Dying with Christ, Dying to Self

In the Sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, we hear the following:  " . . .  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him   . . . " (Romans 6:3 ff)  I would imagine that just about all of us have been in the position at one point  or another in our life where we had the feeling that we had hit "rock bottom."  Perhaps it came when we had lost a job unexpectedly.  Maybe it came about when we struggled with a difficult project that fell apart and we had to start all over again.  Maybe it  involved health issues or the death of a family member or a close friend.  Nonetheless, whatever circumstances we can think of, I am sure that most of us have had the feeling at one point or another that our world came crashing down on us.  I know I have felt that way a time or two in my life.  I have found myself struggling with some issue and everything seems to go wrong all at once and I feel like the whole world is crashing in on top of my head.  But then afterwards I moved forward and the world brightened.  In other words, I had to go through the darkest hours in order to finally see the light of dawn ahead of me.   And then everything seemed to improve and things got better and better and better . . .  . . Sometimes, as I say, we have to hit rock bottom in order to move forward.  Sometimes by struggling and going through the darkness, we are able to get stronger and learn from our difficulties.  We become strong through our struggles, it would seem.  We learn from our mistakes . . . . or at least we should learn from our mistakes.  When I look back on my life, I realize now that it was the struggles that made me a stronger human being.  It was the times when things seemed the worse, that I was able to move forward and grow stronger.   Although we may not want to admit it, it seems like the best "teacher" is to learn from our mistakes.

"Buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead."  (Colossians 2:12)

This is what we are also hearing from today's passage from the Epistle to the Romans, that through death to sin we are able to live again with Christ.  It is through dying to self that we can live with Christ.  It is through dying to the world that we can live with Our Blessed Saviour.  We must never forget that Christ did not experience Easter Morning without first carrying His Cross to the hill at Calvary.  The same is true for us.  We can not truly live in Christ until we have died to our sinful ways.  And for most us, this is painful whether we want to admit it or not.  As human beings, we want things our way.  We want people to do things the way we want them to be done.  We want to be comfortable.  We desire our wants and we want them right now.  We focus on our own needs and desires and forget about what God wants for us.  Most of us, quite frankly, only go running to God when we need Him for something.  Other than that, we go our own way in life.  But sin is a barrier that keeps us away from God.  Sin is like a brick wall that we keep running into time and time and time again.  We have to remove the brick wall of sin in order not to run into it again.  And once we do this.  Once we die to our sinful selves.  Once we do all we can to get rid of the sinful desires in our life, it allows us to focus more and more on God and less and less on ourselves.

Finally, we should never forget to emphasize the fact that despite the fact that we were sinners, Christ chose to die for us.  "But commendeth His love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  (Romans 5:8)  God loves us despite the fact that we are sinners.  God loves us nonetheless.  This is all the more reason that we should do our best NOT to sin so that we do not offend God.   God never forsakes His people  He loves us despite our sinfulness.  Christ died on the Cross to save us from our sins.  Christ died on the Cross to achieve something that you or I could never hope to achieve:  to wipe away our sins.  "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."  (I St. Peter 2:24)

"Surely He hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows:
Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was was wounded for our trnsgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquites:
The chastisment of our peace was upon Him;
And with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way:
And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and He was afflicted;
Yet He opened not His mouth:
He is brought as a lamb to the slauthter,
And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
So He opened not His mouth."  (Isaiah 53:4-7)