of Mere Christianity; Lewis goes on to say that "Some people seem to think this means 'Unless you are perfect, I will not help you'; and as we can not be perfect, then, if He meant that, our position is hopeless...I think He meant 'The only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less...Make no mistake' He says, 'if you let Me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that'". The last sentence of chapter reads, "The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said".
And in the first paragraph of chapter ten, book four, Lewis writes, "The change will not be complete in this life, for death is an important part of the treatment. How far the change will have gone before death in any particular Christian is uncertain.
Now, since the time that I wrote "Till I Reach the Other Side", I have often considered that that song was perhaps the most personal song I'd ever written. I wrote it as a prayer because of my awareness of my own shortcomings.
And in the last eleven years, there have been times when I have turned around and fed the old nature, which is of the flesh; instead of the new nature, which is of the Spirit. And the result of that has always been trouble and misery. And in my spirit I have felt, at times, as though I might as well be dead. To be alive to sin is to be dead to God; and vice versa.
And in the last eleven years, there have been times when I have turned around and fed the old nature, which is of the flesh; instead of the new nature, which is of the Spirit. And the result of that has always been trouble and misery. And in my spirit I have felt, at times, as though I might as well be dead. To be alive to sin is to be dead to God; and vice versa.
And so I image, in my mind, a great Curtain hanging down and separating two Expanses. The Expanse on the left is the "life" that this world has to offer. It is the "life" of the old nature. And it corresponds to this mortal life in this fallen world. On the other side is the Life of the new nature, which is Christ. This Life corresponds to the World into which Christians are passing until they have entered it at the end of this "life" (Colossians 3:1-4).
And the Curtain between them, is called "Death". And so, in order to cross over from either side to the other would be a process of dying. When Jesus took on human form and was born in Israel, two thousand years ago, that must have been like a kind of death for Him, even though He remained sinless.
And the Curtain between them, is called "Death". And so, in order to cross over from either side to the other would be a process of dying. When Jesus took on human form and was born in Israel, two thousand years ago, that must have been like a kind of death for Him, even though He remained sinless.
He left behind the ineffable glory of His heavenly kingdom with the Father, to be born into a cold, fallen, broken world. He took upon Himself the whole human experience, which means He bore the same curse of sin that is upon all humanity, even though He never committed any sin, nor did He have any sin in Him. He
bore our griefs and sorrows, and He died on a Roman cross for the sin that we have in us (Isaiah 53).
bore our griefs and sorrows, and He died on a Roman cross for the sin that we have in us (Isaiah 53).
And for us to become alive to the new nature requires us to die to our old nature. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Romans 2:20). We have to go through that Curtain.
So to be alive to God is to be dead to the world with its desires. And to be alive to the world with its desires is to be dead to God. Paul the apostle wrote:
The "life" of the world with its desires is a false life. It is both fake and fleeting. It is a cheap imitation. Its reward is eternal damnation; eternal destruction, atrophy, ruin, and death! The Expanse on the left, the "life" of the world with its desires, is True Death. Those who partake of it grow in depravity and dehumanization.
The Expanse on the right; Life of God, is True Life. His reward is eternal grandeur, blessedness, joy, peace, love, and real, everlasting Life! Those who partake of Him grow in the perfection of who He is.
To understand this, it may be of help to remember that a word can be used in more than one way. For example, the word "light" can refer to a light-source, such as a flashlight, or even the moon.
The moon is an indirect light-source. It reflects the sun's light onto the earth. That is the purpose for which it was created by God, on the fourth of the six literal days of Creation. And therefore, it can rightly be called a light.
But the same word, "light", can also be rightly used to refer to the waves/particles of light that come from the light-source.
And it is the same thing with this word "death". It refers to the Curtain through which we Christians must pass to enter the Kingdom of eternal life. And the same word, "death" also refers to the process of going through the Curtain; a process that every Christian in this mortal world is in right now.
And the same word, "death" also refers to the result of passing through the Curtain, except that if one were to pass from the Kingdom of eternal life, to this side, they would be approaching, and entering into real, absolute death. Whereas, one passing from this side to the other is going to be met on the other side with real, absolute, eternal life.
One might even be right to think that the Curtain itself is a projection of this fallen, broken world on this side. If this world, on this side of the Curtain were not fallen, there would be no Curtain between this world and that Kingdom.
And now I am reminded of the curtain in the Temple at Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. This curtain seperated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. And at the moment of Christ's sacrificial death, the curtain was turn in two.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews, in the New Testament, says that this literal event is also symbolic of the fact that Jesus, entering through the curtain of death, had opened the way for all of us who trust and follow Him to do the same, and enter the Kingdom of God.
