THE REASON FOR LAYING DOWN YOUR LIFE
Some aspects of our God-given life may pose difficulties for us. Similarly, aspects of the life we create for ourselves (in response to circumstances and the environment in which we live) will cause trouble for us and others whenever what we think and do is not consistent with God’s ways (i.e. The Law). These circumstances and the environment we live in are the giants God left in the promised land. We need to keep in mind, therefore, that God knows what he is doing and that he is continually testing and refining his people to see if they will be obedient to him or not. The test is whether or not they will love sacrificially with perfect love.
It may be hard to think of it this way, but it is nevertheless true that, when we have a problem, God also has a problem. This is true because when we are disobedient we are not fulfilling his will, or his purposes. Whenever God sees an aspect of our life that is inconsistent with his instruction about how we should live, he will test and refine us by causing trouble of one kind or another to get our attention and redirect us to obedience. In other words, when he sees our sin (i.e. disobedience to The Law), he will set up circumstances designed to make us want to repent for our sin and turn to his way of doing life. Because he is a patient God, he may be slow in this redirecting process, but he is sure to do it sooner or later because he has told us that this is what he will do.
But why does God want to redirect our life? How does our sin cause a problem for God? The answer is a bit complicated, so be patient and read carefully.
Whenever we respond affirmatively to God’s redirection (i.e. correction), we lay down an aspect of our life. This is always a slow, incremental process. It is never a complete, all-at-once process as is commonly portrayed in religious doctrines as conversion. The symbolism God uses to describe the process is refinement, as in the refinement of precious metals which are heated again and again with the dross (sin) skimmed off each time. The purpose of this refining process, of course, is to remake our hearts into God’s image. And to the degree that we are conformed to that likeness we will fulfill (i.e. actively live out) the law in our daily lives just as Jesus perfectly lived out the law in his life.
STUDY TIP: This process of refinement is also called creation. It is not, however, a “big bang” kind of creation in which creation happens all at one time. God’s creation takes six days of indeterminable length which is different for each person. See this link for more about God’s creative work.
But why does God want us to be like Jesus? Why does he want us fulfill the law like Jesus fulfilled it? In John 14:6 Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” If that statement is true for Jesus, it must also be true for those who follow Jesus because God depends on many messengers to represent him to the world.
While it may be difficult for Christians to accept, the truth is that this process of representing God to the world began with Israel as God’s chosen people who were set apart to be a light to the nations. Israel was given the law so it could demonstrate God’s character to the world and draw people to God. And the law (God’s spoken word), being the representation of God’s character, is the light that will attract them.
How do we know that the law is the light that attracts nations (i.e. world) to God? We know this because Jesus, as the perfect image of God, is also the light of the world and the fulfillment of the law. Therefore, the law, as the full representation of God, is the light that attracts the nations to God.
Our job in all this is to hear and obey the law so that we too will be lights that draws people to God. As our obedience increases, we, like like spiritual Israel, and like Jesus, become greater lights to the world. This is God’s plan for populating the earth with people (lights) created in God’s image to represent him. As this happens, the world will increasingly see those conformed people and see God just as they saw him when Jesus physically walked on the earth. And more to the point, they will see God as he really is.
Deuteronomy 4:1-11 tells us how this will happen.
Deuteronomy 4:1-11 1 “And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives you. 2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Ba’al-pe’or; for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Ba’al of Pe’or; 4 but you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive this day.
COMMENTARY: See Balaam for understanding of Ba’al-peor.
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?
9 “Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children– 10 how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’
11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.
The purpose of being a light to the nations is explained further in Revelation 21:22-26:
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates shall never be shut by day–and there shall be no night there; 26 they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
COMMENTARY: Verse 22 says that New Covenant disciples do not go to physical buildings to worship. See Tabernacles, Temples, Altars, High Places and Pilgrimages.
Verse 23 says that New Covenant disciples do not need religious leaders (i.e. suns, moons) to give them light that shows them how to conduct their lives. God’s glory (i.e. his life, his laws written on their hearts, and his spoken word) are all that New Covenant disciples need to know how to conduct their lives.
Verse 24 says that when God’s glory is alive and active in New Covenant disciples, they become lights to Old/First Covenant religionists who walk in darkness.
