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The Way
by Kevin Pauley
We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are always given over to death because of Jesus, so that Jesus' life may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. - 2 Corinthians 4:10-12 HCSB
We rise each morning with this thought on our mind, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live today in the flesh, I will live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”[1]
Then we go out to face our challenges, seeking ways to exemplify love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control, knowing that God’s law prohibits none but actively exhorts each of these. To do this properly means we have to crucify our passions and desires. We have to live in the power of the Spirit and follow His promptings. His sensitivity to sin means there is no room for conceit, envy or prideful provocation in this. We constantly struggle to remove all bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander from ourselves, along with all wickedness. Instead, we practice being kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave us in Christ.[2]
Everything we used to consider valuable or important has become a loss to us because of Christ. In fact, everything else in life is expendable. If there is a decision between gaining something of this world and losing a degree of intimacy with the Master or losing something this world considers highly and gaining some knowledge of Him, there is no decision. The things of this world are just so much filth to us. We consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.[3]
He is our righteousness, our Way, our truth and our life. To know Jesus the Son is to know Yahweh Elohim the Father.[4] There is no righteousness and no hope outside the righteousness of God which is granted on the basis of our obedient faith.
To die to self means we no longer place our trust in human religious practices. Having publicly proclaimed our desire to school ourselves to His death in baptism, we are now raised to a new lifestyle and mentality through the Holy Spirit who raised our Master from the dead.[5]
To die to self means we no longer concern ourselves over the sins that our “old man” accumulated. The wages of death that our previous sins earned are no longer held to our account because He forgave us all our trespasses.[6]
To die to self means we no longer must answer to demonic rulers and authorities. Their authority over us died the moment that we died to ourselves and were raised to the new, Ransomed, discipled life.[7]
Kevin Pauley is a pastor and writer. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Lynn, their five children and two dogs. His internet address is Berea.
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