Tag: death

Categories
Jesus

Intentionally Choosing Death… How Strange

“Intentionally Choosing Death… How Strange”
  by brian rushing

“It is not strange that He, the Author of life, should rise from the dead. If he was truly God the Son, it is much more startling that he should die than that he should rise again.”

Absolutely.
It is not odd that the one who raised people from the dead could Himself rise from the dead. But it is very remarkable (strange, odd, unfathomable) that He would die in the first place.

gravestone symbolizing Jesus choosing death
And yet, parents, isn’t it true that you would willingly trade places with one of your children facing death in order that they (the child) could continue on in life? Certainly. Many children unfortunately end up in the hospital struggling for life. Parents pray fervently, and many will somewhere in one or more of those prayers ask God to let them trade places with their precious child. It is natural for us to be willing to choose death in order for us to save someone we desperately love.

What Jesus did for us is similar. The only way that I would be able to continue on in life forever was for Him to die as a substitute and take the punishment I deserved. So He willingly, intentionally chose death due to His love. In fact, He was born to die.

Though I now try to avoid using the word “church” to refer to a location, I used to call the main worship service on Sunday, “Big Church.” I still hear kids call it that today. And the word “Incarnation” is one of those “Big Church” words. At it’s simplest, it means a divine being taking a human form… God becoming a man.

How do we wrap our heads around that idea? Well, the New Testament doesn’t encourage us to worry too much over how it works, but rather encourages us “to worship God for the love that was shown in it. For it was a great act of condescension and self-humbling. ‘He, who had always been God by nature,’ writes Paul, ‘did not cling to his privileges as God’s equal, but stripped Himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man, And, plainly seen as a human being, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal.’ And all this was for our salvation.”

“The key text in the New Testament for interpreting the Incarnation is ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake’s he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.’ When Paul talks of the Son as having emptied himself and become poor, what he has in mind…is the laying aside not of divine powers and attributes but of divine glory and dignity.”

God the Son, Jesus, while in Heaven in His full divine glory and dignity loved me and you. Due to that love, He laid aside His divine glory and dignity for a time so that he could be born as a human with a plan to die a cruel death as a substitute sacrifice for you and me. In your eyes, I’m not worth that. And in my eyes, you’re not worth that. OK, maybe you and I would pick some people who we’d say are worth it, but there are a whole lot that we’d leave out. So I’m glad we weren’t the ones having to make a decision as to whether or not to lay aside divine glory and honor and dignity for the people walking around on this giant ball called Earth.

It is strange to think that Jesus…God the Son…would die at all, much less that He would willingly choose to die for such ungrateful, irritating people (including you and me). But, strangely, oddly, fortunately…He did!

Be sure to thank Him for setting aside His divine prerogatives in order to die for you! And then strive to tell this great news to someone else today.

        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)


Categories
Christian Living

Avoiding the Fear of Death

We all have fears…
            …heights, confined spaces, flying, spiders, alien abductions!

Or maybe one of your big fears is that ugly, old Grim Reaper.
Are you afraid of death?
photo of a scythe symbolizing fear of death
I have spent time with people who are extremely brave in the face of danger, yet who are afraid to die. I’ve been asked the question: “How do you get to a place where you have no fear of death?”

My belief is that our way out of every fear (even fear of death) is increased trust in God. He tells me that He has this thing called “my life” in His hands and under control. The question is whether I trust that to be true. Because the more I trust Him and believe His Word, the less fear I have – even of that moment when I’ll take my last breath.

In fact, Jesus calls us into a weird paradox – to embrace death when we choose life with Him – death to self. “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” He tells us: To live is Christ; & to die is gain. Simply meaning that for every Christian, when we leave this earth, we will get to be with Him – and that is going to be better than anything we’ve ever experienced on this life…
           …Better than the moment of saying “I do” and kissing your spouse on your wedding day; better than the moment of holding your tiny newborn baby in your arms for the first time. Death will still be better because the next moment after death I’ll be with Jesus. I think a lot of us still have doubts about the truth of this idea, but until we trust it to be true, we will be afraid of death.

“Fleeing from death is the shortest path to a wasted life.”

We are all called to die to self, such that even if our very lives are taken due to our belief in Christ, it does not matter to us. But we wonder, if I truly have to die for Christ, then how does that benefit anyone? How does that make God look great to others?

“If being a Christian costs you your life, how will that help you make much of Christ? Many have made God look great through their death. When the hour comes for everything to be taken from us but Christ, we magnify Him by saying: “In Him I have everything and more. To die is gain.” If we learn to die like that, we will be ready to live. And if we don’t learn this, we waste our lives.”

What are you afraid of?
And how have you gotten past the fear of death? (even if you are still afraid of snakes!)


— brian rushing
(quotes by Jon Piper in Don’t Waste Your Life)

Categories
Christian Living

Dying Is Easier Than Living

a cemetery to symbolize that dying is easier than living Dying… Easier Than Living? That can’t be true, can it?
Dying is something that many people fear.
Death is personified as a frightening grim reaper.
So how can death be easier than life?

For a Christian, death is not only easier than living… it is better than living.

Death is better than living?
Paul tells us – To Live is Christ, And To Die is Gain.
He says – death is very much better than life because it means I get to go and be with Christ forever. But if God has me staying here, then I know I have work to do for Him… to share Christ with more people and disciple them.

But if we have to stay on in this “fallen world,” then there will be difficulties, there will be trials, there will be temptations. These things can make living seem like a difficult prospect.

Jesus tells us that in to become a follower of His, you must lose your life… you must die to self.

