Living-Walk - Life-Minded Christianity for the Rest of Us?

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24-26)

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

It is an awe-inspiring truth (as we shall see) that this shadow of death, spoken of throughout the Scriptures, promises the hope and potential of deeper, more abundant life. Although this is undoubtedly man's greatest threat and fear, it is also where God does His finest and most heart-reaching work.

Death, decay, then life – a natural process every tiller of the soil or naturalist knows only too well. From mighty trees fallen and eroding on the forest bed flow all of the ingredients for even greater life and vitality. Here death and life, caught up in a dance only the Creator could have conceived, form a vital connection, the one perpetuating the other in a mysterious and magnanimous circle. Death, decay and decomposition promote a frenzy of micro-organic activity that perpetuates and promotes the continuing life and vitality of the ecosystem.

This is true also of the realm within the human heart where spirit and soul intersect. It is also one of the pre-eminent themes of the Bible.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:54-55)

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:3-5)

Here we find the first (and in many respects the only) lie – "You shall not die". Indeed, we will and we must. For it is from the death and loss of the self-life (or the flesh or the soul life as Watchman Nee terms it) that we gain the life of He who is God's precious Seed - Jesus Christ.

My friends, the Kingdom of God does not grow in numbers and vitality through sophisticated and worldly marketing campaigns, fancy facilities or ear-tickling sermons. Nor can the individual Christian life increase in fruitfulness by the preservation of the life of the soul and flesh. God is abundantly clear on this - that life flows only out of death; that unless a seed falls to the ground broken, there can be no promise of fruitfulness and life. Here is one answer to that age old question of why the devil among us.

Indeed, we must die (and in fact welcome the death of the self and the soul-life) and fall to the ground such that the living dynamic of Jesus Christ can be born and developed within us. He is God’s precious seed that was planted on the earth such that the life of God would grow and multiply throughout His creation. He was bruised and broken open on the cross only that life might spill out to the many who claim Him by faith alone. Here is how death is swallowed up in victory and the designs of the devil are universally confounded.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

The mortal flesh is merely the shell that contains the promise of life. Yet look at the expense and excess to which human beings go to perpetuate and promote what is essentially only packaging. Look again at how we Christians go to such great lengths to prevent the seed from falling and being broken. Until we love God more than our own life; unless we are willing as so many saints and martyrs of old, to lay down our lives and risk being broken open and exposed, then the fruitfulness and vitality we preach about and desire will never actually happen.

Why then brethren is the contemporary church still falling for this first and most vicious lie –living for the life of the world and pursuing earthly things? We curry its favor rather than boldly preach the truth and risk being persecuted or worse. We look for easy ways of growing the kingdom that don’t require provoking the animosity of the world and its god. We have perverted the Christian message to such a degree that many see it as a means of gain and not loss. Yet the clear testimony of God’s word, affirmed by example and the Holy Spirit Himself, is that only those who do not love their lives unto death will truly grow and live and impart life to others. Here again is the power of the cross of Christ on the individual soul, performing the work of reducing that which must be brought to death.

"If any man would come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his soul shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his soul for my sake and the gospel's shall save it" (Mark 8. 34-35)

Dear saints - It should be in no manner offensive to say that to preserve, promote and perpetuate our life is opposed to all things taught in the Bible. Jesus rebuked Peter as Satan’s mouthpiece for opposing the purposes of God in allowing His Beloved Son to advance towards the cross. Here was the same spirit found in the serpent in the garden when he told the first woman she shall not die. True saints follow their Lord in not loving their lives unto death, and in possessing a perpetual willingness to lay it down. Recall that Paul, writing to the Philippians, expresses his desire to “…know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death" (Phil. 3.10).

Paul knew most pointedly that until we are conformed to the death of Christ, He could not be raised in us; that death and life were constantly working together to promote the creative and transformative purposes of the Father.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

The sheer wonder of it all is that the Father’s way demands a devil here amongst those whom He would claim and refashion in his Son. Although the devil, by his very nature, intends our harm and loss, the Creator uses it to build up His little ones in His eternal kingdom. This theme is found over and over again throughout both testaments of the Bible – that from the laying down and brokenness of one, flows life and abundance to the many. We see this from the garden of Eden onward to that quintessential act of God’s precious Son pouring out His life for the life of the world.

Only by leaving his homeland and following his God blindly and vicariously through the wilderness, could Abraham prove himself faithful and become the father of many nations.

Only through tremendous loss and pain, could Job experience the fruitfulness of his Creator's encouraging word and the restoration and increase of all things.

Only by losing his freedom and dignity, could Jacob come to see that with God all things are possible, including reconciliation with his brother.

Only by being debased, broken and stripped of his pride, could Joseph bring life to His family in Egypt during the drought.

Only by being dispatched to the wilderness, and stripped of all of his princely ambitions and attachments, could Moses be prepared as the instrument of salvation to so many.

Only through being maligned, misunderstood and martyred would the testimony and message of the prophets offer hope, comfort and life to those who would come after them.

Only be being reduced and poured out from one end of the Roman Empire to the other, could Paul and the apostles advance the gospel and the Kingdom, saying… “So then death worketh in us, but life in you.”