This is what the New Covenant is all about: Being a blessing and a light to religious people who need to hear the truth that Religion is Sin.
With this understanding that we are to be lights representing God to others, we begin to see why God has a problem when we disobey the law: We wrongly represent him to the world.
So now we begin to see why we want to die, or lay down our old way of life. We should not want to die just so we can have a better life and go to heaven after we physically die. Indeed we do receive the benefits of having a new life, but that should not be our main goal. Rather, our purpose in dying is to be conformed (i.e. recreated) into the likeness of Jesus by putting on the new nature (i.e. likeness of Jesus) so that we can accurately speak for God to the world of hard-hearted religious people who cannot hear his voice.
As God’s ambassadors to the world, we allow people see God as he really is, thus giving them the incentive to get out of religion so that they can be reconciled to him. Thus we see that our life should be all about God and others — not about us. And we should not be surprised about that because, for Jesus, suffering, death and resurrection was all about us — not about him.
Understanding this progression, helps us understand what God meant when he said that we are created in his image. We are born into a world of religious influences that teach us to construct our lives in ways that conform to the many different kinds of laws — including religious laws — that shape who we become.
Later, however, when we die to our old (i.e. religious) way of life we are spiritually renewed, (i.e. recreated, transformed, conformed) into the spiritual likeness of God. This is what happens when removes from us our heart of stone and gives us a new heart. That means we die to following religious laws and come alive to fulfilling God’s spiritual laws. We transfer our citizenship from the kingdom of the world (i.e. religion) to the kingdom of God (i.e. spirit). The kingdom of religion is still all around us, of course, but we have decided that we will not be a part of it. This is what death and resurrection is all about.
To the degree that we choose to participate in that death and resurrection process, we increasingly fulfill God’s spiritual laws in our lives just as Jesus fulfilled them. In doing this, we fulfill the commandment to love God, our neighbors and ourselves and live the kind of life that God wants us to live.
God considers it an act of love on our part when we willingly change from our old way of doing life (i.e. the religious ways we have been taught by the religious world) and opt for doing life God’s way. John 15:12-13 says that laying down our former way of life is the greatest expression of our love for others. Laying down our old way of life and living according to God’s commandments (i.e. spiritual laws) is also how we demonstrate that we love God and Jesus.
The bottom line message from all this is this: If you keep trying to live in obedience to religious laws, you will die a slow, incremental death. If, however, you choose to lay down (i.e. put to death) your religious life, God will give you a new, spiritual life. Little by little, you will be transformed into the image of God (i.e. your heart will be like God’s heart). God’s life in you will increase, while your old life decreases. And when this happens, you will fulfill God’s plan for you to represent him to a lost and dying world.
It has been said that God’s spiritual principles are upside down from the principles by which the world operates. This is especially true regarding life. It is natural, for example, for us to want to hold onto, protect and defend our life. We instinctively do this with our natural physical life. We also instinctively do this with the rest of our life — especially, as in the case of religious zealots, our religious life.
While God does want us to protect and defend our natural physical life, he does not want us to hold onto or advance other aspects of our life embodied in the many, different kinds of laws/rules/principles we adopt and observe — especially our religious lives. Actually, he wants us to put those parts (see list on previous page) to death so that we can receive new life from him. That is hard to do, of course, but God gives us a very real incentive to die to our old life. Jesus says that if we try to save our life we will lose it, and that if we lose our old life (i.e. lay it down) for his sake we will save it. This means that we cannot really hold onto the old life we know and cherish. Slowly but surely we will lose it because it is not good for us, for others, or for God. The spiritual life that God establishes in us, however, is good for us, for others and for God.
Every time God does gives us a greater measure of spiritual life, we also become a little more like Jesus. Jesus died for so that God’s spiritual life can be established in us just like it was established in him. We choose to die to our religious life to make the way for God’s spiritual life to be established in others.
STUDY TIP: See Model Warriors for more about what it means to die for others.
It is worth repeating: Jesus died for others so that they can have access to the same spiritual life that he enjoyed. And that is why we die. It is not about us. It is about others. This is what looking out for the interests of others and loving your neighbor as yourself is all about.
It was for the joy of seeing God’s spiritual life established in others that Jesus endured the cross and died. It is for the joy of seeing God’s spiritual life established in others that we carry our own cross and die daily.