For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3
Perhaps the mystery which is hard to comprehend is how one can be dead and yet remain alive. To us who are born again, we must reckon ourselves dead first. Only then can we be able to boldly say that we are alive.
Gods intention for salvation has never been that we should be able to live but that rather we die and stay dead. For it is when we are dead that He can be able to live His life through us. Here is Gods wisdom displayed at its best, that to redeem the man, He takes away the life of the man, hides it in God through His Son Jesus and offers him the chance to live but within Himself on condition that the man remains dead. This is truly remarkable.
There is very little, if not nothing that you can do with or to a dead man, that’s Satan’s position, he can’t control, manipulate and destroy man beyond death. This is why God takes us through death in Christ because the adversary doesn’t poses power beyond death, only God does through Christ.
The Christian experience is therefore one of death, that we may be able to live in Him. Once one has accepted Christ, the enemy loses control over this one, but dying and remaining dead are two different things. Many have accepted the first death in accepting Jesus, but many have rejected the position of remaining dead, which is a pre requisite for victorious Christian living.
From a position of death, God has granted us everything we ever desire in Christ. However, for us to be partakers of His promises, we must stay dead because that is the position of the new life according to God. When we choose to be alive, we instantly become enemies of God because it’s when we are alive that we come under the power and control of Satan.
We were predestined to be born again long before the creation of the world, which makes the death through Christ much easier, it’s been determined for you. Staying dead is altogether different, it’s by choice and has little to do with God and a lot to do with your own will. This is where we fall short. We all have sort of come to terms with the fact that Christ died for us at Calvary, and yet God would rather you consider that you died with Christ, only then will you see the need to live in Him by willingly accepting to stay dead.
Our appreciation of what Christ did for us on the cross is not only determined by our willingness to give Him permission to Lord our lives, this is simply the first step. Trusting Him by accepting to stay dead hidden in Him brings God much pleasure for it gives Him complete control and authority over our lives. This is the hard part for those who call Him Lord. Yet to those who have accepted this second step, to them He has given the revelation of the fullness of God, a life without limits.
Here is your Prayer Path
Dear Father, I am grateful that I died with Christ, help me stay dead that I may live in Him. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Your Friend,
Pastor Mark A. Odeke FWTHS – pastormark@fwths.org
