Living to Die, Or Dying to Live?

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39

A friend of ours recently died of cancer. When Tom and I visited him in hospice I was blessed to be able to tell him how his life had impacted ours before he passed. He and his wife served the Lord in the homeless ministry for many years and their dedication and obedience touched many lives for the Kingdom. He had many wonderful “God stories” and shared miracles as well as powerful testimonies of God’s amazing intervention in people’s lives. He was also a musician and he introduced us to Derek Webb, a very anointed musician and song writer. One of my favorite songs, by Derek Webb, is called What is not Love; I see things upside down This song has been an inspiration for many of my blogs (the upside down series) and has helped me personally to see and understand God better and seeing His “eternal” perspective. And interestingly enough, I was inspired again by my friend’s death to understand “life”, from God’s eternal perspective a little better instead of from my upside down temporal view.

From the moment we are born we are dying. This life here on earth is temporal yet we tend to cling to it like it was the most important thing we have on earth, and I guess it kind of is, in a way. We are created with a self-preservation instinct and a desire to fight for life but I am understanding more and more how we are clinging to and fighting for the wrong “life”! When we don’t understand “God’s” definition of life we can be devastated when a loved one passes away, becoming hurt and angry at God for taking a life that was so important to us. For the young who have passed, we tend to go down the thought processes of “They had so much more life to live!” and we grieve the loss of their impact in our own lives. And that isn’t necessarily ‘wrong’ in our temporal perspective.

But the more I get to know God, the more I understand His ‘eternal’ perspective

and when I shifted from temporal to eternal I had an epiphany… Since we are dying the moment we are born then we are in a body of “death” (Romans 7:24), right? So what I have realized is that God isn’t taking “life” at all, He is actually taking “death” away, our body of death, and GIVING us LIFE! Eternal life! He came to replace our body of death with a new, eternal life! THAT is what we need to cling to! Not this temporal body of death but the LIFE that God is giving us!

When Jesus talks about giving us “life” it is mostly life “eternal” and not the temporal. He knows that this life will quickly pass away, in a blink of an eye, a vapor in the wind, and like grass that is here today and gone tomorrow (Luke 12:28). But, when we talk about life, it is all about the here and now, like this life is all that we have… We are not looking any further than this moment and this life time. And we can so easily think that this is the life that Jesus is talking about too.

I decided to look into the scriptures and see when God talks about temporal life (psuche) and spiritual life (Zoe). And there is a third life that means things that sustain life, resources, wealth and goods, food and clothing (bios) but I won't go there today. So, in the scriptures I find, I will change the word from life to the Greek word for life for more clarity:

Zoe = “God-life”; Spirit (Strong’s definition: …The Lord intimately shares His gift of life with people, creating each in His image which gives all the capacity to know His eternal life.)

“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to Zoë, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:14

“Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's Zoë does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12:15

“In him was Zoë, and that Zoë was the light of men.” John 1:4

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal Zoë.” John 3:16

“…but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal Zoë." John 4:14

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal Zoë and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to Zoë.” John 5:24 (did you catch that!? Even He referred to this life as “death”)

“For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives Zoë to the world." John 6:33

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have Zoë, and have it to the full” (more abundantly) John 10:10

“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the Zoë. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26

“Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the Zoë. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“Now this is eternal Zoë: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

In looking at these scriptures, Jesus IS this LIFE that He is offering. He died to give it and it is to be greatly desired and sought after… Here are the scriptures for the other, temporal life:

Psuche = Physical life; soul (Lexicon definition: breath; the breath of life; the vital force which animates the body and shows itself in breathing):

 “For whoever wants to save his Psuche will lose it, but whoever loses his

Psuche for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own Psuche --he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26

“The man who loves his Psuche will lose it, while the man who hates his Psuche in this world will keep it for eternal Zoë.” John 12:25

“…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his Psuche as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28

“…just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my Psuche for the sheep” John 10:15

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his Psuche for his friends.” John 15:13

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his Psuche for us. And we ought to lay down our Psuche for our brothers.” 1 John 3:16

In these scriptures we are instructed to lay our temporal life down, to hate it… give it up for others!

So Jesus is clearly focused on and asking us to embrace the “spiritual”, eternal LIFE, and telling us to LET GO of the temporal, physical life of death, trading it in for the other! Even Paul has the same message and focus of Jesus:

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:17

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Romans 7:24

So… what am I trying to say here? I guess I want to ask myself and you, which life are we embracing and hanging on to? And why are we embracing it? Is it the temporal, desiring physical healing, wealth, riches and creature comforts? Or is it the Life of God in us? Nurturing His eternal life, dying to ourselves, and laying down our lives for Him and others?

Are we clinging to life, living to die? Or are we dying to live?

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

Dying to LIVE

In my last post, Death and Resurrection, I talked about “dying” to the flesh and trusting God to raise us up from the dead. The more I thought about that the more I wondered if I should give some examples of what that meant. It’s one thing to say it but, what does “dying” to my flesh and my will really look like in my day to day life? What does it mean to crucify myself so that “I no longer live but Christ lives in me…”? (Galatians 2:20) Then I thought of all the times that God has asked me to die to myself and do something that was completely “illogical” and/or very humbling and extremely difficult to do. So, I decided to write out some of my own "deaths" for you as examples of what God can and may ask you to do.

