dying to live
"The love of Christ impels us who have reached the conviction that since one died for all, all died." —2 Corinthians 5:14
We Christians have reached the conviction that, because of Jesus' death and our appropriation of His death by Baptism and faith, we have died. We "have been crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:19). "After all," we "have died!" (Col 3:3) Because we are dead, "baptized into [Christ's] death" (Rm 6:3), we see life differently. We live no longer for ourselves but for Him (2 Cor 5:15). The life we live now is not our own; Christ is living in us. We still live our human lives, but they are lives of faith in Jesus (see Gal 2:20).
We haven't died physically, but our motivations, priorities, desires, reactions, and attitudes are so different that clearly our old nature has been drowned in the waters of Baptism. The Lord has given us a new birth. We can't be born again until we have died to our old life. We can't be new until the old is dead. We can't rise from the dead until we are dead. We have reached the conviction that death precedes life and in Jesus' death we all can die in order to live with Him. Alleluia!
Prayer: Jesus, may Your saving death be the center and preoccupation of my life.
Promise: "Say, 'Yes' when you mean 'Yes' and 'No' when you mean 'No.' Anything beyond that is from the evil one." —Mt 5:37
Praise: Warren, a family physician, repented of prescribing abortifacient birth-control pills.
Reference: (To grow in dying to live in Christ, read the Bible daily. For encouragement, order any or all of these audio or video tapes: Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ, AV 82-1, V-82, How to Pray the Bible on audio AV 82-3 or on video V-82, How to Read the Bible on audio AV 46-3 or on video V-46, Principles of Bible Interpretation, audio AV 79-1, video V-79, Biblical Counseling, audio AV 13A-1, AV 13A-3, AV 13B-1 or on video starting with V-13A.)
Rescript: †Most Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Auxiliary Bishop, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, January 18, 2013
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