To lose my life for Christ means that I make a decision to refuse to reject and renounce Christ, even if that means that I might face the punishment of death. And honestly, in many ways it would be easier to die as a martyr than to live for Christ in the way that He expects and requires. “Going out in a blaze of glory” for Him could be noble and heroic. People would write about me and my faith. I would be inspiration for others. But living for Him day in and day out. Living for Him in the midst of the trials and temptations I face doesn’t seem particularly heroic, and it sure can seem tough.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Jesus demands loyalty to Him over our family. Not only does He demand loyalty over family, he also demands loyalty over self and over every part of our lives. The more we love this life and its rewards (leisure, power, popularity, financial security), the more we will discover how empty they really are. The best way to “find” real life, then, is to loosen our grasp on earthly rewards so that we can be free to follow Christ. We must risk pain, discomfort, conflict, and stress. We must acknowledge Christ’s claim over our plans, our dreams, & our careers.

Matthew Henry stated it this way:
“Now thus the terms are settled; if religion be worth any thing, it is worth every thing: and, therefore, all who believe the truth of it, will soon come up to the price of it; and they who make it their business and bliss, will make every thing else to yield to it. Those who do not like Christ on these terms, may leave him at their own peril.”

I believe that Jesus is worth every thing.
I believe He is worth my very life.

Categories
Christian Living

I Choose Death (or even “Living as a Dead Man”)

a skull to symbolize "living as a dead man" or choosing deathWhat a morbid title for a post. And no, this is not a post about zombies!

I recently shared that we need to Hate our Families [hyperlink], based on Jesus’ statement that “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,” ending with the idea that we can actually love our families more by loving them less… loving them less than we love God. If we refuse to do so, then God is not the One who is actually seated on that King’s Throne in our life.

But there is something even more likely to rob Jesus of His rightful place than our own family—the love of one’s own life.

So in addition to this hard statement of “hating family,” Jesus added more difficulty with “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

Jesus, why do You keep saying such hard things? Don’t you know that I don’t really like these ideas? I want following you to be a bit easier than carrying a heavy, rough cross and constantly having some painful burden on my shoulders.

We haven’t witnessed anyone dying on a cross, so this statement loses some of its meaning for us, but the people in Jesus’ day knew what it meant to “take up” a cross. They knew it wasn’t just a heavy burden to bear for a lifetime (which often is how we view the idea). They saw men bearing their crosses to the places where they were to be executed; they watched these condemned criminals die by crucifixion.

They understood that taking up one’s cross meant to walk to one’s death.

The statement means that one should live in devoted abandonment to Him, such that even death is not too high a price to pay. Those who call themselves Christ-followers are to value Him so highly that they do not count their lives precious to themselves.

To “take up your cross daily” means to die to self daily.

“The cross is always an instrument of death, not just an object to carry around with us for all of life. The Christian is to die mentally and actively – not just carrying the cross as a burden, but marching toward self-death. The Christian is to deny himself daily. He is to let the mind of Christ, the mind of humbling himself to the point of death, be in him and fill his thoughts every day. He is to put his will, his desires, his wants, his ambitions to death. In their place, he is to follow Jesus and to do His will all day long. This is not negative, passive behavior. It takes positive, active behavior to deny one’s self, to take up one’s cross, to follow Christ.” (from POSB Commentary)

Jesus is telling me: In regard to your love for family, your love for Me should make that love look like hate. BUT in regard to your love for self, your love for Me requires that you be willing to sacrifice your entire life. The cross is a means of execution.

When a missionary was heading into an area known to have violent people, the person getting him there by boat said to him – “You shouldn’t do this. Don’t you know that if you try to preach to these people they might kill you? You will likely die here.” To which the missionary answered, “Oh, that’s not a problem. I died before I ever stepped foot on your boat.”

We are to choose Christ. In doing so, we are to choose death.

And so…
I am ready to die – in fact I already have.

Categories
Worship

The Silence of Death.

No sound comes out of graves.
But on a Saturday some 2000 years ago,
that silence was deafeningly loud at the tomb of Jesus.
a carved rock tomb which signifies the silence of the tomb of Jesus
Have you ever had one of your dreams dashed…to the point that it left you speechless? I can’t imagine seeing Jesus crucified on Friday and to have all my hopes as a disciple dashed and destroyed. How could He die? What will I do now? The silence screaming back at me from my dark questions would have been deafening.

It was a dark day in history. There have been other dark days. But I love what Ravi Zacharias has to say about the dark days of history – including the dark spots that stand as blemishes on the history of Christianity:

“As discomforting as it is to admit, much of what the church has had to face by way of criticism has been deserved. Much wrong has been perpetrated in history by people supposedly acting in the name of Christ. In many parts of the world today the church has a poor name, and a look back at her track record in those settings often reveals valid reasons for that contempt. But… the deviants often get more attention than do the normal.”

“But I point you not to them or to any man; rather, I point you to the person of Jesus Christ. Look at who He is and who He claims to be.”

“Do yourself a favor and get your eyes off of the shortcomings of institutions and people and history’s dark spots. Level your scrutiny at the person of Christ, and you will see the One who wears His Father’s coat very well.”

“Pilate said of Him, “I find no fault in this man. The thief on the cross said, “We receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Jesus looked at His fiercest opponents and said, “Which of you convinces me of any sin?” That last challenge could not have been made by any other religious leader, founder, or prophet. The sinfulness of each one of them is readily visible and undeniable.”

“Jesus alone stands without moral blemish.”
“Fairy tales are merely fantastic; Jesus Christ is fantastically true.”

The silence of Saturday was deafening, but the resurrection of Sunday was on its way!
Jesus is fantastically true, and so was His resurrection!

— brian rushing