And why does the Christian's death have a different result than the non-Christian's physical death? Because the one who remains alive to sin, when he passes through physical death, will be confronted by a holy, righteous, perfect God. That sinner then will be met with condemnation, and ruin.
The Christian, in this life, is going through a deep process of having the old sinful nature put to death, so that when we stand before God in His Kingdom, He will see the righteousness of His own So in us. And so He will meet us with His approval. As the author of Hebrews tells us, we can, therefore, approach Him with confidence in Christ.
Here are the lyrics to my song which I wrote eleven winters ago:
"But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14; NKJV).I also like how it's worded in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB).
"But as for me, Heaven forbid that I should boast about anything except the execution-stake of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah! Through him, as far as I am concerned, the world has been put to death on the stake; and through him, as far as the world is concerned, I have been put to death on the stake".Now no one can be living to God and sin both at the same time. The two lives; the "life" of the world with its desires, and the Life of God, are mutually exclusive. But here, relativity must give way to the Absolute. Here is the superiority of the Life of God. The Life of God is truer and better than the "life" of the world and its desires.
The "life" of the world with its desires is a false life. It is both fake and fleeting. It is a cheap imitation. Its reward is eternal damnation; eternal destruction, atrophy, ruin, and death! The Expanse on the left, the "life" of the world with its desires, is True Death. Those who partake of it grow in depravity and dehumanization.
The Expanse on the right; Life of God, is True Life. His reward is eternal grandeur, blessedness, joy, peace, love, and real, everlasting Life! Those who partake of Him grow in the perfection of who He is.
To understand this, it may be of help to remember that a word can be used in more than one way. For example, the word "light" can refer to a light-source, such as a flashlight, or even the moon.
The moon is an indirect light-source. It reflects the sun's light onto the earth. That is the purpose for which it was created by God, on the fourth of the six literal days of Creation. And therefore, it can rightly be called a light.
But the same word, "light", can also be rightly used to refer to the waves/particles of light that come from the light-source.
And it is the same thing with this word "death". It refers to the Curtain through which we Christians must pass to enter the Kingdom of eternal life. And the same word, "death" also refers to the process of going through the Curtain; a process that every Christian in this mortal world is in right now.
And the same word, "death" also refers to the result of passing through the Curtain, except that if one were to pass from the Kingdom of eternal life, to this side, they would be approaching, and entering into real, absolute death. Whereas, one passing from this side to the other is going to be met on the other side with real, absolute, eternal life.
One might even be right to think that the Curtain itself is a projection of this fallen, broken world on this side. If this world, on this side of the Curtain were not fallen, there would be no Curtain between this world and that Kingdom.
And now I am reminded of the curtain in the Temple at Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. This curtain seperated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. And at the moment of Christ's sacrificial death, the curtain was turn in two.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews, in the New Testament, says that this literal event is also symbolic of the fact that Jesus, entering through the curtain of death, had opened the way for all of us who trust and follow Him to do the same, and enter the Kingdom of God.
And why does the Christian's death have a different result than the non-Christian's physical death? Because the one who remains alive to sin, when he passes through physical death, will be confronted by a holy, righteous, perfect God. That sinner then will be met with condemnation, and ruin.
The Christian, in this life, is going through a deep process of having the old sinful nature put to death, so that when we stand before God in His Kingdom, He will see the righteousness of His own So in us. And so He will meet us with His approval. As the author of Hebrews tells us, we can, therefore, approach Him with confidence in Christ.
Here are the lyrics to my song which I wrote eleven winters ago:
"Till I Reach The Other Side"
In the evening when the sun goes down
And You look down on me, do You where a frown?
Did I do all the things You wanted me to do?
Or in my heart, did I fail to stay true blue?
'Cause I don't know which way to go
And then when I know
It's just a hard row to hoe
Let me be a tool in Your hand
And make me useful to Your plan
Fill me with Your Spirit Lord, and let me walk with You
Till I reach the other side
And in the autumn when the leaves are brown
And all the dead things are falling on the ground
Is my heart turning around
Death to Self, Life to God; truly found
'Cause I know well which way to go
But though I know
It's just a hard row to hoe
Father, make me like Your Son
And let me not vainly run
Drive Your dagger deep into my heart and set me free
From the selfish part of me
EPIC GUITAR RIFF: RIGHT HERE
And in the Morning when I rise
Lord, deliver me from lies
Let Your word give light to my eyes, my eyes
And let me gaze into You big blue sky
Teach me, Lord
Which way to go
And when I've learned, help me to hoe the row
Jesus, fill me with Your love
With peace and joy from above
Drive Your dagger deep into my heart and set me free
From the sinful part of me
Let me be a tool in Your hand
And make me useful to Your plan
Fill me with Your Spirit Lord, and let me walk with You
Till I reach the other
Till I reach the other
Till I reach the other side
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