Let me clarify first that my journey is just that, “mine”. And your journey is yours. Just because God asks me to do something, it does not mean that I think He should or will ask you to do the same things. Everyone has different things they need to “die” to and even if we are dying to the same things, He asks us to go through a different process to make that death occur. I guess this is my little disclaimer. I am not saying that I think He is asking everyone to do the things He asks me to do, but more to the point, I am saying that He WILL ask you to do some really hard things and even some things that don’t make sense and that go against all your reason, logic and understanding. It may look similar to mine or completely different but the end result should be the same… death to the flesh, which will then result in spiritual resurrection and freedom!

So, before I share my stuff, I thought I would list some Biblical examples of people that had to die to their flesh and principles in order to be obedient to God. Here is one of my favorites and a familiar one right off the bat: “Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:2). I have brought this story up a few times already but it still never ceases to amaze me that, first of all, God would ask this of Abraham and second, that Abraham was obedient and set out to do it!! Talk about dying to his flesh and principles! This one takes the cake!! What are some of the other things Abraham had to die to? He had to die to God’s promise of a nation from his off spring. He had to die to the humiliation of what his wife and family would say. And he had do die to what ISAAC would say as he bound him up and laid him on the alter… just to name a few! Those are some very intense deaths.

Another example is Hosea: “…the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness…." (Hosea 1:2) Really! Would God ask you to take an adulterous wife?? I guess the answer would be “yes” for Hosea. Again, this doesn’t apply to everyone, but God had a purpose and a plan for Hosea and this was something Hosea needed to do for God’s plan and purposes to be realized in his life. What are some of the things Hosea had to die to? He had to die to his “right” to marry a good and faithful wife. He had to die to his reputation and of what others will think of him. And, he had to die to any judgment and/or disgust he probably had of an adulteress women so that he could love her like God loved the Israelites. 

Another example is Gideon: ”The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands…” Gideon started off with 32,000 men but then God took him through a process of elimination… “So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred… During that night the LORD said to Gideon, "Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.” (Judges 7:1-9) The Lord asked Gideon to step up and fight against the Midianites, who were too numerous to count (Judges 6:5), with only 300 men!! This is another request which defies all logic and understanding! But Gideon was obedient and GOD WAS FAITHFUL AND TRUE to His word! Gideon had to die to his fear of failure! He had to put out a couple fleeces before he really believed God would do what he said he would do. Even still, it took a HUGE amount of faith and courage to go out against the Midianite army with only 300 men!

Ok, I have one last example; let’s look at Peter who was praying on a roof top: “Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat. Surely not, Lord! Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." (Acts 10:13-14) Most of us are familiar with this story. Peter was shown a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven containing all kinds of “unclean” animals that Peter had never eaten in his life and God told him to “kill and eat”. He had been taught from a young boy not to do such things. He was also taught that the promises of God were only for the Jews and not for the Gentiles. These were foundational beliefs for the Jews! Poor Peter had quite a wake up call that day when God changed up on him and gave him different orders and instructions and asked him to do things that were completely against everything he been taught! Peter had to die to his ways of life, heritage and “traditions” he had been taught his whole life. That would be for us like saying cats and dogs are to vote for the president! Try to wrap your mind around that!

There are so many more of these types of stories and examples in the Bible. It is easy for us to look at these stories so nonchalantly and say, these people were different, chosen and special people and think that it was somehow easier for them. And because we know how it ends, we don’t think of these “extremely traumatic” situations as being that big of a deal… at least that’s what I thought until God started asking ME to do some of these REALLY hard things, then suddenly, I saw these people in a VERY different light. They went from being black and white words on a page to living, breathing people with struggles and feelings just like me. It’s easy to have “faith” when you know how it will all end… but when you have NO CLUE what God is doing, which none of these people did when they started off, and you step out anyway, “faith” takes on a whole new look and feel. These people had to “die” to their flesh, their reason, their logic, their understanding, common sense and even to their “reputation” to follow God and be obedient to what He asked them to do. I don’t think He works any differently with us today yet we somehow have gotten this notion that God wants things to be “easy” and “painless” for us…? God is the same yesterday, today and forever and I do believe that “death” to our flesh looks and feels the same today as it did back then.

The good news is, that each and every one of those people, and each one of us who trusts God, dies to our flesh, steps out in faith and are obedient, are spiritually resurrected and are able to “see” God in a whole new way. Just like Job who said “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5). It’s like you walk through a spiritual door that you never knew was there and see things with new eyes and a new understanding. Each time we die to our flesh, step out in faith and are obedient to what God is calling us to do, we get a new glimpse of His wonderful face and Glory :) It’s NOT about US but all about God and HIS faithfulness to His people, for His Kingdom and His Glory!

Well, I wrote much more than I thought I would for this “intro” so now I will need to do a part 2 in order to write the examples from my life of the things the Lord has called me to die to.

Father, I ask that even now you are quickening the hearts of the readers to understand more about what “dying to live” really means and to risk the pain, struggles and difficulties that come with death and transformation so that they can “see” You clearer and “know” You better. You are worth more than anything we could have or go through here on earth because You and Your purposes for us are “eternal”.

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:4

(See also Oswald’s January 15^th devotional: http://utmost.org/)