Dear brethren, the Bible is replete with examples where Satan or evil men intended evil and destruction, but God used it for good and life. Many new Christians are often confused by the question of why the devil or why pain and death? Yet here is the answer from Genesis to Revelation – that life would emanate from His Son alone - bruised and broken open, that life would spill out to all those who would believe on Him, being conformed to His death, and raised up in His life.

Praise God for this mystery of life and godliness too often kept hidden from the saints. Yet it is the theme of all the Scriptures is it not? In so many types and examples and allusions, all pointing to He who is the ultimate fulfillment and hope of all things.

All so that the “excellency of the power” would be of God and not ourselves, lest we might boast. Always death (the cross) and life (the resurrection life of Christ) interacting within us to produce this new man in the image of the Lord of All Life, He alone who is worthy before the Heavenly Father. Oh the mystery and majesty of it all, such that even a devil and death itself has a role in the creative workings of God.

Addressing the reason why there is so little fruitfulness and fullness of Christ in the lives of believers, Watchman Nee (who spent many years of His life imprisoned for his faith) wrote…

“There is new life in us, if we have received Christ. We all have that precious possession, the treasure in the vessel. Praise the Lord for the reality of His life within us! But why is there so little expression of that life? Why is there an ' abiding alone '? Why is it not overflowing and imparting life to others? Why is it scarcely making itself apparent even in our own lives? The reason why there is so little sign of life where life is present is that the soul in us is enveloping and confining that life (as the husk envelopes the grain of wheat) so that it cannot find outlet. We are living in the soul; we are working and serving in our own natural strength; we are not drawing from God. It is the soul that stands in the way of the springing up of life. Lose it; for that way lies fullness.”

Oh but to lose is not popular in our modern churches! To be reduced or side-lined, perhaps split open and poured out – this is more often than not seen as a sign of infidelity or spiritual weakness, surely not the intimate workings of a Loving and Heavenly Father with His hand on our lives. In His infinite wisdom, He has ordained that in order for us to live again and anew in His Son, we are to die to sin and the world and indeed all that opposes the life and nature of God and His Son. Paul clearly draws this out for us throughout his epistles:

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 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.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:3-11)

Here we see that death is used by the Father to foster even greater life (the life of the spirit)and that by being identified with the death of His Son (as illustrated through the rite of baptism), we also share in the power and dynamic of His resurrected life.

Elsewhere Paul incorporates the law and sin into the equation, providing even deeper insight into how death is bound up in the plan of God -

For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 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. (Galatians 2:19-20)

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses...(Colossians 2:11-13)

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23)

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him. (2 Timothy 2:11)

Dear brethren, saints of the Most High – clearly the Lord’s eternal wisdom and ways are not ours. That which we fear and dread more than anything is precisely what He uses to generate life - real life, His life. And this is no empty mysticism or allegory here. That true spiritual life - the very life of God - can be conferred to mortal beings who start out life in the material world and the flesh is a mystery and wonder that only the Spirit can discern.

He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken. (Isaiah 25:8)

And so stripped down to bare facts, the Christian reality is essentially about a new (spiritual) life being raised up out of an old (natural) life that has been willingly laid down and broken open. Nothing happens or indeed can happen until this happens. Until each and every one of us come to the point where the life of Christ is more important than our own, then nothing else matters. Not rules, or self-discipline, or the fleshed dressed up in church clothes. None of these or anything else can produce the fruit that only life can generate.

Think seriously on this brethren, for so much of what passes for Christianity in this world has little to do with the life of Christ being born out of the death of the fallen Christian. Many are baptized each and every day not really comprehending what it represents: death and life. The power and ability is in the life, and there is only one life that matters to the Father, and that is the life of His Son. The law only has the power to legislate and condemn; it changes nothing. The nature and life of Adamic man has the power only to sin and offend God.

ONLY THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST ABIDING IN THE BELIEVER MAKES THE LIVING POSSIBLE!

Everything else is a pretense, and denies the power, as Paul has said. "But if it dies...", then the promise of life advances. And oh what a life it is, my brethren, for nothing in all creation is as awesome and beautiful and worthy as the life of the Son of God. It is a life that is destined by the Father to subsume all the universe, filling every space and soul, bringing the hope of the Glory of God to all created things.

My sense in this hour is that those who would be His witnesses at the close of this age must carry forth that testimony that started with righteous Abel and all who followed him, all those who were martyred for their faithful service to the Lord. We must all be prepared and willing to surrender all that the Lord would require so that the life of His Son would be fully formed and raised in us. The first generation church did not grow (either in number or spiritual maturity) because of slick marketing campaigns or big buildings, but rather it grew out of the blood and broken bodies of the apostles and saints; those who lovingly poured themselves out that the life of Jesus Christ would rise up throughout the Roman Empire.

Let’s consider this again, recognizing that its meaning is for every single one of us seeking to advance the Lord Jesus and His Eternal Kingdom…

...unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Oh Heavenly and Glorious Father – we have been taught many things, and we have believed many lies about how you as the Author of Life perpetuates life. We know that in our fleshly hearts we would prefer an easier, less intrusive way. Yet from the life of one, poured out in love, as a willing sacrifice, flows life to the many. And we pray for just such a heart and spirit, that for You and Your loved ones, we would be ready and willing to lay down our lives, or our position, or anything else such that much fruit would be formed. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Please pray for us here at Living-Walk, that we would watch and see the Master at work, and understand what He would have us do.